Dog Community

The job of a shelter manager?

Posted : 8/3/2007 11:48:28 PM

This was a posting I found on craig'slist, obviously written out of anger,frustration and saddness about the current situation of shelters.You might cry.

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. First off, this is a forum to for adoption and/or rehoming as clearly stated in the rules. All of you breeders/sellers on craigslist should not only be flagged (and I hope the good people on craigslist will continue to do so with blind fury), but you should be made to work in
the "back" of an animal shelter for just one 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 you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it'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 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 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 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. 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 not for long though. Most 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.

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 vet techs 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 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 deafened by the yelps and
screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves. 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? 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 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 & I hate that it will always be there unless you 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 DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me or flag me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons 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 WORTH IT.

Jennifer Kiara

Posted : 8/3/2007 11:59:11 PM

This is sad. I saw the same thing when I worked at a vet technician at both a vet clinic and at PJ's Petcenter.

However, that being said...no one should be forced into getting a shelter animal. Yes, the public NEEDS to be educated, but sometimes a shelter dog isn't for everyone. It's hard but it's true. =(

Pwca

Posted : 8/4/2007 12:04:16 AM

I'm sorry, but this is emotionally manipulative glurge.

If the writer was a real shelter manager, I hope she was fired for incompetance, as there is NO need for euthanasia to be so stressful on the animals, and if things are as she described and 'going wrong' frequently, the techs need to be trained better or fired.

Cait

cassie elias

Posted : 8/4/2007 12:27:34 AM

I'm sorry, but this is emotionally manipulative glurge.

If the writer was a real shelter manager, I hope she was fired for incompetance, as there is NO need for euthanasia to be so stressful on the animals, and if things are as she described and 'going wrong' frequently, the techs need to be trained better or fired.

Cait

IMO thats the way it should be to change people's mind about buying from some random BYB.Dogs freak out esp.when tooken to stressful places like a vet.At a vet's office they can reschedule and make sure the dog comes in with a muzzle or drug to make it drowsy,unfortunately at shelters you can't reschedule.

Jen D

Posted : 8/4/2007 7:07:42 AM

I love that you put this on here, I don't think people realize how hard it is to see these good dogs day after day then to see them killed! I have wanted a Mastiff for years but won't get one because of all the good dog out there with no home!!!! Good for you

timsdat

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:25:49 AM

Yes more emotional dribble from a AR fanatic. Funny how on all these type of posts the number of animals euth in shelters keeps going up. Why just this year it has gone from 3-11 million. Gee and now the number of PB dogs is up from 10-20% to 50%. My how fast these numbers grow and are grossly distorted. What this person forgot to add is the 70% of dogs that come into shelters with behavioral problems.

ron2

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:37:32 AM

What this person forgot to add is the 70% of dogs that come into shelters with behavioral problems.

I wasn't aware of that statistic. I will admit that the post sounds a bit creative, though the intent is well-intentioned. And, I would suspect, prolonged time in a shelter could create problems.

houndlove

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:45:59 AM

Define "behavior problem" and what percentage of breeder-purchased dogs have behavior problems as a basis for comparison?

timsdat

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:48:58 AM

I wasn't aware of that statistic. I will admit that the post sounds a bit creative, though the intent is well-intentioned. And, I would suspect, prolonged time in a shelter could create problems.

Per our local SPCA.

Historically animal organizations have provided sheltering services that focus on crisis intervention: admitting and adopting unwanted animals, doing abuse and neglect investigations, treating sick and injured animals and supporting spay/neuter programs.
The SPCA has provided these types of services. However, the SPCA also has an additional goal: to keep pets out of animal shelters. To make this possible the Some 70% of animals turned into shelters throughout America are turned in because of behavior issues.

[linkhttp://www.spcafl.org/site/PageServer?pagename=who_we_are]http://www.spcafl.org/site/PageServer?pagename=who_we_are[/link]

Notice it says turned in!!!!

timsdat

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:54:50 AM

Define "behavior problem" and what percentage of breeder-purchased dogs have behavior problems as a basis for comparison?

Not my quote but from the SPCA. I would believe that behavioral problems would be a issue that causes the owner not to want to own their pet or be able to deal with it.

