About 50% of the dogs that come into the shelter as "owner surrenders" or "strays",
are purebred dogs. I hear a variety of excuses from the owners of these dogs.
The most common excuses heard are:
#1 "We're moving and can't take our dog/cat with us."
Really? Where is this place that doesn't allow pets? Why not put a little effort into
finding a place where your pets are allowed?
#2 "The dog got bigger than we thought it would and we just don't have the room."
Just how big did you think a German Shepherd would get? Did you even think to ask?
#3 "We don't have time for her".
Why not? I go to school for a fourteen hour day and still have time for my dogs!
#4 "She keeps tearing up our yard".
How about letting her come inside with the pack that is her family?
They tell me :
"We don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her."
How stressful do you think being left at the shelter is?
"We know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".
The odds are your pet won't get adopted.
Let me remind you that your pet has 72 hours to find a new family... that time starts
the moment you drop it off. Sometimes, if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages
to stay completely healthy, maybe a little longer. But if it so much as sniffles, it dies.
Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other confused,
barking and/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, there will have enough volunteers
that day to take him/her for a walk. If there isn't, any attention your pet gets will be from
having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its concrete
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.
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 is a desirable enough breed, it may
get a stay of execution... not for long though. Most get very protective of their kennel after
about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in
this environment. A dog perceives what happened to him this way: He had a nice home and
it was his job to protect it. One day you brought him here and left him. Therefore, he is in this
kennel for failing to protect his home. The kennel is his home now.. it's all he has and as horrible
as it is, if he doesn't protect it, he will be taken away again. He protects his kennel and now
he will die for doing his job. Would that confuse you?
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 treatment.
Now that you know that there's about a 90% chance that your dog will NOT leave the
shelter with the loving, forever family you thought it would, will you find a way to keep it?
If not, 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 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 they get to the door.
It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls lingering in there. It's strange, but it
happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, or held down by 1 or 2
vet techs, depending on their 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 away. The needles
tear out of a leg and cover me with blood. The yelps and screams are deafening.
They don't all "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. That's all your pet is now.
So. What happens next? Cremation, taken to the dump, rendered into pet food? Any of these
could happen but you'll never know. Why would it even cross your mind? You left it here to
die... it was just an animal... you can always get another one, right?
9 to 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you
can stop it.
are purebred dogs. I hear a variety of excuses from the owners of these dogs.
The most common excuses heard are:
#1 "We're moving and can't take our dog/cat with us."
Really? Where is this place that doesn't allow pets? Why not put a little effort into
finding a place where your pets are allowed?
#2 "The dog got bigger than we thought it would and we just don't have the room."
Just how big did you think a German Shepherd would get? Did you even think to ask?
#3 "We don't have time for her".
Why not? I go to school for a fourteen hour day and still have time for my dogs!
#4 "She keeps tearing up our yard".
How about letting her come inside with the pack that is her family?
They tell me :
"We don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her."
How stressful do you think being left at the shelter is?
"We know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".
The odds are your pet won't get adopted.
Let me remind you that your pet has 72 hours to find a new family... that time starts
the moment you drop it off. Sometimes, if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages
to stay completely healthy, maybe a little longer. But if it so much as sniffles, it dies.
Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other confused,
barking and/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, there will have enough volunteers
that day to take him/her for a walk. If there isn't, any attention your pet gets will be from
having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its concrete
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.
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 is a desirable enough breed, it may
get a stay of execution... not for long though. Most get very protective of their kennel after
about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in
this environment. A dog perceives what happened to him this way: He had a nice home and
it was his job to protect it. One day you brought him here and left him. Therefore, he is in this
kennel for failing to protect his home. The kennel is his home now.. it's all he has and as horrible
as it is, if he doesn't protect it, he will be taken away again. He protects his kennel and now
he will die for doing his job. Would that confuse you?
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 treatment.
Now that you know that there's about a 90% chance that your dog will NOT leave the
shelter with the loving, forever family you thought it would, will you find a way to keep it?
If not, 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 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 they get to the door.
It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls lingering in there. It's strange, but it
happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, or held down by 1 or 2
vet techs, depending on their 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 away. The needles
tear out of a leg and cover me with blood. The yelps and screams are deafening.
They don't all "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. That's all your pet is now.
So. What happens next? Cremation, taken to the dump, rendered into pet food? Any of these
could happen but you'll never know. Why would it even cross your mind? You left it here to
die... it was just an animal... you can always get another one, right?
9 to 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you
can stop it.
DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!
-stolen from unknown author
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