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Dreamer987
The VerbalHerman Munster


Registered: 04/15/03
Posts: 5,326
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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Kind of a downer but..
#5911471 - 07/29/06 09:21 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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What really happens when you take your dog or cat to a shelter…Graphic Date: 2006-07-06, 12:15PM PDT
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 breaks 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 adopt”…that would make it all worth it.
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THE KRAT BARON
one-eyed willie
Registered: 07/08/03
Posts: 42,409
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911491 - 07/29/06 09:41 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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That's fucking sad man.. Did you write that up?
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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911497 - 07/29/06 09:42 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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I could never work at an animal shelter. Seeing cute and innocent animals being gassed and lethally injected would make me turn into a blubbery mess.
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Dreamer987
The VerbalHerman Munster


Registered: 04/15/03
Posts: 5,326
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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No, i found it on the best of section of craigslist.
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Dark_Star
train driver pervading a desktop


Registered: 08/20/04
Posts: 31,859
Loc: Uranus
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911507 - 07/29/06 09:47 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Wow dude, powerful post. This has bothered me for a long time. We got our dog at a shelter....4 months old and she'd already been through 2 previous owners. From the way she acts (she's kind of cukoo) I'd say she's definitely been abused as well as neglected. Yeah, her constant barking gets on my nerves, but I fucking love that dog, and can't imagine anything bad happening to her. Just looking into her big brown loving eyes I can't understand why her previous owners treated her as they did and gave her up. Shit, looking into any eyes, animals, humans, whatever....I just can't see how people can treat living things like that. It's fucked up.
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eris
underground


Registered: 11/17/98
Posts: 48,024
Loc: North East, USA
Last seen: 4 months, 18 days
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911511 - 07/29/06 09:48 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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That is one hell of an ugly block paragraph lol (I know you didnt write it). Tough time reading that one.. anyways yeah man that really sucks. Sad story.
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rawtoxic
Stranger
Registered: 10/06/02
Posts: 2,097
Loc: smokey mountains
Last seen: 13 years, 5 months
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911539 - 07/29/06 10:02 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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I can be glad to say the shelter in my county has 100% adoption rate for the past 3 years.
But still some fucked up shit.
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HELLA_TIGHT
Madge the Smoking Vag


Registered: 08/19/03
Posts: 84,387
Loc: Afghanistan
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911649 - 07/29/06 10:45 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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Could you like... format that?
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Dreamer987
The VerbalHerman Munster


Registered: 04/15/03
Posts: 5,326
Loc: Texas
Last seen: 16 years, 1 month
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: HELLA_TIGHT]
#5911709 - 07/29/06 11:03 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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No, i didn't write it. You can, if you like.
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supra
computerEnthusiast
Registered: 10/26/03
Posts: 6,446
Loc: TEXAS
Last seen: 12 years, 9 months
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911809 - 07/29/06 11:45 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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im glad to say ive adopted every pet we own, a dog and 3 cats from the shelter, and another stray dog that liked to hangout at the softball fields. Now that i have moved out ive adopted a kitten of my own, that was about 2 yrs ago though.
peace
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HELLA_TIGHT
Madge the Smoking Vag


