Stray dog and cat
Imagine seeing a Chihuahua roaming the streets of a peaceful neighborhood, weaving in and around parked and moving vehicles. His owner is nowhere to be found. Would you try to save that dog?
Now imagine that same dog weaving in and around traffic in an area known for its drug activity. Would you try to save that dog?
A friend of mine encountered the second scenario last week. This friend, let’s call her “Susie”, saw a tiny dog wandering the busy streets of Reading, PA. Susie has always been the type of person to save dogs and cats under similar circumstances. Living in the vicinity of this city, she knows there are two main animal shelters in which to take a stray dog or cat.
Susie has become much more informed of the millions of dogs and cats that enter shelters across this nation every year. Sadly, she is aware that at least half of these animals don’t leave the shelter alive.
In the city of Reading and the surrounding areas, the most popular pets that are surrendered to the one local shelter are chihuahuas and pit bulls. The other shelter has the ability to pick and choose which animals they will accept when being surrendered.
Susie is familiar with the fact that all of these chihuahuas and pit bulls aren’t going to find homes. She has stopped surrendering cats since the majority of cats never leave the shelter alive. Is that right way to handle this? Whatever your answer is, Susie feels cats have a better chance of staying alive on the streets. If a cat is feral with no marking on its ear (tipping) via TNR (Trap, neuter, return), the cat will be euthanized immediately.
Pit bulls have a similar story. Once upon a time, Susie would go out of her way to save any animal, including pit bulls, on the streets but now she lets them be. She doesn’t want to be responsible for any animals being euthanized.
In reference to the chihuahua she saw, Susie tried to help as others continued to chase but not catching the pint-sized dog. Chasing a dog will not deliver the outcome you want. Susie left the scene not knowing what happened.
Susie is tired of wanting to help the stray animals knowing the odds aren’t in favor of them finding homes at the shelter.
The following is an excerpt from a shelter manager explaining what happens to animals that enter their doors.
“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 just 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.”
“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.”
America does need a Wake-Up Call and fast! As one animal control officer told me recently, it never ends. If you make your shelter larger, it only means people will bring more animals. They’re already struggling to stay afloat in this economy. With fewer donations and the same number of animals entering their shelter, they can’t get ahead. They want to be out of a job. They want that day to come when their services are no longer needed.
Even with educating the public and kids, animals are still being surrendered and dumped at an alarming rate.
Wake Up People and stop placing the responsibility on the shelters or other people like Susie who want to do the right thing but know all too well that at least half of the animals that enter kill shelters aren’t going to find a forever home!
So, what would you do? Would you stop and attempt to save the stray dog or cat or do you let the animals as they are?
I normally would take a stray animal to a shelter. The way this is worded by you and the shelter manager makes me feel doing that is giving them a death sentence. I don’t know anymore.
You try to do the right thing but is it the right thing to do? When so many animals are euthanized, why help them by dropping off strays?
It’s a thinker and still not sure what I’d do.
‘Does society need a wake up call?
More than you know. The public doesn’t want to think about the horrors of pets in shelters, so they put it out of their mind. Out of sight, out of mind. If it wasn’t for those who choose to work in this field, more animals would by dying. I don’t know how they do it.
I would have been one of the people trying to catch the chihuahua but not a pit bull. I’m too scared of them and they smell fear.
Pit bulls don’t stand much of a chance at the local ARL. Very few leave there alive. I visit often and you see so many missing. I know alot aren’t being adopted. I’m not stupid. I also hate to see them wandering the streets. I know how people don’t like this breed. I fear for the dog’s safety.
Why do people chase after dogs? It’s so stupid. Chasing a dog that doesn’t want to be caught. You have to be more creative than that. It can’t be that hard with a chihuahua. Sounds like “Susie” is burned out from trying to help. Seems everyone who is in this business and it is a business gets burned out unless they’re a suit.
YES, SOCIETY NEEDS A WAKE UP CALL. I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IT WILL TAKE FOR PEOPLE TO UNDERSTAND HOW OTHERS CLEAN UP AFTER THEIR DIRTY WORK BY NOT TAKING CARE OF THEIR PET. I’VE BEEN AROUND SOME OF THE PEOPLE AT THE ARL AND THEY’VE BEEN NICE TO ME. I COULD NEVER DO WHAT THEY DO. IT HAS TO BE ONE OF THE TOUGHEST JOBS AROUND.
