Animal Welfare Professionals

Does anyone have opinions or “best practice” recommendations on communication when a community-supported rescue must make the difficult decision to euthanize a dog for behavioral reasons? Communicate or keep private? Why or why not? Thanks! 

It's such a difficult scenario. This article interviews several rescue leaders who have faced that choice and how they handled it. https://www.animalsheltering.org/magazine/articles/when-love-isnt-enough

Thank you so much. 

Agree with Julie...no easy answers here. Transparency is a must to maintain credibility. In the social media age, it will be published at some point whether you want it to be or not. If you publish it, you control the narrative. The AAWA is doing a 5-part webinar series titled "Going through Hell". The link below is for the webinar that discussed some real-life examples of good & bad crisis communications directly from the people who experienced them. It includes discussion on the recent Brother Wolf Animal Rescue incident (if you aren't familiar, BWAR euthanized some dogs with aggression issues that were originally brought to the sanctuary for protection. Leadership changes altered their fate. Lots of media coverage. I include a link below not to choose sides, but I think it is likely relevant to your question.)

https://wlos.com/news/local/brother-wolf-faces-backlash-for-euthanizing-dog

https://learning.theaawa.org/p/crisis#tab-product_tab_overview

This is so helpful!! Much appreciated. I will look at it all.