Letter From A Shelter Manager

I saw this letter some months ago. It's pretty brutal. I half wondered whether I should post it; I've also wondered whether it was written by an actual shelter manager, or a volunteer who wanted to tell it like it is. I recall that I read it on a blog actually written by a shelter, but either way, it speaks the truth. I've decided to post it to spread the word. Some readers may not like it but this blog's name is Shelter Tails and this is what happens. I'm not hiding it or sugar coating it.

When you bring your dog to a shelter, the vastly majority of those pets will be put down. Where you live determines how much time your dog gets, and how brutal the method of euthanasia. The State of Georgia just signed legislation ending the gassing of dogs and cats starting on December 31, 2010. That was a hard won battle. Stuff like that doesn't happen unless a reluctant state legislature recognizes the cruelty inherent in a particular method.  Gassing is neither quick, nor painless, and dogs die in a state of panic. So, when you hear someone say "I'm moving and I can't take my dog," question them. Look them in the eye and ask "whereare you moving to that doesn't take dogs?  Put on the pressure; make it un-cool to do, to leave your pet behind.  Times change, it used to be you could beat your kids and people would say "that's a family matter."  Not anymore. Many things continue to change. This will be one; animal protection people will spend their cash, time, and energy advocating for dogs and cats everywhere. In the meantime, literally millions of animals will perish, alone and scared, confused, and their so called owners can rot in hell, as far as I'm concerned. One day they'll need someone to push their wheelchair along, administer meds, or wipe drool. What comes around goes around. What you put out there comes back to bite you. Be on the right side of that fence.

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 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 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 so you know there's a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter its 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 excuses: "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 and 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 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 the shelter gets paid a fee to euthanize each animal and making money is better than spending money to take this animal to the vet.

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 shelter workers depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a shelter worker who we call a euthanasia tech (not a vet) 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. You see, shelters are trying to make money to pay employee pay checks and don’t forget the board of directors needs to be paid too, so we don’t spend our funds to tranquilize the animal before injecting them with the lethal drug, we just put the burning lethal drug in the vein and let them suffer until dead. If it were not a “making money issue” and we had to have a licensed vet do this procedure, the animal would be sedated or tranquilized and then euthanized, but to do this procedure correctly would cost more money so we do not follow what is right for the animal, we just follow what is the fastest way we can make a dollar. Shelters do not have to have a vet perform their euthanasia’s so even if it takes our employee 50 pokes with a needle and 3 hours to get the vein that is what we do. Making money is the issue here not losing money.

(NOTE FROM THIS BLOG: Some shelters do tranqualize first but if you live in the south, way up north, Ohio, Missouri, or Alaska, this is usually not the case.)

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?

I hope that those of you who still have a beating heart and have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head; I deal with this everyday. I hate my job, I hate that it exists, 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 know 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. Animal shelters are an easy way out when you get tired of your dog (or cat), and breeders are the ones blamed for this. Animal shelters and rescue organizations are making a hefty profit by keeping this misconception going.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you - as a pet owner - can stop it. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about taking their dog to a shelter, a humane society, or buying a dog without researching. For those of you that care--- please repost this to at least one other craiglist in another city/state. Let's see if we can get this all around the U.S. and have an impact.

PROMISE A FUTURE - and DON'T FAIL THEM! PETS ARE FOR A LIFETIME!!!
 
 
Share