Special Stories
We Had to Kill Your Dog Today

By Jude Fulghum

Corky (Red #1220)

Did you think his hearing would come back after his eardrums were blown out, probably as the result of your beatings? Did you really think banding his testicles at age 4 would magically "neuter" him?

Did you just dump him somewhere or did he manage to escape your clutches long enough to be turned in to a Portland-area shelter where he was deemed unadoptable?

Golden Bond Rescue of Oregon took in "Red," hoping that with time and patience and some good medical attention he could be physically and mentally rehabilitated.

We were almost there.

He was clearly a fear biter, and I can understand why. Over the course of 2-1/2 months with a lot of patience, care and love, his foster mom got him back to 95 percent of the dog he probably was as a puppy.

He loved to play in the river. Loved to snuggle with her. Loved to endlessly chase balls. Big, bouncy and full of energy, he would run and sail through the air, then turn around and do it again — just for the thrill of it.

Red was the kind of golden retriever who wants you to just bury your head in his fur and hug him. In most every respect, he was a wonderful dog.

But he couldn't come all the way back, not far enough for adoption and a new home with a family that would continue loving him. With his fierce iron will, he just wasn't going to let anyone, even a doctor, mess with him again. He had to be put down because he simply did what he'd learned he must do to survive. He lashed out. He bit. One time too many.

You taught him that was the only way for him to survive. You taught him to assume things that might hurt call for severe reactions.

Thanks to you, a beautiful dog was destroyed today because of simple human cruelty. I can't call it ignorance. Your abuse pushed him past the brink of his kind and gentle nature.

It was deliberate, and it was savage. A big red dog that could have brought nothing but joy to people who knew how to love him. Red deserved better.

What's next on your agenda?

Jude Fulghum is a Golden Bond Rescue of Oregon Board Member and a Foster Home Coordinator. She has two rescued golden retrievers; one of them was dumped in Government Camp on Mt. Hood several years ago. Jude submitted this article to the Oregonian and it was printed in the "In My Opinion" column on Sunday, July 31, 2005.

Read the tribute to Red by his foster mom.

July 31, 2005
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