Letter from a Animal Shelter Manager

Subject: Fwd: Letter from a Animal Shelter Manager (the sad truth!)
Get out your tissues before you read this.


Begin forwarded message:

Help spread the education by fowarding this!But be forewarned that this will be upsetting and sensitive to your hearts.Sincerely, Lisa aka Kat Education people, EDUCATION!! Let's pray that 2009spares more lives than the 11 million killed this year...(do not stop reading until you've reached the end)

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 madeto work in the "back" of an animal shelter for justone 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 youjust sold will most likely end up in my shelter whenit'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 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 & how stressfuldo you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you,your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the momentyou drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelterisn't full and your dog manages to stay completelyhealthy. If it sniffles, it dies.

Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a roomwith about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will haveto relieve itself where it eats and sleeps.

It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for thefamily that abandoned it.

If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in thatday to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your petwon't get any attention besides having a bowl of foodslid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of itspen 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 muchdead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogsjust 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 ofexecution, 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 areit will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infectionand will be destroyed because shelters just don't havethe funds to pay for even a $100 treatment. Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you thathave never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animalbeing "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 themfreak out and put the brakes on when we get to the door. Itmust smell like death or they can feel the sad souls thatare left in there, it's strange, but it happens withevery one of them.

Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vettechs 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 lethaldose of the "pink stuff".

Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrainedand jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg andbeen covered with the resulting blood and been deafened bythe yelps and screams.

They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimesthey spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate onthemselves.

When it all ends, your pet's corpse will be stackedlike firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of theother animals that were killed waiting to be picked up likegarbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Renderedinto pet food? You'll never know and it probablywon't even cross your mind. It was just an animal andyou can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawlingyour eyes out and can't get the pictures out of yourhead I deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that itwill always be there unless you people make some changes andrealize that the lives you are affecting go much furtherthan the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in sheltersand only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life Ican but rescues are always full, and there are more animalscoming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this: DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILESHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is whatit is.

I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind aboutbreeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, orbuying a dog.

I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say"I saw this and it made me want to adopt." THATWOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT!

PLEASE FORWARD, CROSS POST, CIRCULATE TO YOUR FRIENDS.FAMILY, & CONTACTS!!!!