Community Areas of Dogster and Catster to Close March 3

It is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of Dogster and Catster in March.

Dear Dogsters,

Today we are announcing some changes at Dogster and Catster. While the Dogster and Catster sites will continue to exist as daily magazines that serve the worldwide community of dog and cat families, it is with a heavy heart that we announce that we will be closing the Community areas of the sites effective March 3. This means that members of the Dogster Community will no longer be able to see Pet Profiles, Forums, Groups, Answers, Local Listings, Photo Galleries, Games, Quizzes, Adoption, Dog of the Day, Diary Central, the Gift store, and the Community homepage past that date. 

I am no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of Dogster and Catster, but I am writing this to you as one of the founders, as one of the developers who built the features of the sites, as the first community manager, and as a member (Trouble, Porter). Ten years of my life have been about Dogster and Catster and I’ve invested a lot of time, money, sweat and tears. It’s been a great ride and I have no regrets. But all good things must come to an end.

We originally created Dogster because there was no place on the internet to share the joy of having a dog or a cat member of the family. There was no place to share tips on taking care of the furry ones. There was no place on the internet to support each other in times of turmoil, sickness and journeys to the rainbow bridge. We, and I truly mean “we” in the community sense, created this space. We’ve made great friends, told inspiring stories, helped many pets find their furever homes. It was a great success and something I will remember and take pride in for the rest of my life.

That said, 10 years on the Internet is forever. There have been massive changes in the industry -- Facebook and Twitter didn’t exist when we started Dogster and Catster. Finding advertisers and developing those relationships was simpler and revenues were easier to come by in the early days. The backend technologies that power websites have been revolutionized three times over since then. It’s amazing to me that the sites we developed in 2004 and 2005 have lasted this long. But, as every regular user knows, the community areas aren’t working like they used to. Features are broken. Spammers are relentlessly invading our forums. The dog house and cat tree are starting to crumble.

SAY Media is a great company. Their hearts are in the right spot. There was a lot of pressure from financial and strategic points of view to close down the community areas of the sites three years ago. But since the sites were holding up and people loved them, they continued to keep these areas up even though it was at a cost.

At the end of the day, our parent company is all about creating great editorial brands. As the community features on Dogster and Catster degrade, as users become unsatisfied, it amplifies the fact that the Dogster and Catster community sites are not aligned with Say’s mission. It seems unwise to continue to operate them at a loss while aggravating users. Please believe us when we say we’ve gone through every possible option. Could we invest more in revamping the sites? Could we spin them off into their own or another entity? Could we leave them as is and slowly see them degrade further? The answer was “no” to all of these. We just cannot find a way that is honorable to the community, true to the business, and in good conscience.

I know many of you will be upset. I know many of you will think this is the wrong call. We’re truly sorry for that. Sometimes putting something you love to rest, while difficult, is the right thing to do. That is what we must do now with the community areas of our sites. Thank you for being the best community ever.

John Vars

Co-founder, Dogster and Catster

VP of Product, Say Media

If you have purchased a Plus subscription or zealies in the past 60 days, please email refunds@dogster.com or refunds@catster.com to be refunded. We will do our best to refund you within a week of your request.Dogster and Catster HQ will be on hand at the All-Paws group. We invite you to join the conversation and come to us with any questions over there. We’re sad too, and we’re here to listen and help as best we can.We unfortunately don’t have export functionality to help you preserve your pet pages, but we encourage you to save your photos and diary entries before March 3, when they will be taken offline.As always, you can reach us with questions, comments and concerns at support@dogster.com and support@catster.com.

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Dear kill shelters: Please close your ‘open’ doors

If a person were taking in 10 pets a day and killing 7 or 8 of them every night, then taking 10 more in the next day, would you call them an “open admission pet-owner,” or a serial habitual animal abuser?

Seriously — if I see one more “shelter” defend their killing rate by proudly pointing out they’re “open admission,” I’m going to scream. I think continuing to take in animals you have no room for is stupid and immoral, and ten times more so when you then turn around and kill them. And to brag about it? Are you nuts?

Take the Michigan Humane Society, which kills nearly three-quarters of the animals it takes in, does not hold an animal control contract, and proudly brags that it’s “open admission.” I have a suggestion for you, MHS: Close your freaking door and stop killing all those animals.

That goes for Memphis Animal Shelter, too. They recently justified their kill rate, also around 75 percent, by saying they are the only  “open admission” shelter in their entire region.

Using the term “open admission” this way is the latest iteration of the “there’s no such thing as ‘no-kill,’ it’s just ‘someone else kill’” defense. Essentially it’s the implication that as long as strays are taken in and people are given the option of seeking shelter for a pet anytime and for any reason, the only possible outcome is that some — often most — of those animals will be killed by the very organization that takes them in. If they were “no kill,” by this logic, they’d say “no” to some pet owners, who would just head for the “shelter” up the road that would say “yes” and then kill them.

Why do they think it’s moral to take in animals you’re only going to turn around and kill? Because of the “fate worse than death” defense.

Essentially organizations like this contend that an “open door” to animals who will be killed is preferable to an uncertain fate on the other side of that door.

