A cat was in a shelter. A cat needed rescue. The cat was posted to this forum by a rescuer needing help. The rescuer knew the cat was running out of time and pulled the cat herself. The cat is now safe, but the rescuer now needs our help. She needs our moral support, our experience, a foster or permanent home and financial assistance with his vet care.

Each one of us comes to these forums and groups because of a common reason - we all love cats, dogs, other creatures. We all want to do everything we can to stop the overpopulation, the breeding mills, the cruelty and abuse, the shelters filled to overflowing and the subsequent killing of animals who by no fault of theirs have ended up there.

However, each one of us comes to these forums with different viewpoints, ideals and values. As such, each of us has a different feeling of what is right, what is wrong, how much is too much, how much is not enough. But time spent arguing amongst ourselves because we feel our personal values have been stepped on and we've been chastised for being wrong is time wasted where we could be working to do what we came to these forums for - saving lives and bettering things for all the homeless.

To some, this stray cat who looks horrible, may have an infected eye, kidney, thyroid or diabetes, is a bag of bones, putting him out of his misery seems like the best and kindest thing to do. To others who have literally pulled cats and dogs from the jaws of death, this is a cat in need of someone who cares and is willing to do everything they can to help him. At the very least, should his health and condition be beyond saving him, he will be helped to cross by someone who cares and will show him the only act of kindness and love he may have ever had in his life.

Sadly, the inclination to 'label' things is easy. I don't think anyone is intentionally labelling this shelter a 'kill shelter'. As MC said, several of us have recently been working with this shelter and they are doing as much as they can and are working with rescue to help those in their care. There are good shelters, bad shelters, shelters with wonderful employees and shelter walkers who do everything they can to help as many animals as possible - they post to groups, email networks - they call rescues to tell them about a special favorite. Unfortunately, there are shelters on the opposite end of the spectrum.

But even shelters that are labelled 'no kill' have only two choices - because of the thousands that come to their doors every year. If they want to remain no kill after they fill up within weeks of opening, they must not take in any more until those there are adopted. We know that there are not enough private rescues, fosters, forever homes to ever adopt all that find themselves in any kind of shelter. As sad and terrible as it is, no kill shelters if they are ever to take in any more must adopt or must make the horrible decision to kill those they know will never be adopted. So even the no kill shelters eventually kill.

All of us have very busy lives - work, family, our own furkids. But if we are to ever make a change in what we try to turn a blind eye to (what really is happening and how many are being killed), it means that each and every one of us - our friends, our vets, our community, our city leaders, our shelter management - must do something positive to help fix a problem that truly has become a crisis - too many being born, not enough homes, too many being killed. If we truly care and want to make a difference so that all shelters can become no kill and eventually there will be no need for shelters, we must all do something.

We must educate ourselves to the situation - personally go to our own city's shelters - see what is going on, look at the statistics. Get mad when you see the real truth of how many never left thru the front door. We can donate our time - shelters are always begging for volunteers to pet the cats and help calm them, socialize and walk the dogs. We can donate toys, food, blankets - things to make the animals comfortable. We can donate funds after checking to make sure that the money we are donating is truly going to the care of animals and not to pay large salaries.

The lady who adores BACS - that is great! Shelters need people who have been there, have been involved and will let others know that they are trying to do the right thing. They are lucky to have someone like you and I bet they wish you'd bring two friends with you.

It is a sad fact that cats fair much worse in a shelter environment because they are hard to read. Cats are much more frightened by the noise and smells. A docile housecat often when taken to their vet reacts as if they are what people think of as feral behaviour. Actually what you are witnessing is pure unadulterated fear. And any cat who isn't rubbing against the bars purring but rather cowering in the back of the cage or lashing out w/ teeth and claws in fear is labelled feral and chances are very good they will be killed.

MC isn't trying to start an incident - she like many of us is just trying to help others understand what happens in shelters. Until we all do know and understand, it is all too easy to believe what we've been told - every kitty and doggy taken to the shelter will find a wonderful home - sadly statistically this is far from the truth. MC offered an invitation to work with us to change this - I hope others take us up on it.
/mari
p.s. it is hard to tell where a person is located now by area code. Cell phone numbers go with the individual and people living in Houston can have California area codes.