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You can't keep your pet? Really?

Lovin2act

I gave my wife herps
I came across this on a related forum. Hit's hard but is a good wake up call for folks who think their pets are disposable.




READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH....YOU OWE YOUR PET THAT MUCH!!!!!

You can't keep your pet? Really?
~By a Shelter Director


Stop flagging pet adds

Get your pet fixed

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, any of you whom have 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 those sad,
lost, confused eyes, you'd stop flagging the ads on here
and help these animals find homes.

That puppy you just dropped off will most-likely end up
in my shelter when it's no longer a cute little puppy anymore.

Just so you know, there's a 90% chance that your dog will never
walk out back out, once entered in to the shelter system...
Purebred or not!

About 25% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays"
that come into a shelter are purebred dogs.

Stop flagging pet adds
Get your pet fixed


The most common excuses: "We're moving and can't take our dog (or cat)."
Really? Where are you moving to 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?
"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 stressful do you think it is for your pet?

Did you know...
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/cat manages to stay completely healthy.

If it sniffles, it is euthanized.

Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room
with other barking & crying animals.
It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps.
It will be depressed and will cry constantly for you.
If your pet is lucky, there will be enough volunteers in that day
to take him/her for a walk.
If not, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food
slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of it's 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.
If your cat is scared and doesn't act friendly enough,
or if it catches a cold (which most of them 'do'),
it will be put to sleep.
Those dogs & cats just don't get adopted.
In most cases, it doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are.
If your pet doesn't get adopted within it's 72 hours
and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.
If the shelter isn't full and your pet 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 they 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)"
finds a vein in the front leg and injects a lethal dose of the "pink stuff".

Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerks.
I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood...
the yelps and screams are deafening.

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 then, there's the board of directors...
who need to be paid too!

Consequently, corners are cut, & 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 their vein and let them suffer until dead.

If it were not a business for profit, we'd do it humanely and hire a
licensed vet do this procedure.
That way, the animal would be sedated or tranquilized and THEN euthanized.

But to do this procedure correctly would only cost more money...
so we don't necessarily do what is right for the animal,
we do what's expedient so we can continue to make a buck!

Shelters do not have to have a vet perform their euthanasia procedures.
Oftentimes, they are untrained personnel administering lethal injections.
So... that employee may take 50 pokes with a needle and 3 hours to get inside the vein.

In the end, your pet's corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer,
usually in the back of the building with all of the other animals that were killed.
There they will sit until being picked up like garbage.

What happens next? Cremated?
Taken to the dump?
Rendered into pet food?
Or used for schools to dissect and experiment on?


You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind.

After all, 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 &
I hate that it will always be there unless you people make changes
and start educating yourselves, your children, the public.
Do the 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've become.

Stop flagging pet adds
Get your pet fixed

For those of you that care---
please repost this to at least one other Craigslist in another City/State.
Let's see if we can get this all around the US and have an impact
 
I'm probably in the minority, but I think this is a little unfair. I've worked in shelters and rescues and watched people's hearts break as they sob, walking away from an animal they love completely.

There are plenty of situations where life throws a curve ball and people cannot continue to care for their pets. Noticed the economy lately? Almost everyone I know who owned a house lost it over the last 3 years. Almost everyone with a good job used the food bank to keep their children fed. How many food banks offer pet food, much less f/t rodents? None. How many apartment complexes, especially cheap short term emergency situations, don't allow pets? Lots. How many homeless shelters accept pets? Almost none. How many abuse shelters accept pets? Almost none.

A little compassion for those kinds of situations would be nice.

And yes, there are lots of people who treat animals as disposable and that is heartbreaking. But to paint everyone who has surrendered an animal as some kind of nonchalant monster is entirely unkind and useless. There are ways to raise awareness without shaming everyone who has ever surrendered a pet.
 
Then that message is obviously not for those type of people since they have situations that supersede what the above message is saying to the type of folks who have old an old mattress, some "disposable" pets, old couches, out of dates clothes, and whatever else that they need to get rid of.

I would live in the gutter and beg for food before I surrendered my dog to the pound. But that's just me obviously.
 
Wow. That's the kind of thing you hear that you really, really hope is hype and untrue. It's sickening to know that animals suffer like that. I am so glad for the few reptile rescue organizations that exist. That's where I got my three snakes and I feel good that they are alive and well and living with me.

Would someone please tell me what flagging is?
 
I would live in the gutter and beg for food before I surrendered my dog to the pound. But that's just me obviously.

I have given up dogs before....

