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CNN Live Today

Interview With Cynthia Wade, Sue Sternberg

Aired January 27, 2004 - 10:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh. That was a look at "Shelter Dogs." The filmmakers of this documentry spent a year looking at life and death decisions in a controversial animal shelter. And it airs on HBO tonight.
I've got the film's director Cynthia Wade from New York. And from San Diego, Sue Sternberg, founder of the Rondout Valley Kennel, the shelter featured in the film. Good morning to both of you.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Cynthia, let me begin with you. The documentary poses the question whether it's more humane to euthanize dogs rather than sentencing them to a life behind bars in a kennel. What are some of your conclusions after this year?

CYNTHIA WADE, FILMMAKER: When I first started this film I think I was thinking in terms of black and white issues. I was thinking in terms of kill or no-kill.

And when I quickly got into making this film I realized that the issues are not black and white, they're very gray, they're very complex. And the answers are not easy. And ultimately, that there should be a discussion about the quality of life for animals that are living in shelters.

LIN: Sue, we have a clip actually from the documentary which shows one of those very moments where this kind of decision is being made. Let's show it to our audience first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel I'm now at the end of our family's rope of being able to care for him. What is the worse of two evils? Euthanizing him or returning him to a shelter? He sleeps in bed with us every night as close to me as he can. So, going from that to sleeping on a kennel floor, I don't think that's tremendously humane. But, we can't keep him anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Sue, do you remember this case? And what happened to that dog?

SUE STERNBERG, FOUNDER, RONDOUT VALLEY ANIMALS FOR ADOPTION: Yes, absolutely. The dog is a dog McBeal (ph). And he was a pit bull that was adopted from a very full no-kill shelter where he had spent a lot of time.

And she had him and she surrendered him for aggression. And the aggression was not curable or fixable. She would have done anything. And we euthanized him. She knew that. She knew he was not rehomible (ph). And she actually brought him to us because we are open admission. And because she also did not want him to live out his life in a shelter.

LIN: Now, your shelter, I mean, we describe it as controversial because frankly that's a word picked out of the press release from HBO. What is so controversial about it? It sounds like a luxury hotel.

STERNBERG: It is not controversial. I think the issues are somewhat controversial. My shelter is an open-admission shelter. We accept any dog that comes in, whether it's aggressive, adoptible, unadoptible, old, you know, whatever breed.

LIN: And you have lounge chairs and music piped into the suites.

STERNBERG: We have little rooms. Instead of renovating and making more chain link, we took plywood and we made tiny, little rooms on the inside. And we put old furniture in there so the dogs are more comfortable.

LIN: So in an environment where you are trying to work on the quality of life for these animals who may never be adopted and around just under 4 million dogs never do get adopted, how do you make the decision as to who lives and dies? I mean look at these faces.

STERNBERG: I think what's important to realize is adoptible dogs, behaviorally adoptable dogs, the ones that are not aggressive, get adopted. They don't remain.

There's a lot of people out there looking to adopt dogs. The dogs that usually stay for a long time in a shelter are the ones typically that are aggressive or who have deteriorated mentally because it's very hard to live your life in a kennel you if are a dog, even a nice kennel.

We choose to euthanize aggressive dogs. But if the dog is behaviorally adoptible, no matter what breed it is, no matter how old it is, we will keep it in our shelter and it finds a home and it usually does not usually take more than a few months.

LIN: Cynthia, what do you want people to take away from this documentary?

WADE: First of all, I think there's a public misconception that all shelter dogs are damaged goods. That's clearly not true. They're wonderful, amazing adoptible dogs. And animal shelters can be a wonderful place to find a companion animal.

Also the film really humanizes, you will see this tonight on HBO, it humanizes the shelter worker. I think sometimes people think that shelters that euthanize, the people there must not care about the animals because they must euthanize the animals.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Do you see euthanizing now as compassionate?

WADE: Yes, I see often the decision to euthanize can be compassionate if you are thinking about the choice for a dog, is if more humane to keep a dog in a chain-link concrete kennel for months or years, where that dog may spin or jump or sleep on a hard concrete, wet floor, or at some point is it more humane to euthanize the dog?

That's really the question of the film.

LIN: All right.

WADE: And also I think one of the questions that the film asks is where is the shelter's responsiblity? Is the shelter's responsiblity for the adopting public? Adopting out safe animals? Or is it the shelter's responsiblity sipmply to find homes for every dog no matter what the behavior is of that dog.

LIN: Well, I saw about five there I want to adopt. So adorable. Thank you very much Cynthia Wade and Sue Sternberg. The documentary airs on HBO tonight.

