Giving up a pet?

[Sapakus]

Just saw this posted on CL.... I really dont think it be so easy to just "give up" your pet... I think the solution is to make people get a permit from the city/county/state before they can get a pet. and if they give up the pet, they get fined.... I honestly havent thought this out 100% so not sure if that would even work, but something should be done!!

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.

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.

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.

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. And PLEASE stop breeding!

Animals were not intended to be disposable but somehow that is what they've become.

[Emoore]

If they made penalties for giving up pets, people would just take them out in the country and dump them. Or shoot them.

[MegansGrace]

I just saw that posted on the OH craigslist too! Not sure if it's 100% true (i.e. 72 hr rule) but I felt that it made a really good point. The pet overpopulation problem is huge and really goes unnoticed. Reality checks are really needed for the general public.

There's a veterinary blog, I think it's called Veterinarians Behaving Badly, and it's a vet that posts humorous, satire comments related to the clients he deals with. It's pretty funny/REALLY SCARY some of the things the general public thinks about animals. I.e. a person calling thinking their cat was pregnant from their toy breed dog. Some serious education is needed.

I've always had a guilty conscious about buying my Lab and the fact that I really want to buy instead of rescuing a GSD. We've always had rescue dogs as family dogs and I've seen to pros and cons to going both ways.

[shaner]

Originally Posted by Emoore

If they made penalties for giving up pets, people would just take them out in the country and dump them. Or shoot them.

So true. You can't punish people for getting rid of a pet, unfortunately. What should be done is there should be a federal law (not county, city, state, but nation wide) that if you wish to own a dog or cat, you must attend a 2 day course on pet ownership and obtain a license. Make the fee something reasonable like $50. It's not about the money, it's about the time involved in attending the course. Make it illegal for anyone to sell/give a pet to any person who isn't licensed and make it illegal to own a pet without a license. Have the fines be something ridiculous like $500 for first time offender, $1000 second time, $5,000 the third time, etc. Anyone who would be a devoted pet owner will attend the course. An idiot parent who thinks it's a good idea to get their kids a puppy for Christmas, there's not a chance in **** they will take the course.

Personally I wouldn't benefit from such a course as I likely know more about dog ownership than the person who would be teaching it, but, if it meant that only devoted people would be able to get pets, I would be all for such a system.

All I know is something has to change.

[msvette2u]

Then you are stomping on people's freedoms.
Pet ownership is a right. Animals are property.
And as such, not protected under some laws - but that's okay, IMO.
If animal rights activists had it their way we'd never own pets.
There's got to be a middle ground.

[shaner]

Originally Posted by msvette2u

Then you are stomping on people's freedoms.
Pet ownership is a right. Animals are property.
And as such, not protected under some laws - but that's okay, IMO.
If animal rights activists had it their way we'd never own pets.
There's got to be a middle ground.

A pet ownership course is middle ground. It's not stomping on anyone's rights any more than having to take a driving test is. Besides, where does it say you have the right to own a pet? I'm not familiar with any such law.

[chelle]

Wow that article is depressing. Glad you shared it, though.

[Snickelfritz]

It probably won't do any good, but I copied and pasted it to my local CL. I've gotten a couple of responses telling me thank you. It hasn't been flagged yet, and it's been up for a few hours I guess

[msvette2u]

Originally Posted by shaner

Besides, where does it say you have the right to own a pet? I'm not familiar with any such law.

LOL Well...since they are personal property and you don't need a permit to buy a couch or a microwave or even a house, there isn't a law stating you can.
There simply isn't any stating you cannot.

[ladyfreckles]

It depends on the shelter. That was what the shelter in my home town was like, from what I heard from my friends who volunteered. However there are shelters that do things right and won't kill. There are shelters that euthanize the correct way. The description of these shelters as "animal murder factories", in all honesty, makes me want to avoid ever setting foot in them, even to adopt. I'd rather pay the adoption fee and support a no-kill shelter.

When both of my cats were adopted, there was $100 fee each. I made out the checks for $200 each. I donate hundreds to the no-kill shelters every year to keep them going. Raising awareness of a shelter as a murder shelter is like raising awareness for companies that use child slave labor. It usually has the opposite of the intended effect. Instead of driving people to support the company so the laborers get paid better, people usually boycott it.

I also disagree with the comment about breeding. Breeding isn't the issue. It's people grabbing pets without thinking first that's the problem. An acquaintance of mine who has loved cats for years and years is giving up all three of her cats because they're "not getting along with her new baby". People like that just don't think, and that's a huge part of the problem.