My Job
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 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. 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? . 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 bringing her inside, 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, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is?
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 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,
rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front
door. Those dogs just don?t get adopted. 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, 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 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. That is, until they get to ?The
Room?, when 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. 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 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 doesn?t panic from being restrained and jerk it's leg. 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 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 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 thing on craigslist and it made me want to adopt?.
That would make it all worth it.