Animal shelter visit yesterday

[chocolatepuppy]

I don't feel safe ever saying I'll 'never' do something. It's far too easy for me to imagine myself standing in just about anyone's shoes

It seems you like a good disscussion. I don't. I come here to enjoy myself. I NEVER said NEVER. Only saying I'd go the extra mile to keep my pets. Many do not, therefore, shelters are full of animals being PTS every day. Satistics prove that, I don't need to discuss it.

[catmandu]

I feel badly when I see all the Great Cats who would make a Great Friend and Companion.
There are so many Great Pets out there , and it is sad that we have to put so many down.
And with our economies doing badly , I have a feeling that things are doing worse for Our Poor Lost Souls

[sasvermont]

I think I mentioned in the original post of this thread, that there are some folks who have real reasons for taking a pet to the shelter. I would try my hardest to find homes for my pets, but of course, if I were ill and not able to dial the phone or con friends into taking my pets, there would be no choice but to take them to a shelter or rescue.

Many, many of the animals in the shelters around here are strays and from hoarders. Rural areas lends itself to hoarders. No one can see what's going on until it's too late. Dogs, cats.... animals in general.

I just wish people would spay and neuter their pets. Bunnies included. The shelters around here won't give you a pet unless it's been fixed. I am not one to "fix" a pet before six months, but the shelters do it early on, to prevent adopting out an unfixed pet....oh well.

More people need to be educated about how to take care of their pets. If they can't afford to take care of them, they shouldn't have them. That includes good food and vet care.

There are a few folks on this forum that spend their last dime on their pets...and I wonder how long they can keep it up before they have a real big problem. I try to keep my number to match my income. Same with having children, as far as I am concerned. You shouldn't have any more children than you can afford to feed and clothe.

Well, I trust that everyone reading this knows the difference between being responsible and not. We are just airing our views here. No one here is abusing pets and HOPEFULLY everyone spays and neuters their pets.

Please don't get angry with anyone posting the opinion. We are all entitled to one....whether you agree with it or not.

Please, please spay and neuter your pet. Unless you are earning an income from breeding, there is not a good reason not to! Be responsible and don't create any more unwanted pets in this world.

[tokolosh]

More people need to be educated about how to take care of their pets. If they can't afford to take care of them, they shouldn't have them. That includes good food and vet care.

I guess this is my major reason for thinking a shelter or the SPCA is actually a better option than canvassing around among friends if I personally needed to re-home a cat. You just helped me to clarify this In the short term a shelter looks less caring because it's basically an institution. No cat would pick it over a home, I bet. But I know they know more than I'll ever think of about what a new cat owner should know, and they have practice at matching people to cats, facilitating the transition, remembering all the important stuff and making sure it's communicated. So in the long run I think my cat would get a better deal if I went that way. It's just too bad it isn't feasible to ask a donation or fee for taking someone's cat and caring for it until it gets a new home - the service they provide is so valuable and they're taking it on. But I can only imagine that would deter a lot of people and lead to more 'dumps'.

[luvofallhorses]

An institution? The cats are treated VERY well where I work, I wouldn't call it an institution but the cats can get stressed easily and stop eating and die. We have 3 rooms where the cats are free-roam after they are checked out by a vet, vaccinated, and spayed or neutered. They aren't all in kennels 24/7.

Of course a REAL home would be better but we all know we cannot save them all and realistically there are not homes for them all thanks to BYBs and irresponsible owners. I know my limits, everyone should have a set limit being a pet owner IMO.

[mrspunkysmom]

I guess this is my major reason for thinking a shelter or the SPCA is actually a better option than canvassing around among friends if I personally needed to re-home a cat. ....... It's just too bad it isn't feasible to ask a donation or fee for taking someone's cat and caring for it until it gets a new home - the service they provide is so valuable and they're taking it on. But I can only imagine that would deter a lot of people and lead to more 'dumps'.

The only reason I would not take my cats to the shelter is this area is generally high kill. This is practice in the Southern rural areas where animals are viewed as property. I live on the county border and visit the shelter in the county where I work. They try not to kill but do not always have that option.

There is a surrender fee at any ACS in our area. And if your animal is lost, you have to prove it has been to a vet and up-to-date on shots or there is a hefty fine plus cost of vaccinations in order to claim it.

This does lead to dumping. Sadly

I'm sorry to hear about that the shelter in your description. I've been to shelters that worked the same way and they ended up being a high kill shelter.

However, the adoption area in the ACS is very clean and you are allowed to take cats out of the cage and hold them. There are always personnel around. You can touch more than one cat during a visit. I know there is an enclosed dog park to walk the dog so I assume you can get a dog out of the cage, too.

The pets are not allowed out of the hospital building until healthy, which probably helps.

This is a new facility and I think it's great. I have given wet cat food for seniors a few times.

I should probably go visit the facility in the county where I live, but it's actually further than the city where I work.

We have very few vets in the area that give you a break on spaying and neutering. Only ACS and Humane Society and one doctor do that. Another traveling vet does it also. So lots of kits and pups are born.

