The Chron dispatched Allan Turner to profile one of Houston’s many animal rescue organizations, Scout’s Honor:
Since its start in May, the Houston volunteer group has rescued at least 150 animals from extreme peril. More than 100 of them have been placed in loving homes. But even with the success of Scout’s Honor and similar volunteer groups around the city, the need is never met. “There’s a need for 100 groups to do this in the Houston area,” said President Dana Dicker. “There are just more animals than there are rescuers.”
Scout’s Honor, named after a rescued spaniel mix who did not survive, consists of six core members and a citywide network of volunteers and temporary caretakers.
The group’s founders, Dicker said, previously worked with other rescue groups, some of which were selective in which breeds would be saved. Scout’s Honor accepts all comers.
“We do not discriminate in breed, age, health or injuries,” she said.
Discriminate? That’s a strangely pejorative term to use just after lamenting that the city needs more rescue groups. The fact is, the city could use more animal rescue groups. But there are also many existing groups that have been doing fine rescue work for many years (not just since May), some of which specialize in rescuing and placing certain breeds for adoption. It probably was not Ms. Dicker’s intent to slight them with her comment, but it sort of came off that way.
Incidentally, the second paragraph of this profile was strange:
It’s about those other dogs and cats, the luckless, the abandoned, sick or tortured, who struggle simply to survive. It’s about those animals that would wish — if animals were capable of wishing — simply to die and be done with the pain.
If animals were capable of wishing? Okay!
Turner sometimes pens installments of the Chron Eye for the Death Row Killer Guy, so maybe he just couldn’t help himself.
But, it’s nice to see animal rescue work get some media attention in any case.
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