**Please Read-Urgent**

[Pomlover2586]

Ever wondered what a high-kill shelter is like from someone who works there?

Here is the truth.
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 too that doesn’t 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 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 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, 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 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 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 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 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 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 and it made me want to adopt”. THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT



*I am not the original author

 

[sbell111]

Posts like this one irritate me.

I have pretty much always owned and loved rescue dogs. However, my next pup will be a GSD puppy that I will buy from a breeder. I refuse to feel guilty for the selfish decision to own my next dog for his entire life.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

*I am not the original author

You shouldn't post a letter of authority without a citation from the author.
It lacks credibilty.

 

[gina2000]

Regardless of the credibility issue (which is totally irrelevant in this situation), I do think a post like this does give one pause. What do we do to the helpless in our lives? And how do we justify it?

I do think we prey on the helpless. It does make me queasy to read something like this. And yes, I do think it's true.

Try watching an animal being euthanized. My husband has done it with every single animal we have loved and lost due to incurable illness. He has talked to them and petted them to the bitter end. It's an experience you will never want to repeat and one you will certainly never forget.

 

[npmommie]

I couldn't read the letter, emotionally just didn't want to. BUT,I know what it says.
all of our animals are rescue dogs and cats.
you can rescue an animal and have the pet its entire life because there are loads of puppy litters that end up in shelters too.
its a sad situation for sure.
all the backyard horrible breeders should be shut down.

 

[Planogirl]

I don't like the way letters like this lump all breeders together. There are certainly reputable breeders out there and it's not fair to pick on them. Puppy mills are another matter of course.

This issue won't go away until people spay their animals. THAT is the big problem IMO.

 

[princessmom29]

this board is not meant to be a forum for airing your opinons on things like this. While I agree with the message I don't think this is the place for it.

 

[agnes!]

Somewhat OT to the thread - While the experiences of the original letter-writer be valid and true, when I see unsigned letters on the Internet I sometimes kind of wonder where they originated kwim?

Back to the topic - But yes, not all no-kill shelters are authentically no-kill, however I used to work with a cat rescue organization and they indeed NEVER euthanized any animal that was under their care.

agnes!

 

[DisneyFairytale]

I don't like the way letters like this lump all breeders together. There are certainly reputable breeders out there and it's not fair to pick on them. Puppy mills are another matter of course.

This issue won't go away until people spay their animals. THAT is the big problem IMO.

Exactly, and unfortunately, while people are still around, there is no way to resolve this stupidity.

 

[mjkacmom]

I didn't read the whole letter, but maybe it will make people pause and think before buying that puppy from the petstore because they feel sorry for it, or call a breeder who has an ad in the local paper.

We're thinking about possibly getting a dog, so I went on Petfinder. I honestly don't know how someone could look at that website, and go out and buy a puppy, when there are so many great dogs who need homes already.

 

[Jynohn]

I breed Great Danes, and posts like this really irritate me. Responsible breeders are NOT the cause of pet overpopulation. We spend our lives improving our lines to create healthy dogs with sound temperaments, health test parents, screen new families carefully, and ALWAYS take back our dogs if the new owners can no longer care for them. The fact remains that many families want a purebred dog from a good breeder because they can be reasonably certain that the dog will be healthy and have the specific traits that they are looking for in a pet.

Here in the Northeast, our shelters actually IMPORT dogs from other areas (including South America) because there is a lack of adoptable pets. If you visit a shelter around here, you are unlikely to find anything but pitbulls and large mixes, which may not be the right fit for most families. The Humane Society of the United States and other similar organizations that spew nonsense like the letter posted, is actually a political lobbying group which does very little, if anything to help unwanted pets. Their ultimate agenda is to end all pet ownership and farming, and if we as citizens let propoganda like this go unchecked we will soon lose all of our rights to own and care for animals.

 

[stashbin]

I have 1 cat. That's it. That is all I have time for. Everyone asks me why we don't have a dog for our kids. Well we don't want a dog because we can't take care of it right now.

But I will say this about the letter: I would rather know an animal is humanely put to sleep than to know it is starving on the streets creating more starving animals.

 

[Acklander]

After 30 some odd years of getting shelter dogs, I gotta say it gets tougher and tougher each time. With the paperwork/background checks/ever growing fees/ home visits/waiting for approvals etc.... I can see why some people might get frustrated and go for the simplicity of just buying one from the pet shop. I understand the reasons behind all of that, but I think they tend to go overboard.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Something has to "give" if you want to rid the large numbers of unwanted animals. Adopting from rescue is good but it is not going to solve anything.

If nothing changes, nothing will change.

 

[swald91]

After 30 some odd years of getting shelter dogs, I gotta say it gets tougher and tougher each time. With the paperwork/background checks/ever growing fees/ home visits/waiting for approvals etc.... I can see why some people might get frustrated and go for the simplicity of just buying one from the pet shop. I understand the reasons behind all of that, but I think they tend to go overboard.

I agree with you here! You go in and show an interest but they want to go through your life with a fine tooth comb. It's too bad, but we had to bring a dog in b/c she was very aggressive & was going after the throat of our older dog-she just needed to be a only pet for a family-anyway, I feel funny about going b/c we rendered a dog we would be refused b/c of it.....it's very sad either way...

 

[Praying Colonel]

This is "urgent"?

I feel like I feel when they start playing those Sarah McLachlan hurt-puppy commercials on TV. I change the channel--quickly.

And BTW, we own a rescue doggy.

 

[MushyMushy]

After 30 some odd years of getting shelter dogs, I gotta say it gets tougher and tougher each time. With the paperwork/background checks/ever growing fees/ home visits/waiting for approvals etc.... I can see why some people might get frustrated and go for the simplicity of just buying one from the pet shop. I understand the reasons behind all of that, but I think they tend to go overboard.

I totally agree. Our Humane Society has gone way overboard with their adoption policies. You have to be extraordinarily "wonderful" to be able to adopt a dog! We would be turned down by a few places because we don't have a fenced in yard, despite the fact that we live in a big house near a big park. It's also getting to the point where the majority of the dogs available are more aggressive or high maintenance breeds. I've only ever owned adopted mutts in my life, but I'm getting to where I'm thinking my next dog will come from a reputable breeder where I can find out more of the history of the dog and its parents.

 

[Silent1CB]

I read first few lines & wished I hadn't.

 

[EllenFrasier]

In a society like we live in where people cannot even stay committed to each other for life in a marriage, it should come as no surprise that animals are turned into the shelter because they are no longer wanted. My daughter works at our local humane society. They had a man come in the other day wanted to surrender his dog. There is a fee to surrender your dog, so he left. Later that day, he drove by and threw the dog out of the car and took off. They tried to catch the dog, but couldn't get him that day. Nice huh.
.
She tells me many success stories and many sad stories, none of which is going to make me go down there and adopt more dogs. We have two dogs already. One we got as a puppy from a breeder. The other is from a rescue group.

I don't like posts like this. They don't make someone think about animals in a shelter who don't normally think of things like that. People who think of animals as possessions will always think of them as something that can be gotten rid of if they don't want it anymore. Someone like me, who considers their animals a part of the family, just feels guilty that they cannot do more for the ones in the shelter.

What was the point in the OP's post anyway?

 

[MM27]

Calm down people.

I don't see anything at all political about this topic. Yes, it's a bit in your face with the whole Urgent message in the title, but guess what? You don't have to open the thread and you can ignore it. I read the first few lines and then closed it. I know about kill shelters, don't need to read more about it. Nobody is forcing anyone to read messages.

V and yes, she's a shelter dog