Are there really only two options for these pets, death or “a fate worse than death”? Of course not.

Just look at Washoe County, Nev., and Calgary in Alberta, Canada, where innovative return-to-owner programs have reduced the intake and sheltering of stray dogs to such low numbers that the community can save the few who aren’t able to go back to their families.

And look at shelters experimenting with making appointments for owner surrenders, places like PAWS Chicago. They save enough space in their program so they can take in urgent cases on the spot. However, they ask other pet owners to make arrangements for a future surrender date.

What they’ve found is that that most people are fine with that, knowing that if things become urgent the door is open, but happy to know that their pet will be given the shelter’s full attention and a careful, loving re-homing at a planned, future moment.

Anecdotally, and this is something I think most rescuers have seen, I’ve observed that once a person knows there is an “out” from the pressure and stress of whatever is leading them to give up their pet, they sometimes see their way clear to keeping the pet, or become more able to find the pet a home themselves, or at least, they get enough relief from the stress of worrying about it that they’re okay waiting for a little while.

Since there’s no data that I’m aware of — and if you know of some, I’d like to see it! — demonstrating that the “open door” does  a better job of preventing these pets from being abandoned than programs like that do, you’d think it would be a moral imperative for self-described “shelters” to not take in animals they’re going to turn around and kill, and give those programs a try.

Instead, they keep that damn door open as wide as possible and then brag about it — even though what they’re really bragging about is bad management, a lack of planning, and a failure to implement creative alternative strategies that are working in other communities.

All in the name of finding a scrap of moral high-ground to stand on while taking another pull from the bottle of Fatal-Plus.

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PTSD: A comic strip hits close to home

I think one of the reasons I still get two morning newspapers is because of the comic section. Even though the newspapers have grown smaller and smaller — and I grumble about it — reading the comics every morning is enjoyable. I know I can read them online and I do that, too. But I like my morning newspaper comics, in the newspaper.

Many of the comics strike close to home. As Greg Evans’ “Luann” and Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman’s “Zits” show their characters going through adolescence, I compare them to certain teenagers in my life. And of course, some of the strips portraying dogs often drive me crazy –  “If you trained your dog that wouldn’t happen!”

But one strip has really hit close to home the past few months. “Funky Winkerbean” by Tom Batiuk is showing one of its characters, Wally, a war veteran, getting a service dog to help him deal with his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  His new dog was trained by one of the groups that places puppies with prisoners for socialization and training, and then places the dogs with veterans.

My dog training group, Kindred Spirits, also trains service dogs and since we’re so close to U.S. Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton, we have worked with several veterans to help train and certify their dogs. A few of the veterans have had physical injuries with lasting effects and we’re helping with mobility assistance skills,but almost all of the guys have PTSD and need some canine assistance with that, too.

As a Navy and Marine Corps veteran myself I can speak first-hand about the trauma of PTSD. In simplistic terms, PTSD is a survival mechanism; it kicks in that “fight or flight” instinct. Once the sailor, soldier or Marine is back in civilization, though, that instinct is often in overdrive and out of place. And the dangers seem real: Acar backfires and the soldier or Marine drops to the floor in the grocery store. Or the service member goes to the local county fair or a concert and the crowd hems him in.

PTSD doesn’t always show up right away. The mind can close those wounds away and it may come back full force later. Many Vietnam veterans didn’t show signs of PTSD until after 9-11. Then the veterans mental health clinics were swamped. Unfortunately, also, that PTSD can last a lifetime. The veteran can sometimes learn to control himself or herself, can learn to recognise triggers, but rarely does the PTSD go away.

Dogs are a huge help for many with PTSD. For me, Bashir reads my moods and when I begin to get angry — my usual response –  he leans close, pushes against me, and basically distracts me. When I pay attention to him, I can then see that he’s responding to me and I take a deep breath and calm myself. The important part of this is that I take that breath and calm myself before I react in a way I’ll regret later. Or before it escalates. Because crowds are a problem for me, Bashir will also keep people back from me a little, simply by creating a barrier. He places himself between me and the people pushing too close.

Depending on the veteran’s needs, we can also have the dogs do other things to catch the owner’s attention. Some dogs put their head on their owners leg (when the owner is sitting) and push until they get a response. When a veteran is not able to cue himself to pay attention to subtle cues, we teach the dog to bark, whine, or paw. Because the dogs have to pay attention all the time, learn to read emotions and respond to those emotions, and then sometimes disobey the owner to provide help, it’s often difficult to find and train a dog to assist someone with PTSD.

I have recognized several of the behaviors that Buddy, Wally’s dog in “Funky Winkerbean,” is doing. In Sunday’s strip, Wally is having a nightmare — a flashback — about his wartime service and wakes in a panic. Buddy wakes up, climbs on to the bed with Wally, and snuggles close. The last frame in the strip shows dog and owner sound asleep. Good dog, Buddy!

It brought tears to my eyes reading it and again now, writing about it.

I have to put out a public thank-you to Tom Batiuk, too. I don’t know the man but if I ever get a chance to meet him I’d be happy to shake his hand. No, come to think of it, he’d get a huge hug.

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