I’m too afraid to go into Reading. With crime so bad and gun shots being fired, I can’t do it. In other areas, I will pick up strays. I feel bad knowing they put down feral cats immediately unless it has been through TNR. I know they’re full but I don’t like that.
The shelter manager summed up the inside of a shelter perfectly. I think the public should know more about what happens. Like, when the pet doesn’t find a home. I’ve seen it. Could YOU be able to stand and watch as a dog is going crazy because it knows it’s going to die! They will fight you, bite you, scratch you..all to escape what the owner did or didn’t do for the dog. They can smell death when they get to the room. I think anyone who gives up their pet and their pet doesn’t find a home should HAVE to watch their pet die! You put the responsibility on the shelter. It isn’t their fault, well, maybe. There are shelters that kill at an extremely high rate without giving the animals a fair chance to find a home. Those places need new manager and workers. Do you have any idea how hard it is to euthanize a pet? It is our eyes they look into last before they take their last breath. All I could I ever tell them was that they will be free now and I was sorry. I always told them how much I loved them! Now, I’m angry. People are scum when they allow their pets to roam free and end up at shelters and don’t care if they’re there. People know their pet is there and won’t come for it. How cold and ruthless are people? You wonder why shelter people hate people? This is why!
Society has needed a wake up call for a long time. We can’t get it through the public’s minds that we need to stop breeding, buying puppies from pet stores, letting pets run around and not caring and not being responsible pet owners. Doesn’t seem to make a difference no matter how much we educate the public. They always think and know someone else will take care of the mess they created. They need to be held accountable, at least lot more than they are now!
What should be an obvious answer has lend itself to me thinking twice about my actions with this scenario. I honestly don’t know anymore. I thought I was always saving a life if I took a dog or cat to a shelter when I found it. I never gave much thought to the outcome of my actions. If I’m helping in any way to have more animals killed, I don’t want to be a part of it. I still want to save their lives. I’m conflicted.
I know of shelters in other state such as Miami-Dade shelter where they kill about every animal that comes in. They kill so quickly. There is next to no chance for any animal to get out alive and in a home. I would never take a stray dog, cat or anything there. There’s also another shelter in North Caroline that is just as bad. KILL, KIll, KILL. I don’t know how they live with themselves. I would leave the animal go and hope it finds its way home.
You can’t stop helping the innocent animals. If we don’t, then who?
Agreed.
I respect someone trying to help a stray but I’d be careful running around in Reading. The city has become dangerous especially if you are distracted. Note the blind boy being attacked in broad daylight. The sad part is too many people are irresponsible and Reading has more than it’s share. Recently a neighbor’s bitbull was loose and I’m just glad none of the neighbors with small dogs had their dogs in the backyard (which they only do for short periods). A week or so ago I saw a chicken walking down the street. This is in city limits. I was glad it was not a rooster but then a couple days ago I heard a rooster crowing. I’d like to think they are pets at best, but I fear a chicken barbeque is forthcoming. Some folks just do not understand how to live in an urban environment. As far as the cats go, when I had them coming around I had them caught and fixed and released.
We not only need a wake-up call, we need solutions NOW! It’s gone on way too long. Talking about it is doing anything. We’ve talked and talked. Time for real action. Legislators don’t do much of anything. It has to come from us. We have to think of ways to change this! PERIOD AND NOW!! Time is wasting and ticking by while animals suffer!
Do we remove posts after posting now because someone does not like it. A post that has no slurs, no bad language. Does someone read something into it that is in their own head. Are we really going to filter things in this way on a newspaper website
I love pit bulls and hate the way they are treated by people. Discarding them like trash. I feel the media does an injustice the way they talk about them. Most all bad stories about dogs has to do with a pit bull. Because pit bulls are good dogs, people use them to turn them into vicious creatures. They’re following their owner’s guidance. All they want is to be loved and do what their owner asks and it turns them into a dog that is so hated in the US. It’s the people who do this to them that need to be changed and change!
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