Quit buying dogs. Hard stop. There is no such thing as a respectable/responsible breeder when millions of dogs die each year because people are self centered and idiots. And you dont NEED a brand name dog. It doesnt give you status. You are not making a statement. It just make you look uninformed and selfish. Quit being an idiot and surrendering your dogs because you are bothered by the list of trivialities is too long and frankly embarrassing for people who share my air on this planet to list You wouldnt believe me and think I am being hyperbolic. Do I have a chip on my shoulder and a bad attitude? You bet I do. Ask a real dog rescuer like @Teri Gidwitz Here is a shelter managers account of what happens when you drop your dog off at the shelter to be adopted: From a pound manager I think our society needs a huge Wake-up call. As a dog pound/rescue shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a view from the inside if you will. First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the back of an animal centre for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you dont even know. That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my pound when its not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that theres about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the pound it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are owner surrenders or strays, that come into my pound are purebred dogs. The most common excuses I hear are; We are moving and we cant take our dog (or cat). Really? Where are you moving too that doesnt allow pets? Or they say The dog got bigger than we thought it would. How big did you think a German shepherd would get? We dont have time for her.” Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! Shes tearing up our garden. How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me We just dont want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know shell get adopted, shes a good dog. Odds are your pet wont get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a pound is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 7 days to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the pound isnt full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I dont, your pet wont get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the Bully breeds (pit bull, staffy, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just dont get adopted. It doesnt matter how sweet or well behaved they are. If your dog doesnt get adopted within its 7 days and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isnt full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long. Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just dont have the funds to pay for even a £100 treatment. Heres a little euthanasia resume for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being put-down. First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to The Room, every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, its strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet nurses depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the pink stuff. Hopefully your pet doesnt panic from being restrained and jerk. Ive seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all dont just go to sleep, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. When it all ends, your pet’s corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Youll never know and it probably wont even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right? I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and cant get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realise that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 60 thousand animals die every year in UK pounds and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes. My point to all of this; DONT BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE! Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a pound, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my pound and say I saw this and it made me want to adopt. THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 19:28:58 +0000