We need a good TNR program.

And vets only take in strays that they find.

[tokolosh]

It seems you like a good disscussion. I don't. I come here to enjoy myself. I NEVER said NEVER. Only saying I'd go the extra mile to keep my pets. Many do not, therefore, shelters are full of animals being PTS every day. Satistics prove that, I don't need to discuss it.

I didn't at all intend to spoil your enjoyment by opening this up, and I am sorry if it's worked out that way. Not that I think this should or could change how you feel, but I really didn't bring it up just to create a 'good discussion' or for the fun of winding anyone up. I wasn't trolling, in other words. I find myself having to have what you call good discussions sometimes, just because I've said something that startles someone without meaning to, and then I find myself trying to clarify or re-present whatever I said. I don't enjoy it much. I kind of do it for a living and I'd rather have other kinds of fun when I'm not being paid. Back to the wall is not my idea of a comfortable posture, but neither is chin on the ground.

You didn't say 'never', you're right, and I misquoted in a way that implied that you had. You quoted someone else saying they 'wouldn't' do something and said you agreed with it, and in the context of the whole controversy I went and interpreted that as being as good as saying 'never'. So I apologize for that. Although come to that, I'm not sure I feel all that safe saying 'wouldn't' either, sometimes

I came here for the same reason as you, but I think maybe we're very different kinds of people where pets are concerned. I've found myself wondering recently if I've simply made a mistake, and wandered into a place that is designated for people who devote themselves seriously to rescue and fostering work, and I should just butt myself out. Because I've always assumed I was a fairly average, perfectly acceptable pet-owning citizen as far as responsibility and ethics and loving my pets and all of that goes - pretty good, actually, compared with the average bear. But two weeks or whatever it's been of reading and occasional conversation here has got me wondering if I'm actually just scum in human form, a lot of the time.

Which is why I said something here, basically. I had this assumption that it was okay to be here because you're a perfectly ordinary private citizen who loves their pet. But I wouldn't intentionally walk into a place that was expressly set up for people with stronger views than mine, and then start explaining to all of them why I don't agree. I haven't been here long enough to really figure out yet if that's what I've done - but if it is, it wasn't intentionally.

[luvofallhorses]

Well all shelters are different, but we make sure the dogs and cats are healthy and will put them down if there is no hope if they get terribly sick but we do try to help them rather than put them down.

Some shelters don't even go the lengths for the animals like we do, we don't put them down if they are sick we try to get them through it but a shelter situation is so hard on cats, they are very sensitive animals and can get sick at the drop of a hat. We clean EVERY single morning for 4 hours.

Cleaning cat rooms, walking the dogs and cleaning their kennels
(and walking them all day to get exercise in the play yard which is huge.), and we do the same thing every day to make sure the whole place is clean it's never ending. Washing dishes everyday, cleaning litterboxes, etc. and tons of laundry.

Also, we have a list of cats that get canned food in a kennel rotation each day for the ones that need it. They also get meds as needed and the dogs get meds as needed.

I'm not saying my shelter is perfect, but we do what most shelters won't do. That's what's so great for having a donation fund so we can help the ones that get sick unexpectedly or hit by a car or need a leg amputation, etc.

Most shelters are non-profit so they don't always have the funds to help sick animals and they are over-crowded. Sometimes we have to say no to people, we don't always take owner turn ins as we are an animal control facility but we do try to help them re-home the animals.

[tokolosh]

Cleaning cat rooms, walking the dogs and cleaning their kennels (and walking them all day to get exercise in the play yard which is huge.), and we do the same thing every day to make sure the whole place is clean it's never ending. Washing dishes everyday, cleaning litterboxes, etc. and tons of laundry.

I tell you, I've come to understand the workload and what's involved in running a shelter after making repeated visits, in a way that I didn't when I was just a walk-in who got lucky in the first half an hour, our first time around When we got Limpet from the same place in 2000, there were no restrictions on interacting and I'm ashamed in hindsight to think how scornfully I carried on when we discovered within a couple of days that our 'SPCA certified healthy' new cat had anaemia, a sinus infection and a bad kennel cough. Can't have it both ways, but I've only come to understand recently that there is a 'both ways' to it.

[dehlers43]

I am not in the rescue/foster biz like many others here. I too am just an ordinary pet owner doing the best I can.
I'd like to put my spin on this "discussion".....
Some areas of the country have been hit harder by the economy than others which could cause people such hardship they feel they must give up their pets. In other areas, there seems to be a pervasive culture of viewing animals as nothing more than disposable toys. Some shelters are like heaven on earth for animals and others are awful. Some are no-kill but many more routinely euthanize thousands of animals each year.
I guess what I'm trying to say is this: the pet dumping, relinquishing situation varies so much from city-to-city and state-to-state we should keep in mind that, depending on where we live, our experiences will not be the same. Perhaps we could keep that in mind and "cut each other some slack"...
OK, I'm now stepping down from my soapbox.....