WADE: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 27, 2004 - 10:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh. That was a look at "Shelter Dogs." The filmmakers of this documentry spent a year looking at life and death decisions in a controversial animal shelter. And it airs on HBO tonight.
I've got the film's director Cynthia Wade from New York. And from San Diego, Sue Sternberg, founder of the Rondout Valley Kennel, the shelter featured in the film. Good morning to both of you.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Cynthia, let me begin with you. The documentary poses the question whether it's more humane to euthanize dogs rather than sentencing them to a life behind bars in a kennel. What are some of your conclusions after this year?

CYNTHIA WADE, FILMMAKER: When I first started this film I think I was thinking in terms of black and white issues. I was thinking in terms of kill or no-kill.

And when I quickly got into making this film I realized that the issues are not black and white, they're very gray, they're very complex. And the answers are not easy. And ultimately, that there should be a discussion about the quality of life for animals that are living in shelters.

LIN: Sue, we have a clip actually from the documentary which shows one of those very moments where this kind of decision is being made. Let's show it to our audience first.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel I'm now at the end of our family's rope of being able to care for him. What is the worse of two evils? Euthanizing him or returning him to a shelter? He sleeps in bed with us every night as close to me as he can. So, going from that to sleeping on a kennel floor, I don't think that's tremendously humane. But, we can't keep him anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIN: Sue, do you remember this case? And what happened to that dog?

SUE STERNBERG, FOUNDER, RONDOUT VALLEY ANIMALS FOR ADOPTION: Yes, absolutely. The dog is a dog McBeal (ph). And he was a pit bull that was adopted from a very full no-kill shelter where he had spent a lot of time.

And she had him and she surrendered him for aggression. And the aggression was not curable or fixable. She would have done anything. And we euthanized him. She knew that. She knew he was not rehomible (ph). And she actually brought him to us because we are open admission. And because she also did not want him to live out his life in a shelter.

LIN: Now, your shelter, I mean, we describe it as controversial because frankly that's a word picked out of the press release from HBO. What is so controversial about it? It sounds like a luxury hotel.

STERNBERG: It is not controversial. I think the issues are somewhat controversial. My shelter is an open-admission shelter. We accept any dog that comes in, whether it's aggressive, adoptible, unadoptible, old, you know, whatever breed.

LIN: And you have lounge chairs and music piped into the suites.

STERNBERG: We have little rooms. Instead of renovating and making more chain link, we took plywood and we made tiny, little rooms on the inside. And we put old furniture in there so the dogs are more comfortable.

LIN: So in an environment where you are trying to work on the quality of life for these animals who may never be adopted and around just under 4 million dogs never do get adopted, how do you make the decision as to who lives and dies? I mean look at these faces.

STERNBERG: I think what's important to realize is adoptible dogs, behaviorally adoptable dogs, the ones that are not aggressive, get adopted. They don't remain.

There's a lot of people out there looking to adopt dogs. The dogs that usually stay for a long time in a shelter are the ones typically that are aggressive or who have deteriorated mentally because it's very hard to live your life in a kennel you if are a dog, even a nice kennel.

We choose to euthanize aggressive dogs. But if the dog is behaviorally adoptible, no matter what breed it is, no matter how old it is, we will keep it in our shelter and it finds a home and it usually does not usually take more than a few months.

LIN: Cynthia, what do you want people to take away from this documentary?

WADE: First of all, I think there's a public misconception that all shelter dogs are damaged goods. That's clearly not true. They're wonderful, amazing adoptible dogs. And animal shelters can be a wonderful place to find a companion animal.

Also the film really humanizes, you will see this tonight on HBO, it humanizes the shelter worker. I think sometimes people think that shelters that euthanize, the people there must not care about the animals because they must euthanize the animals.

(CROSSTALK)

LIN: Do you see euthanizing now as compassionate?

WADE: Yes, I see often the decision to euthanize can be compassionate if you are thinking about the choice for a dog, is if more humane to keep a dog in a chain-link concrete kennel for months or years, where that dog may spin or jump or sleep on a hard concrete, wet floor, or at some point is it more humane to euthanize the dog?

That's really the question of the film.

LIN: All right.

WADE: And also I think one of the questions that the film asks is where is the shelter's responsiblity? Is the shelter's responsiblity for the adopting public? Adopting out safe animals? Or is it the shelter's responsiblity sipmply to find homes for every dog no matter what the behavior is of that dog.

LIN: Well, I saw about five there I want to adopt. So adorable. Thank you very much Cynthia Wade and Sue Sternberg. The documentary airs on HBO tonight.

WADE: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com