SPCA takes back dog because it was kept out
When a Brooksville woman was refused the dog because of her intention to leave it outside, a friend adopted it. The SPCA banned both of them from adopting again.
By APRIL YEE
Published July 31, 2006
BROOKSVILLE - Coco was found in April between some palmetto bushes, and now the 4-month-old puppy lives in a cage at the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
The SPCA wants to find a home for her - just not Robin Seamon's home.
Seamon tried to adopt the Weimaraner mix in June. But the SPCA refused her because Seamon planned to keep the dog outside.
Soon after, a friend adopted Coco and gave her to Seamon, saying the dog was tearing up her house. But SPCA volunteers took the dog back Tuesday, thinking the friends had conspired to get the dog into Seamon's yard.
"No dog should be left outside," said Dianne LaGreco, an SPCA board member. "It's just too hot."
LaGreco said the shelter, on Grant Street west of Brooksville, never adopts to owners who plan to keep their pets outside.
"I've never seen it written, but this is the way it was explained," LaGreco said. "It's been our policy since I've been here."
It's the first time in three years that the SPCA has taken back an animal. Two other SPCA board members said Seamon and her friend, Cynthia Kelly, had been added to a "do not adopt" list.
The county's rules are less strict. Dogs adopted from county Animal Services can be kept outside, and even on the right type of chain, said code enforcement director Frank McDowell III.
But private shelters like the SPCA and the Humane Society on Mobley Road try to avoid sending pets to back yards.
"If we get the impression that someone wants a yard dog, no, we wouldn't adopt the dog either," said Joanne Schoch, executive director of the Humane Society of the Nature Coast. "That isn't what we would consider a home."
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, an organization in New York that is not affiliated with the local SPCA, deals with the same dilemma.
"People are very passionate about keeping dogs inside," said Eric Rayvid, an ASPCA spokesman.
"If someone comes and says, 'I'm only going to keep my dog outdoors,' instead of immediately closing that door, we like to use that as time to educate them," said Allison Cardona, ASPCA's senior manager of special events and outreach.
"We tell them, 'Have you thought about keeping a doghouse?'" she said. "We don't really think of them as rules."
Spring Hill resident Warren Cox has run shelters around the country, including the SPCA of Texas.
Most shelters won't let an owner keep a dog outside on a chain, he said, but there are exceptions.
"A lot of animals don't want to be inside," said Cox, who advises the Humane Society. "They're big dogs; they want to be outside."
South of Brooksville, in an outdoor kennel at the end of Crum Road, Seamon's husky named Cheyenne now lives alone. There used to be a St. Bernard named Summer.
Summer and Cheyenne were once puppies that spent their time under the shade of a sprawling oak tree. They slept with blankets in the winter and played in a bright blue kiddie pool and a large pen.
Since Summer's death in April, Cheyenne howls every night, Seamon said.
Coco was supposed to take the St. Bernard's place. Without pit bull or German shepherd blood, Coco wouldn't raise Seamon's insurance rates. Plus, Coco was perfect.
"You know how you just know she's the one," she said. Seamon had renamed her Molly.
When Seamon's friend from nursing school adopted Coco, the SPCA gave the puppy a new stuffed monkey. Cheyenne and Coco liked to tug on its rope legs. Now, a little dirtier, it lies under the oak tree.
April Yee can be reached at ayee@sptimes.com or 352 754-6117.