Letter from an Animal Shelter Manager - the sad truth
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Education people, EDUCATION!! Let's pray that 2009 spares more lives than the 11 million killed this year...
(do not stop reading until you've reached the end)
A Letter from a Shelter Manager:
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.
First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter 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 don't even know. That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when
it's not a cute little puppy anymore.
So how would you feel if you knew that there's 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.
The most common excuses I hear are;
"We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat).
" Really? Where are you moving to that doesn't allow pets
and why did you choose that place instead of a pet friendly
home?
Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would".
How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?
"We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10- 12 hour
day and still have time for my 6 dogs!
"She' s tearing up our yard". How about making her a part
of your family?
They always tell me: "We just don't want to have to stress
about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's
a good dog."
Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you,
your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter
isn't 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 don't, your pet
won't 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, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much
dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted.
It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are. If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.
If the shelter isn't 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 don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.
Here's 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.
Until, they get to "The Room", every one of them freak out and put the brakes on when we get to the door. It
must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's 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 the size and how freaked out they are.
Then a euthanasia tech or 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 doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've 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 don't 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? Rendered into pet food? You'll never know and it probably
won't 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 can't 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 & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and
realize that the lives you are affecting go much further 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: DON'T 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 person's 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 and it made me want to adopt." THAT
WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT!
PLEASE FORWARD, CROSS POST, CIRCULATE TO YOUR FRIENDS. FAMILY, & CONTACTS!!!!
