Really sad :( :( I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge wake-up call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all - a view from the inside, if you will. 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 shelter when its not a cute little puppy anymore. How would you feel if you knew that theres about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter 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 shelter are purebred dogs. No shortage of excuses The most common excuses I hear are: We are moving and we cant take our dog (or cat). Really? Where are you moving to that doesnt allow pets? 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 yard. How about bringing her inside, 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, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you. Dead pet walking! Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off, sometimes a little longer if the shelter 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 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, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just dont get adopted. If your dog doesnt get adopted within its 72 hours 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, though not for long. Most pets 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. The grim reaper Heres a little euthanasia 101 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. That is, until they get to The Room. Every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks 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 techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They 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 its leg. 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 pets 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? Rendered into pet food? Youll never know, and it probably wont even cross your mind. It was just an animal, and you can always buy another one, right? Liberty, freedom and justice for all 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 do 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 people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter. Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters 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 is 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 shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say I saw this thing on Facebook and it made me want to adopt. That would make it all worth it. Author unknown
Posted on: Wed, 16 Oct 2013 04:39:45 +0000
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