THIS IS A LETTER WRITTEN BY A SHELTER MANAGER...VERY SAD!
A Letter from a Shelter Manager:
I think our society needs a huge %26quot; Wake-up%26quot; 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 %26quot;back%26quot; 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 %26quot;owner surrenders%26quot;
or %26quot;strays%26quot; that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.
The most common excuses I hear are;
%26quot;We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat).
%26quot; Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets and why did you
choose that place instead of a petfriendly home?
Or they say %26quot;The dog got bigger than we thought it would%26quot;.
How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?
%26quot;We don't have time for her%26quot;.
Really? I work a 10- 12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs!
%26quot; She' s tearing up our yard%26quot;.
How about making her a part of your family?
They always tell me: %26quot;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.%26quot;
Odds are your pet won't get adopted %26amp; 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 %26quot; Bully %26quot; breeds (pit bull, rotti
e, 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 %26quot;put- down%26quot;.
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, hey get to %26quot;The Room%26quot; , 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 %26quot;pink stuff%26quot;.
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 %26quot;go to sleep%26quot;, 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? 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 headSOMETHING ALL ANIMAL LOVERS/BREEDERS/SELLERS, EVERYONE SHOULD READ.?You might want to post that as an answer to any %26quot;I wanna breed my cute bunny/kitty/dog%26quot; questions that are so often on here. they seem to think it's OK to say they have homes lined up for them but they don't stop and think that every animal they breed takes away a potential home and causes the death of one of these unwanted shelter animals.SOMETHING ALL ANIMAL LOVERS/BREEDERS/SELLERS, EVERYONE SHOULD READ.?This is soo sad :(
I would never ever give my dog for adoption :(
i love them like they are my babiesSOMETHING ALL ANIMAL LOVERS/BREEDERS/SELLERS, EVERYONE SHOULD READ.?awwwwwwwwwww. thats sad =[SOMETHING ALL ANIMAL LOVERS/BREEDERS/SELLERS, EVERYONE SHOULD READ.?I HATE the idea of someone keeping ANY animal in a cage or several cages %26quot;just%26quot; to breed them. That is sick. They just want money out of it. I have seen it where they have laid in their own fecal matter for who knows how long, never been touched by a human.
It is sooooo sick. I wish they were outlawed.
I saw one where a man sold chinchillas that had a 12 inch.. seriously INCH by 12 inch cage. Length and width. Height? 12 inches.
A whole WALL %26quot;FULL%26quot; of cages... at least 200. Of females in these 12 inch cages. With a door to each one for a male to get in and mate.
Do you really think they care about the wellbeing of any of those animals????
When they can get 100 dollars per chinchilla or 1,000 or more for the purebred dogs? If they had a warm caring heart... they wouldnt keep them in those small cages with no love in the first place.
