LETTER FROM A SHELTER MANAGER...........

[Michelle Sampson]

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 one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would stop flagging the ads on craigslist and 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 it’s 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 & 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 loosing money.

When it all ends, your pets 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 & 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 US and have an impact.
PROMISE A FUTURE - and DON'T FAIL THEM! PETS ARE FOR A LIFETIME!!!

Peace and Pet Love!!

[Michelle Sampson]

First off Ginny I'm not and never have been a shelter manager. I came across this letter on another rescue's website and thought it was important to share with the public. I have volunteered at many shelters throughout the United states and currently have my own Non-Profit Animal Rescue Organization and I pull strictly DEATH ROW animals.

Now let me educate you..... I have pulled dogs and cats from many Counties in Florida, several GAS shelters in Georgia, and a few in Tennessee and Missouri. I will tell you the shelter you worked in was most definitely the exception. Most rural Counties have very little money to work with. The animals receive minimal medical care, and you can certainly forget about a bath or being taken out for walks; they simply hose the kennels out with the animals still in the kennel. I do realize that there are a FEW like you describe, but certainly not enough. I pulled a dog last week that had been shot and was sitting for 3 days without any medical attention.

Now on to the the housing market; I absolutely "get it" , I'm very familiar with the insurance debacle, HOWEVER , there are many people that simply cannot be bothered to find a home that will except pets. I find this despicable and have zero tolerance for said people. You should see the hundreds of daily e-mails I receive from these losers that just want the easy way out. Like today, the 6 year old Lab that that needs a home asap because they no longer have time for her and she deserves better...well why the hell did you adopt her to begin with? This is just a sickening throw a way society..sorry Ginny but the letter from the shelter manager pretty much represents at least 70% of shelters in the U.S.A...THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE...BUT FIRST IT WILL PISS YOU OFF!!!!!! Peace and Pet Love..

[Ginny Brown]

I created a profile just so I could comment on this. Though a shelter isn't an appropriate place for any animal I have to ask you exactly what shelter do you manage? I have volunteered and worked in shelters since I was 16 years old and I am 40 now. I have worked in them from Maine to Florida and it has never been the way you are describing.

First off let me educate you on one thing, there are many, many places that do not allow you to move into with pets. Especially with dangerous dog breeds. Its unfortunate that this occurs, but landlords don't like having their houses destroyed or the potential to have it destroyed by feline and canine friends, not to mention if they allow a dangerous dog breed in a rented house, they can lose their home owners insurance. I would much rather see these animals turned over to a shelter then simply to see someone open up their door and let the animals go or just simply get left behind. Which happens more often than you would think.
There is a reason there is a fee for turning your animals over to a shelter, it covers costs. More people than not will pay this fee when dropping off their animals.
Any shelter I have ever worked at Spays or nueters the animals and then puts them up for adoption, that is quite an investment in terms of just euthenizing an animal in 72 hours after you state.

The shelters I have worked in ALL of them, take the dogs out daily for exercise and walks, they get groomed and bathed, they get attention and they get played with. They will keep a dog for 45 days and also provide vet care if it the animal has the "simple sniffles" as you put it. The only time I have ever seen an animal being euthenized due to illness is if it is a dangerous disease such as parvo or distemper or if the animal requires a surgery that goes over the set budget for vet care. A lot of Vets also volunteer their time to shelters.

No I definitely would not take an animal to the shelter you manage, I would find a different one because if I had no choice but to turn an animal over for whatever reason, it certainly wouldnt be to that one.