For the last several months, San Francisco’s Pet Camp has been taking care of Romeo. Romeo is a pit bull who should not be here – not because he’s a bad dog and not because he isn’t having fun at Pet Camp. He shouldn’t be here relying on dog boarding services because he needs a new forever home! Unfortunately, some people won’t even think about adopting a pit bull.
Here’s Romeo’s story. It turns out that Romeo “belonged” to a guy (that’s all we know) who then gave him to a girl who was supposed to find Romeo a new home. This girl gave Romeo to another girl but within a day Romeo and the new girl’s boyfriend were not getting along (which may have resulted in Romeo biting the boyfriend – but the details here are less than clear).
The second girl (are you getting all this?) called San Francisco Animal Care and Control who took Romeo for the required 14 day quarantine and then gave him back to the first girl. That first girl brought Romeo to Pet Camp and here we are with a loving pit bull in need of adoption.
So now the question is what to do now? The first girl has been paying us (kind of on and off) to take care of Romeo – but he can’t stay here forever. She hasn’t been able to find him a new home.
Animal Care and Control says that most of the traditional rescue groups we could think of reaching out to are either maxed out, not taking pit bulls, or, since Romeo is with us and not facing imminent demise, are not likely to return our calls or work with us.
So we’re out of options – which means Romeo may soon be out of options too. We want to do what is best for Romeo and we’re more than done trying to work out a solution with girl number 1. Sure, we’d like to get paid for all the work we’ve done, but that’s less an issue than finding a solution that works best for Romeo, which would ideally involve adoption by a loving family.
What do you think? Is it just too late for Romeo? Are the rescue groups in San Francisco just so over extended that they can’t help Romeo? Does Romeo’s plight make you wonder how “no-kill” facilities like San Francisco SPCA function?
Thank for reading!