One who was miserable in my apartment. She was given to me as a pom mix...she turned out to be a border collie mix. She ate the couch...the walls, the cabnits...the vinyl floor! She went to a great home who used her in their flyball team!

One was a year old boston terrier. I was in a 9 year relationship that ended abruptly. The ex did not want to take any of our 5 dogs. It was just too much for one person to afford. I gave her brother back the dog we had adopted from him, and I gave the boston terrier to Boston rescue. He was the most adoptable since the other dogs were either old or in one case aggressive with any non-family member. I was very heartbroken...but it had to be done.

Saying you would live in a gutter first is nice to say...but the reality is a whole nother story.

Disposible pet mentility is wrong...but the views of this post are a bit to much like animal rights propoganda for my comfort level.
 
I can't imagine ever surrendering an animal to the pound. I am familiar with lots of people in various rescues and no-kill shelters, though, so that's where I would go first in an emergency (after friends and family of course).

I think it would help if animal-loving people worked for more social support for people with pets. Care about animals and their people? Donate pet food to a local food bank or post your information as a contact for something more esoteric like f/t. Support shelters that offer space for pets. I'm sure there are more ideas I am not thinking of.
 
Wow. That's the kind of thing you hear that you really, really hope is hype and untrue. It's sickening to know that animals suffer like that. I am so glad for the few reptile rescue organizations that exist. That's where I got my three snakes and I feel good that they are alive and well and living with me.

Would someone please tell me what flagging is?

I think it's talking about people flagging "pet for sale" ads on CraigsList. Those ads get taken down because CraigsList doesn't allow the sale of animals, I believe.
 
I had to give up a Shiba Enu I adopted a few years back as she became way to aggressive with my other two dogs and one stopped eating due to it. So I know very well of the pains of finding a new home for an animal. Thankfully she went to an awesome Shiba rescue that kept me in the loop the entire time and sent me pics of her with her new family. There are exceptions for everything in life but I stand by my statement that the gutter life would come before my dog was sent to a city kill shelter/pound. That is my statement and my reality.

I think the message above is extreme so it will get folks thinking before they haphazardly grab up and buy a cute pet they know nothing about and tell themselves if it doesn't work out then the city will come to the rescue and take care of it for them.
 
I think the message above is extreme so it will get folks thinking before they haphazardly grab up and buy a cute pet they know nothing about and tell themselves if it doesn't work out then the city will come to the rescue and take care of it for them.

I think the message lacks compassion and is poorly directed. It would be better to rewrite it with a lot less aggression, and get it published in popular magazines, or posted in areas where the average teen or young adult reads.

Most here already cherish their pets as family members and would never consider a pound or a kill shelter. Preaching to the choir, you know?
 
I always believe that rehoming an animal is better than neglecting it - whether through choice or accident. I've rehomed Corns before now and I don't regret it for an instant - at the time, it was best for them and best for me. Having said that, I'm sure that I'd make efforts to find the very best home or shelter available. But if all you have available to you is the city pound or shelter, then that has to be better odds than keeping an animal and having it slide into a dreadful state.

I agree that the tone of the circulating text in the original post, is inappropriate. It's essentially attacking people who already care. Anyone who doesn't care (presumably its target audience) either won't bother reading it, or will read it and ignore it. I can't see it changing anything, apart from making good people feel guilted into keeping animals they can no longer care for properly.
 
I think the message lacks compassion and is poorly directed. It would be better to rewrite it with a lot less aggression, and get it published in popular magazines, or posted in areas where the average teen or young adult reads.

Most here already cherish their pets as family members and would never consider a pound or a kill shelter. Preaching to the choir, you know?

No way. I think alot of folks need to hear things like this rather than continue thinking that it's no big deal to give up your pet to the city pound at the first sign of tough times. You may need to be made to feel good about the world and don't like being made to feel uncomfortable, but truths need to be told. I am glad whomever wrote that message took the time to do so. I know too many people who think of a dog or cat as just a thing they can get rid of later when it become an inconvenience upon their bubble world of comfort and happiness.

And why are you taking it so personal anyhow as if I am preaching this to you and the choir in here? Makes me think you feel guilty or something. I didn't post it to preach to people here in the slightest. I hope there are none in here that would do anything like that. It is simply a great write up I found that I know most of the animal lovers in here will appreciate.
 
Certainly an eye opener... I think people should, no matter what pet they want, do a ton of research first. Yes, every little animal or reptile etc. is cute when a baby, but you have to think about how big it is going to get. Can you really handle that size or type of animal.

