Ok, so you asked me on FB for an explanation. Once we are done discussing here, we will honor your request and ban your account.
Here's the neglect rule:
12) Animal Abuse and Neglect.
DogForum.com does not, in any way, condone or accept the abuse, mistreatment, or neglect of any living animal. All animals deserve humane treatment/training, proper housing and hygiene, training, and vet care. If it is brought to our attention that an animal may be being abused, mistreated, or neglected by a member, and the member does not act to resolve the issue, it may result in a ban from the forum.
The mod team discussed this and voted on it. Not a single mod voted against banning her. We ALL felt she broke this rule. This rule defines neglect as not just failing to provide food or water, but also failing to provide needed training or humane training. That's where the issue is with this situation. Kwenami neglected his unique mental and training needs, and she made him pay with his life.
Our understanding is that her boyfriend and his ex had Doppler for 4 years. He had known problems, and was not being treated right by them.
Kwenami made a conscious decision to take Doppler in as her own, knowing full well what these problems were. Kwenami was in WAY over her head and she should have recognized it. She brought him into a small apartment with no yard, a rabbit, and Koda, who she knows does not do well with other dogs. She had problems with potty training, getting him to relax, resource guarding, cutting his nails, getting him and koda to get along and him trying to kill her rabbit. She could not physically set him up to succeed in that environment. He was stress stacked and it was not good for him.
Not only was it a bad decision to take him in, I will also remind you that Kwenami is not a professional trainer or an experienced trainer. She failed Doppler by, for whatever reason, neglecting to seek professional help and also medication like Prozac that could have helped Doppler with his anxiety. Yes, she quit her job and was almost homeless. But she still had her job when she got Doppler, and she still didn't seek professional help. I cannot fathom why she felt she could fix this dog on her own when she could barely handle Koda's issues. She mentioned she suspected he had neurological/emotional issues....But how can she when she has no experience with that? Why wouldn't she see a vet for these assumed possible neurological issues? She never, to our knowledge, sought professional advice.
Furthermore, the problems that she listed? No professional trainer would ever agree that those are good reasons to euthanize. Those are all common problems that very likely could have been rectified in a bigger home with a yard with somebody who knew what they were doing. Of course a TERRIER tried to kill her rabbit. Of course she had trouble potty training a nervous marker when she has no yard. Of course he tried to bite her when she tried to trim his nails, when he was never conditioned or trained to accept nail trims. Of course she had trouble getting him to settle down and relax when he's in a tiny home with a prey animal he wants to kill, and another dog with her own issues. Of course he resource guarded.
None of this was fair to Doppler. None of it. At all. She fed him, loved him, kept him safe. But she ultimately neglected what that dog truly needed mentally and training-wise, and that's not ok.
As a moderation team, we felt extremely uncomfortable that the decision to euthanize was made by her and her alone. And keep in mind that on moderation team, we have professional and experienced trainers. We felt uncomfortable at the thought of her giving training advice to people who might be in a similar situation. She should not be helping others if she couldn't deal with her own problem dog herself.
If she could not provide for him, he should have been surrendered to a shelter. Not killed. At least then he would have had a chance at being pulled by a rescue, or an experienced individual. At least then it would have been up to the shelter staff to make that call, because they have experience at determining how adoptable or non-adoptable a dog is.
This is why we made the decision we did.
