The  Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe is encouraging adopters to not judge a book by its cover, or in this case, judge a pup by its spots. For about a month now, the shelter has removed all breed labels from its description of adoptable dogs.Â
This is in an effort to try and remove stigmas from certain breeds while also increasing adoptions. Instead of breed labels, personality descriptions are listed both on their website and at the shelter to better match potential owners with their dogs.Â
The shelter says it's a new strategy in animal welfare, making sure adopters pick the best fit for their families based on personality traits, regardless of breeds.Â
Erin Ellis, with the Humane Society, says visual identification of breeds by shelter workers is not necessarily reliable anyway, since most dogs in shelters are mixed breed. She goes on to add that, even if there is concrete proof of a dog's pedigree, blanket breed 'traits' are not guaranteed.Â
To put it simply, looks do not equal behavior.Â
In addition to personality description, the shelter also lists the dog's age, size, temperament and if it does well with other animals.Â
To see a full list of the shelter's adoptable pets, click here.
