We all want to pretend the Rainbow Bridge is located elsewhere. Many need desperately ( it seems ) to believe every animal will find a loving home, and will pass with a kind death. In the face of all the evidence to the contrary, the illusion persists. There is much talk of a No Kill Community, well communities are made of people not shelters and rescue groups. The will of the community for a no kill situation would be, not the numbers taken from a shelter; but the numbers kept in the home. That is how you judge a no kill climate. When you have a small number of people trying to regulate the behavior of large numbers of people, failure is inevitable. It has to be the will of the people to create a pet safe envirionment. For most areas there is not a true public appetite for no kill, or the shelter's wouldn't be full in the first place; so we are bombarded with the clamoring of a few, trying to direct the will of the many.
All laws are born somewhere, it is good that we have anti-cruelty laws, but those came with the defination of what is cruel. There are codes and regulations for for many aspects of animal welfare, but you can't make a person keep an animal they don't want; and to assume every person giving up a pet really wants to keep the pet , is ludicrous. Often the problem is caused by the owner, but you cannot solve a problem with the thinking that created it. Perhaps a dog is a chronic barker, well the people who own the dog either want the dog in the house or they don't, you can't " educate" people into wanting a house dog. They can be cited and talked to, but the truth is; when the complaints keep coming and they really don't want a house dog, the dog is heading to the shelter. How honest the person is with the shelter; and how honest the shelter is with potential adopters determine the dog's fate. Nobody wants a nuisance dog, nobody can take the kind of heat that behavior brings. I have watched many adoptable dogs go " lost " in the shelter enviroment, There are so many dogs returned, that will sooner or later get put down, and dogs that may have made it never get a chance.
In almost 40 years of working with dogs; I have never seen the levels of dysfunction that we are seeing today. Month's of rehab on one dog, and how many are destroyed while the one is being rehabbed. we need to get over the illusion that every shelter animal is savable, some are suffering a mental or physical anguish, and as we prolong that, others are dying. It is selfish and unfair to be so absorbed with numbers.
8 comments:
This is depressing, but probably true. I've read it 3 times and I can't argue the point. If you don't want your pet and you have had it for a long time, common sense says nobody else wants the problem either. there are circumstances where somebody dies, or a relocation, but the dogs I have seen at our shelter have seemed messed up and nuerotic. Signs of OCD and stress with licking sores and tal chasing and looking at nothing.
I volunteered there, but it is to much, to many animals, to many complaints from people about The conditions. I only walk dogs, I don't make the rules. I don't know where all these other volunteers are that I keep hearing about, they are not there when I am.I think the other poster may have missed some of the good dogs. they do get some good dogs there, like a little border collie that just came in, but when they stay to long they change and get depressed.
Sometimes I am pissed off, and sometimes I cry. It doesn't feel fair that so many nice dogs are destroyed. The answer is nueter and then screen like the devil before you let someone get a dog. Many of these animals are not adoptable and you can see it when you walk through, but most of them are when they first arrive at the shelter.
We went dog shopping for St. Paddie's Day. My husband wants an Irish Setter and thought there would be one there; what he had seen on the web was a Golden Retriever that wasn't even at the shelter. Why don't they take better pictures and tell the website that the dog is somewhere else ? You walk through all these pathetic dogs and feel like you should take something home, but we have cats so pitbulls are not an option, and there were no puppies. I did what this blog had suggested and asked what day the dogs originally started out there. I got some strange looks and no answers. Either they didn't know the answer or felt it was none of our business, so they walked off " to ask" and never came back.
I like to walk the bigger dogs, they don't get taken as much. Are there cases where it could work to not have any animal killed ? I like the idea of not killing any healthy animal. There is a way if we try harder.
I feel very strongly that there are so many good, healthy, sound animals that are being euthanized, it is disgraceful to spend so much time and money to save the ones who have all the problems. Once we don't have to euthanize these good, healthy, sound animals for lack of funding, time or space, then there should be money left to work with the others. Until then we need to set priorities and the ones that can get homes without presenting problems should be the ones we concentrate on. Once this is done, then direct the funds, time, and efforts in saving the ones who present with problems.
Sheldon and P ring my chimes! Clear the decks with the animals having the best chance for a long term home, get them placed, and then concentrate on seeing which dog can be rehabbed. All this focus on saving the unsavable at the expense of the healthy ones feels wrong.
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