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Old January 21st, 2009, 02:14 PM
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14+kitties 14+kitties is offline
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Thank you totallyhip!

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 apart of your
family?

They always tell me: "We just don't want to have to stress about
finding a place for her we know s
he'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 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 e
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 t
hey 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.
__________________
__________________
Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me.

We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD!