Class Pets

School Board OK’s Animals In Classrooms
The Capital Times

Tuesday, August 8, 2006
By Susan Troller The Capital Times

It's not just children who are getting ready to go back to school at the end of summer.
Animals will be officially welcomed back to Madison classrooms this fall, thanks to a comprehensive new policy unanimously approved by the School Board Monday night.

The policy supports using animals both for instructional purposes and for their contribution to students' social and emotional development. But it also implements extensive safeguards to protect children who have allergies or who are fearful of animals. In addition, poisonous critters will be forbidden on school grounds.

Superintendent Art Rainwater acknowledged that the discussion regarding animals in the schools has been heated at times.

"It's been an adventure, to say the least," he said with a laugh at Monday's meeting.

Classroom pets were sent home during the 2004-2005 school year, pending changes to the policy. In February 2006, a committee studying the issue was unable to come to consensus on its recommendations, and was sent back to the drawing board.

Jill Olsen, a teacher from the Affiliated Alternatives program and a committee member, said she felt teachers as well as the administration were happy with the compromise achieved after dozens of hours of meetings.

"It took us a long time and lots of discussion, but the bottom line will be that animals are allowed in the classroom, but there will be procedures followed that allow us to protect students' health," she said.

Olsen, who works with at-risk students, uses a trained therapy dog named Yoshi in her classroom.

She said the dog seems to know when someone is having a bad day, and that each class takes great pride in helping teach the dog something new. It encourages an atmosphere where learning is respected, she added.

"Last year, one of my students took on the challenge of teaching Yoshi commands in Spanish," she said. And now, her students take pride in having helped teach one of the smarter dogs in the world.

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D.A.W.G.S

May 2007

Dear DAWGS Family,
As you know, the city was quite unhappy with our not being out by the deadline date of 3-1-07.Actually they have been unhappy with us for over a year! They called an "emergency meeting to deal with DAWGS" and, in the meeting, stated "they were going to help us move." So they "helped" us by giving us an eviction notice and threatening to shut off the water to the shelter.

Fortunately, one of our supporters works for a legal firm that kindly represented us pro bono and we made an agreement with the city: we had until April 16, 2007 to move all the dogs from the property or the city would shut off our water and fine us $100/day. Additionally, we had until May 1, 2007 to remove all of our property from the shelter. Had Mother Nature cooperated, this would have been a workable situation...instead, we had every weather condition imaginable—thunderstorms, rain, sleet, hail, snow, a blizzard, and even a tornado set down 13 miles from the new shelter!

The process was slow and tedious. Kennels had to be dismantled, transported 15 minutes away to the new shelter, then cleaned and power washed (in freezing weather) and finally set in place. Pens were set up by the older children and a few adult volunteers. The younger children loved playing with the dogs in the tall wheat grass at the new shelter or cuddling with them in the round bales of hay. The dogs were all treated with wormer and flea/tick medicine and placed into their new homes, clean houses filled with hay. The process went on for a month until almost everyone was moved.

April 15th—the day before our deadline—began with freezing rain and then snow and we still weren't completely moved. With 120 dogs left to move, a handful of adult volunteers and lots of eager children (8-21) were determined to get everyone moved before the deadline expired. The process began as every other day had for the last month. Though they were slipping and sliding in the mud and snow, the children were smiling as they loaded the dogs into the adoption trailer. The older boys couldn't get the remaining kennels out of the ground as they were stuck so we borrowed a forklift to lift them out. However, the snow had now turned to frozen slush and was so deep the forklift quickly got stuck. Mark and two men volunteers found picks and started working around the bases to free the metal, while the younger boys shoveled out the broken, frozen earth. All day long everyone worked without respite. A camera crew from a local station came and followed the process until they determined it was too cold for them to stay any longer.

At 6 pm the younger children went home, tired and worried about what would happen to the beloved dogs still left at the old shelter.

At 10 pm as the newscast aired, the older children (17-21) and Mark and I were still moving dogs, setting up pens by the light of the car headlights, and shuttling dogs, two by two, in the back of the truck (we couldn't use the adoption trailer as the weather had now washed out the road). We were worried the dogs would become stressed by the late night activities, but they seemed to sense the urgency and everyone did great. At 11 pm, when we decided nothing more could be done, we saw lights coming down the road. Two trucks drove up with people who had heard what we were doing and wanted to help. They stayed until 3am, working with us to build pens so we could meet the deadline. A wiser person would have probably stopped at this point, but—we had come so far and were so close—we decided to keep going.

At 7:50 in the morning, the city manager came by to check our progress at the old shelter and to shut off the water. What he found was two acres of open land (with deep ruts from vehicles getting stuck) and four dogs left. We had saved them until last as they are almost feral and we were worried, if they got away from us in the dark, we might not be able to catch them. At 8:00 am, to our great relief, they quickly went into the crates without any problem. The city official drove by without saying a word, but he did not shut off the water. Once everyone was settled at the new shelter, we concentrated on moving our "stuff" out of the old shelter. It was now a huge mess. As everything needed to be gone by the May 1st deadline, we started sorting what we could take and giving away or trading (for labor) what we didn't need. By May 1st, all that remained was some old concrete in which the children had once left their hand prints and written sweet notes.

The new sanctuary is a fresh beginning, no longer subject to the arbitrary agenda of the Dalhart city government. Thanks to our loyal supporters, we've come a long way, and we're so grateful: we have our land; we have fencing; we have water; we have electricity; we have a new road; and the dogs are all safe at the new shelter.

To learn more about D.A.W.G.S., please visit their website at: http://www.dawgsntexas.com

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