I know that Sue loves dogs and I also know that she's done scads and scads
and scads of work for the welfare of dogs. She's done tons of education
and outreach. She came to Philly and ran a weight pull for "muscle dogs"
in the hopes of educating their owners about spay/neuter -- and I was
invited to come and help, but couldn't, and hearing about it afterward
really wished I'd been able to go. I have a hard time reconciling all
that with what I saw on the tape, which looked to all the world like
someone who really doesn't like dogs very much and is looking for an
excuse to euthanize most of them.

I agree that her people skills and tact leave something to be desired. The fact
that she goes to Harlem and Philly and Oakland and the poor rural parts near
her and doesn't judge the guys breeding their blue nose pits and fighting them
should speak loudly. She is substituting weight pulling for fighting and they
still get to brag about their dogs, get to feel macho. There is no lecture
about spay/neuter as it would fall on deaf ears. The only incentive is if they
win the weight pull, cash prizes (first thru third place) are doubled for
spayed/neutered dogs. That talks to them.

I also have trouble with this all being pinned on Sue. There are plenty of
shelters that use temp testing - I do temp testing every week. If folks would
rather we just close our eyes and randomly pick the dogs to be put to sleep, I
can understand their ire in some weird way. If they would rather we just choose
all the black dogs or the older dogs or the fill in the blank dogs, that's
fine. But why not try to make it a little more reasoned decision? I don't think
Sue is out there breeding all these surplus dogs. I know I'm not.