An Important Message to All Pet Parents
Years ago, an advocate for the proper care and handling of Fur Babies pioneered the message we echo today. The following article was written by a shelter manager, Al Ramirez, and published under The Pet Press founded by Lori Golden. It was published for vet offices, pet food stores, and shelters in the Los Angeles area. With heavy hearts, we have to say that she has since passed, but we hope to keep her message alive by sharing the article. Unfortunately, not all Pet Parents take the steps to educate themselves on the care of their Fur Babies. This article highlights the consequences of neglect and shelter returns. We hope that you’ll resonate with Golden’s words as we did, and join us on our journey to transform the adoption process into one that’s better for both the Fur Babies and their shelters/rescues.
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Our Society Needs a 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 people who have ever surrendered a pet to a shelter or humane society 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 stop flagging the ads on Craigslist and help these animals find homes. That puppy you just bought will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore. Just do you know there’s a 90% change that dog will never walk out of the shelter it’s dumped at. Purebred or not! About 25% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays”, that come into a shelter are purebred dogs.
The most common excuse: “We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).” Really? Or they say, “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”. How big do 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 again.
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 confided to a small run/kennel in a room with 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 in 72 hours and the shelter is full in most cases, 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 end up being destroyed.
Returning Your Fur Baby Could Mean It Gets "Put-Down".
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”, when 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.
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? Or used for the schools to dissect and experiment on? 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?
The Harsh Reality.
I hope that those of you who still have a beating heart & have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head. I deal with this every day. I hate my job, I hate that it exits and I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and start educating the public. Do research, do your homework, and now exactly what you are getting into before getting a pet.
These shelters and humane societies exist because people just do not care about animals anymore. Animals were not intended to be disposable but somehow that is what they are these days.
Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters (The Humane Society of the US estimates 3-4 million) and only you – as a pet owner can stop it. I just hope I maybe changed one person’s mind about taking their dog to a shelter, a humane society, or buying a dog without researching. For those of you that care- please re-post this and share. Let’s see if we can get this all around the US and have an impact.
THINK before your selfishness begins to take over. Do you still think we need breeders? Do you still think there are “responsible” breeders? There is no such thing. This is a living being, not a plastic bottle you can just discard without a thought. They have feelings, feel pain, love and get upset like you and me. The MAIN difference? They don’t know how to hate until some horrible human teaches them that trait.
Welcome You Fur Baby Home With Confidence!
When you and/or your family makes the decision to adopt a Fur Baby into your family there is so much more to learn than going to a rescue, looking for a new baby (sometimes a specific baby), buying a collar, a leash, water, and food bowl, (when you choose to be a responsible Pet Parent), poop bags, and maybe some toys. There is so much more to learn than just those things.
In our class, we teach and inspire you to be great Pet Parents and Pet Siblings. You will learn the basics of how to prepare your home before bringing a fur baby home, your commitment to this little Fur Baby, how to prepare for a natural disaster with this Fur Baby (and you know we have natural disasters), and so much more. If you are already a Pet Parent, there is still a lot to learn, so sign up for our classes so we can teach and inspire you (and your family) to be great Pet Parents and Pet Siblings!
