A Letter from a Shelter Manager:

[Lani]

*Not written by me, but I can understand where this person is coming from...*

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 knowThat 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 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 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!!!!

*Not written by me, but I can understand where this person is coming from...*

[ginai]

Ok, I read down to the putting the dog down, then I had to stop reading.

I agree with this, people are breeding dogs to keep them pure, when there are many, many, many dogs, puppies out there that need homes now....
I don't care how great the breeder is, what about the dogs who already exist who need a home? I just do not agree with breeding.

this is so sad, but it will continue... it will continue because people love to have 'perfection' they want a perfect puppy, pure breed, muts are just not desired.

I'm gonna stop typing this now, and go give my 'muts' mixes a big oll hugg.
-ginai

[Lani]

this is nothing to do with purebred vs the mutt but rather to all the BYBs and puppy mills and the flat out irresponsible people that seem to think that because they have a boy dog and a girl dog it's their right to breed to somehow fulfill their dogs lives. I am an advocate of proper breeding practices and I don't breed. No one really seems to realize the real epidemic here is in fact mutts disguised as "designer dogs".

[Dawn]

Thank you for telling this story. I'm sorry you have to go through this every day. I could never do it. People are irresponsible if they do not spay or neuter their animals. All of my animals have been rescues, and I believe they are the best animals - forget pure breeds from breeders. I always have animals. Right now, I have one cat and one dog and I have been thinking about getting more, because those animals don't deserve to be abandoned by idiots. Thanks again for telling everyone the consequences of abandonment and irresponsible breeding. I hope everyone can add one more pet to their household because of your story; from the shelter of course. Take care.

[andy cat man]

i am 40 and have had 30 dogs (and 23 cats) over a 20yr period since i was 19, most living to a ripe old age.ive had many dealings with shelters and vets etc, so i feel im qualified to say the following---

obviously you care for your charges, but pounds are there own worse enemys, they can be too picky where the dog goes, and too quick to put dogs down.

i live in the north of the uk in a small mainly poor area and recently decided to get a rescue dog from the local pound.

i had to go first for an interview and fill in forms about my personal situation, then i had to pick a dog from the selection in the kennels (most dogs in the pound were not 'ready' for adoption,why?).i then had to go home without the dog and wait a week for a home visit by a beligerant, judgemental and rude bloke who was assuming i was not suitable to have a dog from the outset because my garden was not huge.
after a further 30 mins of personal and intrusive questions he left, not even giving any indication i cud even have the dog, almost giving the impression they were doing me a favour by even considering letting me have one of 'their' dogs, and pay them (60 pounds).

a decent dog loving friend of mine has gone through the same procedure as above and at the end was told he cud not have the dog because he was deemed unsuitable, no more explanation given, he thinks it was because he told the pound he did not have a car.

ive other tales of demanding pounds refusing to hand out dogs to decent people, and quite frankly sometimes treating potential adopters with snide suspicion from the outset.why the reluctance to hand over dogs that they are going to put down anyway, better to let the dog roam the streets than be put down in the shelter, after all, it may get fed or even taken in by someone (ive found a lot of my great dogs this way and had long happy bonds with them).
stray dogs cud be tagged and let back into the streets, so when that dog is picked up by the pound again it can be assesed at how succesfull it was in coping on its own, if its situation has got worse then only then should euthanasia be considered, after all, some dogs are remarkable in their ability to make the most of their lot and can even be happy coping without a home to call their own (ive visited cyprus where packs of friendly happy dogs roam the streets and have still been in the area yrs later, relatively in good condition, but when these trusting little pooches get carted off to the pound in nicosia they usually die of parvo in the pound itself, picked up in the pound).
when i lived in manchester yrs ago, a local dog was abandoned in the area by its owners, the dog survived happily in the area for ages, until that is when the local pound took him and a week later he was dead from parvo that he got in the pound itself.

your account of leading dogs into the euthanasia room makes me think why not just let the dogs back into the streets, at least they have a chance at life.dont forget, this is the western world, and most people dont generally seek out stray dogs to abuse as happens in the developing world like shambolic china where stray dogs have a genuine reason to be fearfull cos they cud end up beaten to death by roaming death squads or captured by dog meat vendors who will end up skinning em alive or boiling em alive (sometimes skinning em alive and THEN boiling em alive, and thats after beating them to 'tenderize' the meat and to get the dog to release adrenaline to 'make the meat taste better').

