Buzz Kill for the Holidays

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

A friend posted this on her FB wall. I thought about not posting, it's the holidays after all, we don't need sadness. But the awful truth is this could happen by February to some unsuspecting family and worse, some adorable, helpless little puppy. This place is after all a place to come for knowledge.

My biggest wish this year is that no dog, not just doodles, finds a short lived home and ends up somewhere like this.

The shelter manager's letter:

"I am posting this (and it is long) because 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.
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 you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore.

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.

No shortage of excuses
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?

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 bringing her inside, 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. Dead pet walking!

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 about 25 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 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, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don't get adopted.
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, though not for long. Most pets 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 shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

The grim reaper
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. That is, until they get to "The Room".

Every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks 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 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They 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 it's leg. 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.
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? 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?

Liberty, freedom and justice for all
I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head. I do everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.
My point to all of this is DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to - the truth hurts and reality is what it is.
I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this thing on craigslist and it made me want to adopt".
That would make it all worth it."

Author unknown

[F, Calla & Luca]

Oh Lisa, this is too tragic.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, it's a buzz kill, but it's all true, every word of it.

Thanks for posting it, Lisa.

[Carol and Banjo]

"Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year".....staggering.     I only know some of these facts because of Doodle Kisses.  Before belonging to this group I had NO idea of the magnitude of this tragedy.   If we ever get another dog it will most definitely be a rescue baby.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It's so heartbreaking....thanks for sharing, Lisa.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Well, this made me cry. I feel sick!

[BG and Gavin]

Thanks you to everyone on this site that stuck it out, even in the rough, busy, sick, expensive and crazy-puppy-land-shark times; during the times when you best shoes, or the corner of the couch was chewed because you were inattentive for just a second; during the times when you felt crappy but got out and walked anyway so you pup would settle at night, during the times when your pup guarded his food, jumped on the neighbour or peed on the floor when the repair man walked in. You worked through it all as a team. Thank you.  Now go hug your doodle.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

And thank you, BG. This was exactly the right thing to say. Wish I'd thought of it. :-)

[Pat and Traveler]

Heart breaking.  We are a throw-away society, and that goes for pets.  If they're troublesome, throw them away.  Kudos to all who understand and care for the vital, marvelous beings that share this world with us.

[Maryann,Roo and Tigger]

Absolutely breaks my heart in two, every time I read or hear about the enormous number of unwanted dogs.  Unfortunately absolutely true.  Also true is that many many shelter (is this word really appropriate for a facility that kills?) dogs take careful, knowledgeable and patient help to be able to be a happy dog again and a good house pet.  With so many people unable to raise a puppy properly or "keep" a "good" dog what are the chances that many (not even most) of those dogs would be adopted and kept, even if another puppy were not born for ten years?

Same, unfortunately is often true for children, only they don't get dropped off at a shelter, they are simply left for long hours every day to fend for themselves. 

I was going to say don't get me started...... but I guess I already started.

 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here's a statistic that shocked me the first time I heard it, but it no longer surprises me. Only one in three dogs spends his entire life with one owner.

[Camilla and Darwin]

???? That is shocking!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Thanks for posting.  We all need some reality.