We are talking about dogs turned into shelters. What difference does who bred then make any difference. Also, I believe that jut about all behavioral problems are enviromentally created. I don't believe that they are bred in. If you were to believe that then you would to also have to believe in BSL as the aggression must have been bred in. I just don't believe that.

K.J.

Posted : 8/4/2007 10:55:30 AM

I have to disagree. I would buy a purebreed but I can't afford it. And you know what, this moron needs a wake up call. NOT EVERY SHELTER KILLS. I have never even been, or heard of one in any nearby counties. One of ours is an absolutely no kill shelter and another only kills for agression or extensive medical problems. There is certainly no way I'm going out of the county, probably just to support this process more. Perhaps he should stop trying to manipulate people into buying shelter animals by saying every shelter kills.

timsdat

Posted : 8/4/2007 11:09:00 AM

The "no kill" solution recognizes that not all dogs can or should be saved. They understand that there are circumstances that in the best interest of the animal it is better that they be put down. Therefore most of the time term No Kill is used a more accurate description would be No Kill for Space.

There are some shelter that absolutely do not kill. But if you dig into the facts many of them carefully screen and won't accept just any dog and sometimes they charge the person to take their dog and if a problem arises with a dog later they will turn the dog over to a kill shelter to do the "dirty work".

tzutzu

Posted : 8/4/2007 11:18:12 AM

A bit over 3 years ago I wanted a Shih Tzu. I've never had a dog before but for years had admired this breed. I went to my local animal shelter and even the ones in surrounding counties. Each time I came across a Tzu there was already a list of potential adopters with a rescue organization being the first on the list. They seemed to have a foot in the door on all the purebreeds. My next course of action was to go through one of these rescues. Their dogs are already altered and fully vetted which makes the adoption fee they charge very reasonable. Each and every time I applied I was turned down because I had a 10 year old son. I have a very nice home with a fenced yard. I don't work and have lots of time to devote to a dog. None of that was even considered. I was judged an unfit dog owner based on my having a child. I grew tired of being judged by these people and purchased a Shih Tzu from a breeder....then a second and third and so on. One of the dogs I applied for stayed on Petfinder for over a year. He could have had a home with me....forever. I have all the sympathy in the world for people who work in shelters. It's a tough job that I do not have the heart for. I would have gladly taken a few Tzus off their hands had they not given first priority to the rescues. As for the rescues, I guess that's another topic for another day but I do think there needs to be change in the attitudes of the

eople involved. The post above is sad. I feel for all the animals in shelters. Animals need better people....I am better people and could have made a difference if I had been given the chance.

2shelties

Posted : 8/4/2007 11:53:06 AM

Tzutzu, that is pretty much my exact experience with looking for a sheltie, start to finish. The fact that one sheltie I applied for has stayed on petfinder for months just kills me. I don't think there is anything wrong with wanting a certain breed, and if that leads someone to a breeder (reputable), then so be it.

That said, I would not say that there is anything wrong with adopting from a shelter if you don't have a breed preference. I have also had three shelter dogs in the past and I am open to adopting from a shelter again in the future. My shelter dogs did have behavior problems, but with two of the dogs they were minor. Leash pulling, I had to re housetrain, one was an escape artist. The third had severe problems, but I really don't think that is the norm. I do think that many of the problems people cite when turning in a dog are things that could be fixed with very basic training, and I do also agree that some problems, such as house training issues, can be caused by the kennel environment. What scares people though, is there is no way to tell in the ten minutes you get with the dog, what its problems are and what to expect when you get home.

As for purebred dogs at the shelter, yeah, there are some, but sometimes I wonder about the workers abilities to identify breeds, case in point, one of the local shelters lists on craigslist sometimes, and they listed a collie, a tzu and an english bulldog a couple of days ago. I went there yesterday, and upon viewing them, I'd say none of them were purebred. The collie was in fact a 150lb collie/pyr mix. Not that they wouldn't make someone a great pet, but I am seeing how the numbers of purebreeds in shelters are inflated.

K.J.

Posted : 8/4/2007 12:12:29 PM

I use the term no kill, exactly how it looks. Our 'no kill shelter' does not kill... period. They don't have dogs, but there's this cat that attacks you (sent a volunteer to the hospital) and they keep it. In the main room. And there's one with FELV or something like that, and one with diabetes... they don't kill, period. And the normal shelter charges 21 dollars for each animal you bring in.