[Linda W]

AND TO THOSE OF YOU WHO THINK 'YOU and YOUR SPECIAL DOG' should be the exception because you just know that everyone who buys or gets one of your cute little puppies is DIFFERENT/SPECIAL/RESPONSABLE......PONDER THESE STATISTICS for a few minutes and super impose the body and face of your brood bitch/Queen (Mother Cat) and their beautiful babies on each of the animals noted as follows!

DID YOU KNOW?

Each year millions of unwanted pets are born and most are treated like disposable commodities One female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 cats in 7 years One female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in 6 years. Please spay or neuter your pets and help stop this vicious cycle of death.

AND PLEASE! PASS THIS MESSAGE ON!

JUST ONE OF YOUR BABIES....can begin this cycle...........JUST ONE FEMALE DOG......JUST ONE FEMALE CAT and JUST ONE (1) mistake in judgement of the person you are handing that baby over to.........


Linda W

[andy cat man]

one female dog/cat may be able to produce many ospring,but only under ideal conditions,most die well before their time and never produce anywhere near the numbers quoted.

anyway,ive just checked back on this topic and see the original poster (lani,shelter manager) has not replied to my challenge about shelters and their unrealistic expectations/practices.
obviously,her shelter is above par,but many are not.

[Lani]

No I did not respond to your "challenge"...because if you would bother to actually READ, the very last line (which by the way is bold and itallic as to draw attention to it, and I'll place it at the top now too) I DID NOT WRITE THIS, I got it in an e-mail from a friend and thought it worthy of sharing with other animal people to get their perspective, or enlighten some people to the problem we have in the shelters right now.

I am not, nor do I ever WANT to be a shelter manager, working in rescue is taxing enough. Have a nice day.

[andy cat man]

Fair enough.
it was the * (asterix) next to the disclaimer that caused confusion, cos in the uk this usually denotes a link to a portion or part of text that has also an * next to it.
To imply the whole text it needs to be stated as such if an * is present and no * is located within the body of the text.

Thanks for your response.
I dont blame you for not wanting to be a shelter manager.A number of bad apples have tarnished shelters reputation with some pet owners.
Bye

[Animal Lover]

your account of leading dogs into the euthanasia room makes me think why not just let the dogs back into the streets, at least they have a chance at life

^ UGH

That was an awesome story. I live this every day being a shelter Director and let me tell you... turning and animal back on the "street" is NOT the way to go. So they can reproduce, get hit by a vehicle to suffer a horrible death or to be shot? HMMM I would rather see an animal HUMANELY euthanized any day compared to a horrible, pain suffering death. Acutally, I would rather people take responsibilty for their animals and have them spay or neutered, so that *I* dont have to make those types of decisons :) To me, the best thing that could happen is for me to be out of a job, which would mean, there are NO stray, abandoned or abused animals :)

[Darrell]

I suggest posting a big sign on both sides of your front door that says:

WARNING! THIS IS A KILL SHELTER. ANY ANIMAL NOT ADOPTED WITHIN 3 DAYS WILL BE KILLED! SICK AND/OR AGGRESSIVE ANIMALS WILL BE DESTROYED IMMEDIATELY!
ANIMALS ADOPTED YTD: ______ ANIMALS KILLED YTD: ______

(be sure to fill in the blanks with up to date numbers)

At least this way, any one dropping off their pet due to inconvenience of continuing to care for it will not leave with a clear conscience.

[Lani]

Unfortunatly I have seen this before...owner surrenders don't get as much time as pick ups do, and these owners always seem to think (or just flat out don't care) "my dog is special, he/she will be adopted by tonight" or whatever excuse they give themselves to sleep at night. Humans are sick creatures, and the ones that find it acceptable to throw their pets away when it suits them are the sickest of the lot. The ones that don't care, doesn't matter how many warning signs you post it won't change their mind.

You should read my letter to the average pet owner on my page and my blog...

[Darrell]

I shall.

BTW, I didn't invent people. I like dogs better.