Lunenburg’s “dog program” produces a rare prison
result. It successfully trains abandoned
and discarded dogs for adoption. The
dogs are adopted by families up and down the East Coast. Almost every month one of the dogs “graduate”
and goes home with a family. I’ve been
in the program building when the two men turn their dog over. I’ve seen the joy in the children’s faces as
they pet and admire their new dog. And, I’ve
seen the bittersweet realization on the men’s faces that “their dog” is moving
on.
These men live with their dogs. Every walk – at 5:00 am or 11:00 pm – is their
responsibility. Every day for the six to
nine months the animal is with them is devoted to training their dog. And the dogs?
They are recognized and petted, and played with, and talked to by
everyone on the compound.
The dogs bring a sense of normalcy to this place. And
ironically, because these dogs are all “throwaways”, animals abandoned, and neglected,
and abused who were scooped up by the local Humane Society many times on the
verge of death, there is a natural kinship with those in here who also were
cast out by society. The dogs matter to
the men in here. The dogs matter to the
families who adopt them.
But the program, no matter how successful, brings
controversy. Victims’ rights groups will
frequently ask, “Why are murderers allowed to have pets?” They fail to realize the rehabilitative
benefits from the program, the fact that the men working with the dogs learn responsibility
and empathy, that failure to meet the standards set for the program leads to
the men’s dismissal from the program and a loss of good time. And they don’t see that without the dog
program these dogs would be euthanized.
So Lunenburg goes to the dogs and as bad as prison is, the “dog
days” make it easier to manage. They may
be mutts and throwaways, but so are the dogs.
And if the dogs can be trained and remade into wonderful members of a
family, then so can their trainers.
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