At one pet store here, they have Red Tail Boas for sale. Sure they are small now and cute, but you have got to think about how big they are going to get once it is full-grown. Can you really fed and handle a snake that is going to get that big? I know for one thing, I couldn't. I see so many ads for snakes that are full-grown.

Here's a learning experience, I want to share with you.
My daughter wanted one of those Red Tail Boas... I asked her, "What are you going to do when it gets too big. Do you realize how big it is going to get?" She said "When it gets too big we would just find a home for it." I told her "NO." "You can't do that. If you adopt an animal you have to take care of it, you just don't get rid of it because it is too big for you to handle." "Yes, they are nice when they are small, but that type of snake is going to get big, really big." I made her do some research on the RTB and she realized I was right. You have to read all you can about the animal or reptile and really think about it long and hard and make an informed decision. I never wanted one of those snakes anyways... I wanted her to understand that you just don't buy something on the spur of the moment and then give it up when you get tired of it or can't handle it anymore. I did research and we ended up buying a little Ball Python, in which we are very happy with... We also did a lot of research before purchasing our two corns. We got Buddy first, but we couldn't wait for him to grow up, so we adopted Ari as he needed a home. We are his third and final home. Ari was shoved around to different family members due to them being bored with him... He wasn't treated very well either.He was also housed with another corn in the same viv, fed live rats in which he has numerous scars from being fed live prey. I fell in love with him when I saw him and eventually took him home. He has a wonderful family now who love and care for him. He's fed properly (F/T) and gets lots of daily handling, except when he's in shed or digesting his meal.

I am new to this snake thing, and I must say everyone is right. Snakes are addictive. Only after a few months, we now have three snakes. Love them to death. If I had known how great they were, I probably would have gotten some sooner, but as you know I was terrified of them... My, how that has changed. I couldn't see myself without them... I can certainly see people can have more than one or two.

I hope before people think of bringing an animal into their lives, they do research first and find out all they can so that they can make a great informative decision on whether this is the right pet for them...
 
I think alot of folks need to hear things like this rather than continue thinking that it's no big deal to give up your pet to the city pound at the first sign of tough times.
But people with that attitude either won't read the post, or won't be changed by it.

And you need to bear in mind that "tough times" these days sometimes mean choosing between whether your pet eats, or whether your kids eat. It happens when the "bubble world of comfort and happiness" has already burst. I'm sorry, but animals sometimes simply *do not* come first. No parent would prioritise pets over children - there are perfectly valid reasons for rehoming animals. Recognising when you can no longer care for a pet, for whatever reason, is a valid and vital thing.
 
No way. I think alot of folks need to hear things like this rather than continue thinking that it's no big deal to give up your pet to the city pound at the first sign of tough times. You may need to be made to feel good about the world and don't like being made to feel uncomfortable, but truths need to be told. I am glad whomever wrote that message took the time to do so. I know too many people who think of a dog or cat as just a thing they can get rid of later when it become an inconvenience upon their bubble world of comfort and happiness.

And why are you taking it so personal anyhow as if I am preaching this to you and the choir in here? Makes me think you feel guilty or something. I didn't post it to preach to people here in the slightest. I hope there are none in here that would do anything like that. It is simply a great write up I found that I know most of the animal lovers in here will appreciate.

I'm in agreement with Bitsy above. I think the tone is poor and that it misses it's mark if the author really wants to reach those who don't understand what can go on behind the scenes when animals are surrendered.

My intent is not at all to defend disposing of animals irresponsibly. My intent is to discuss a better way to reach those who are making poor choices regarding acquiring and disposing of living, breathing animals.
 
I couldn't read the whole article, but what I saw I agree with. I did work at an animal shelter for a year. I am sorry but this message was perfect if you think they should make it less harsh go work at a shelter for a while see if you feel the same way. I live in a college town, and after the end of every semester around graduation we got an influx of disposable pets that are about 3 years old if we didn't get them they would just dump them somewhere.

The people that get offended by this are the people that have disposable pets, or they won't get them spayed/neutered and just don't care.
 
I couldn't read the whole article, but what I saw I agree with. I did work at an animal shelter for a year. I am sorry but this message was perfect if you think they should make it less harsh go work at a shelter for a while see if you feel the same way. I live in a college town, and after the end of every semester around graduation we got an influx of disposable pets that are about 3 years old if we didn't get them they would just dump them somewhere.

The people that get offended by this are the people that have disposable pets, or they won't get them spayed/neutered and just don't care.

Anyone who doesn't think this is a useful post is a bad pet owner? Thumbs down.
 
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