Tuesday, October 18, 2011

It Aint just SAR

I get disgusted with the politics in SAR. Sometimes I even start to think that SAR K9 handlers suffer the worst from kennel blindness, then I get jerked back into reality .........it aint just SAR. All groups, dog, children, and adult endeavors fall to the same level of mediocrity due to the human ego.

Today I resigned from a Therapy dog group I founded almost 10 years ago. I served as the temperament evaluator for the group until today, testing hundreds of dogs, rejecting many, and having pride in knowing that I always did my best and feeling good that the members who joined had the same level of integrity that I did and would always put the patients and their safety first.

I was wrong.

I recently found out not all of them do. In fact some are IMHO delusional, even more so than some of the deluded K9 SAR handlers I have met. It is very sad in both cases. In SAR an incompetent dog can put someone's life in danger. In animal assisted therapy programs the animal can put someone's safety in danger. Either way, just because a dog is not right for either job does not devalue him as a loved companion. It just means the dog isn't qualified for the job at hand.

Grrtee, my 2 yr old french bulldog went on her first and last visit this past saturday. She was so good with the patients. Letting me hold her, maneuver her into positions where patients could pet her, giving hugs to another patient, and lying quietly with yet another while she stroked Grrtee and talked softly to her. For me, there was a sense of doing right by sharing this wonderful little spirit with people whose lives are not in the best place right now due to injury, illness, aging..........and for me there has always been a bit of divine intervention as the dog and human connects. I have seen comatose patients move their fingers through a dogs fur when they would not react to their loved ones voices. I have witnessed an angry discouraged youth try to lift his hand to throw a ball because his favorite dog was there to retrieve it for him. I have listened to an elderly woman whisper gently in my dogs ear as she hugged him, when she did not try to talk to anyone else.

It is ashamed that ego's get in the way of doing the right thing, and I am sad and I am angry at the injustice. I am angry that some people lie to save face so they can continue to volunteer with an animal that has demonstrated aggressive behavior and is a risk to have at a facility. I am angry that others who witnessed the behavior have so little integrity and character as to turn their heads and allow it, and even more so at the ones who are suppose to be leaders who in silence, say nothing and allow a good organization to be vandalized by these individuals who value themselves more than the group or the cause they ascribe to.

Most of all though, today I am sad as it is the death of many somethings for me. Perceived friendships, the integrity of an entire organization, and that truth wins out........apparently it is the liars that sometimes win.

Now I just wait for Karma...... as I do believe that you will receive what you have sown. My condolences to those who have sown lies and deceit. It's going to be a painful lesson for you no matter what venue you are in.