A North Carolina dog who was abandoned after his owners saw him humping another male pooch and feared he might be gay has found a new family — who named him after a famous gay Irish poet.
The dog was dropped off recently at the Stanly County Animal Protective Services, a shelter in Albemarle, after his owners saw him mounting another male dog and assumed he’s gay.
Steve Nichols and his partner, John Winn, decided to adopt Fezco when they realized he was facing the same kind of ignorance and bigotry they’ve faced as an openly gay couple, the Charlotte Observer reported.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘We got to do something,’” Nichols told the news outlet.
“It was one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. That’s just pack behavior,” he said about Fezco’s previous owners.
The couple decided to rename their new four-legged family member Oscar — after Oscar Wilde, the gay Irish poet and playwright in the 1890s.
Oscar wasn’t feeling well when they arrived to pick him up Tuesday.
“What is almost as concerning as the idea that he’s gay, and that the person gave him up for that reason, is the fact that the owner apparently didn’t do anything to take care of this dog,” Nichols told the Charlotte Observer.
“It was pretty apparent to me that he has not seen a good meal or a groomer in his life either,” he said, adding that despite his condition, Oscar was “extremely sweet.”
“He obeyed commands just like he had been listening to me all of his life,” he told the newspaper. “I told him to jump in the car, he jumped in and sat down on the seat.”
Nichols called the staff at the Stanly County shelter “real heroes” for taking care of Oscar, who will share a home with the couple’s Chihuahua-terrier mix, Harry.
“This was just a one-time thing for us, but they do this stuff every day and deal with it all the time,” he said. “They don’t get the attention they deserve for what they’re doing.”
Oscar’s humping was a common canine behavior that is not necessarily sexual in nature, according to reports.
Melissa Knicely of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Animal Care and Control told the outlet that dogs are not a species that has intercourse for pleasure.
Their humping is considered a dominance behavior, and both male and female dogs engage in it, she said.
“My little dog used to hump an Old English sheepdog that was five times his size just to show him he was boss,” Nichols said.
“I know it’s silly to think that a dog is gay, but if he wants to be gay as hell, he can be gay here,” he added. “We’ll still love him and take care of him.”