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Sadly, a lot of the dog dudes and dudettes in shelters are large ones. At last count, which was three days ago, 25 of the 43 dogs staying in our shelter at Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) were big ones. That’s more than half of all the various sizes.
So, what’s the deal? Are more large dogs than smaller ones turned over to shelters?
“I think little dogs get relinquished as much as big dogs,” shelter volunteer Dee Glick said.
Several reasons, most of them misguided, exist for the comparatively large number of comparatively large dogs in shelters. Some people, when considering adoption, may not have the strength to control a large dog if they tug on the leash during the banal attraction of a squirrel. That makes sense, but just seeing “little and cute” and not being able to see the “big, clunky and absolutely adorable” doesn’t, to a lot of us. Neither do apartment and condo restrictions of how much a dog can weigh. People weighing more than 25 pounds are allowed to live in apartments, and they can produce more noise than dogs can.