Registered: 08/19/03
Posts: 84,387
Loc: Afghanistan
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5911833 - 07/29/06 11:53 AM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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("At least it's a nice neighbourhood." "My stereo got stolen a week ago. Window got smashed." "It's better to just leave it unlocked." "Yeah." "'Cause it costs so much to replace the windows. Everyone just leaves it unlocked. I'm getting a place right up from here. Five hundred. Five hundred a month. It got broken into right after I gave the cheque for the damage deposit. They were smoking oil or something in there. So he tried to say it was me. I said, 'I didn't move in.' I moved in two couches." "Wow, it got broken into." "They left the- They left a box on the stove. I was watching the news and they said, 'Yeah, fire at dutt-dutt-dutt-dutt-dutt College Avenue.' I was watching like, oh my god. They left a dog-" "A dog?" "-in there and clothes." "Was there much damage?" "Just the cupboards. Then he wanted my damage deposit. I said, I didn't move in yet. The couches were fine. Smoke and water damage. The couches were fine. Where are you from?" "Moose Jaw." "Oh, is that nice?" "I like the city better." "Yep! Is it really quiet there?" "Well, it's thirty five thousand people, so- it's quiet but not that quiet." "Oh, I didn't know it was that big. Thirty five thousand. How many is Regina?" "A hundred thousand?" "Yikes. So, you like it better? Do you play pool?" "No. Not really." "No? Why not?" "I've just never played it before.") Usually five forty five is when the streets start to get normal again. Starting at five thirty sometimes but sometimes not even at five forty five. You might see them looking wrong at five forty five and wrong at six. (It is still dark.) (Streetlights are on.) (Every single person who is awake is tired. Even if they slept all day, they're starting to get tired and if they just woke up, they're tired because they just woke up.) People are rushing to get to work. They work at six and it's five forty five. They live downtown so it's not that far to drive. (Rich people live far away from downtown and don't have to go to work when it's dark. They sleep in until eight or eight thirty.) Everyone is driving fast and serious. (They're watching the lights on the other side of the intersection, easing forward when they turn yellow, going when they turn red. Because the people in the front of the lines have the responsibility of getting the line moving as fast as possible, because everyone's in a hurry. Everyone wants to be fast and serious. They all have jobs. None of them are tired now because they get up at this time every morning and they're only tired for a few minutes and then they're not tired any more and they all make sure they go to bed early, even on weekends. They're all adults. [Tonight when they go to visit their friends, one of the friends- Her brother, actually. They're visiting Her brother and his wife- will be yawning and his wife will say, 'Hehe are we keeping you up?' And he'll say, 'You are actually, heh.' He will do a fake yawn that will turn into a real one, even though he didn't mean it to. He's tired. And Her and Her husband will be like,- to themselves, not out loud or even silently to each other with a look or something- 'I woke up at five fifteen this morning, drank some coffee, got my stuff together for work, drove there fast and serious and I was on time.' And the brother of the guy's wife just has to get up at seven thirty because he has to work at eight o'clock and he works quite close to where he lives. (He manages a restaurant, actually. It's a restaurant in a large department store but the restaurant isn't owned or administrated by the same company. He drives a Jeep Liberty and he also has a yellow Japanese motorcycle that He has never seen because it's always under a big beige cover thing. He has lots of grey hair but he's young and he does stuff to it. His care is always cut and whatever else. He has a little beard thing, too. He has a young wife, who is very nice but he could have gotten a more beautiful wife. She's nice but she looks kind of- He thinks about one word to sum up all her flaws and there isn't really one. She just has glasses and kind of a froggy face and her clothes aren't made out of expensive material. But she is young and she is nice and she isn't really bad at all. She is desirable. [When He watches them sitting together on the couch across from the one that He and His wife are sitting on, He imagines how they look when they are naked and how they look when they are having sex. He decides that he wouldn't be very fatty and he would have a pretty flat stomach and a rough, hairy, good body. And when they have sex. In their bedroom, on a big bed, with not a lot of clutter in the room, no stuff ripped off the bed either, just on top of the main blanket thing. (It's one of many fantasy match-ups. His brother-in-law + the ten o'clock Global news girl, totally blanking on her name. His brother-in-law + His wife. His father-as-He-remembers-him-from-when-He-was-young + His wife. And so on. Imagining another man sort of in place of Himself and Himself sort of in place of the woman.) He imagines him lying on the bed with no clothes on, with his beige penis hard but flat against his lower stomach. His wife wearing a big t-shirt that comes just over the tops of her thighs and she pulls it over her head and- the nest of pubic hair at the cross of fat, white thighs. And so on. It's all very harmless.] Harmless.) Harmless.] Because their jobs are important to them.) (The A&Ws and Tim Hortons and Robin's Donuts are lit up and full by now. People who don't have jobs anymore. People who used to have jobs that made them get up at five in the morning and they go to A&W and talk about whatever and wear hats from their unions. [It seems weird to me that they would meet at A&W. The newer ones are so soft and retro and all nice yellow and not referring to a time that these people should be happy with. (If they're sixty right now, they have been- 2003 minuts 1965 is 38, so 60 minus 38, that's 22- twenty two in 1965. Or, they're probably older than sixty. 22 minus 5 equals- wait, I meant plus five, 27. They would have been twenty seven in 1965. I don't know if 1965 is even a good date to work with. Maybe it should be earlier or later or maybe you can't even pick a date because it's a bunch of dates mixed together. I don't care. It just seems weird. I don't know anything about them.)]) (It gets light really fast around six thirty or so. During the day it's like it slowly gets dark over the afternoon. After two it just gets slowly darker over the afternoon and then all of a sudden it's dark. But in the morning it's dark for a long time and then it's bright and papery white.) (The city is very nice in the morning. The middle of the city, downtown. Everything is coming together. Everyone is starting to get to work. [In the summer we used to cut grass at Wal-Mart on Thursday. (We had to get up at five and we were done by seven and there was a McDonald's in the Wal-Mart and we'd always go and eat breakfast there, even though we weren't supposed to. We weren't supposed to but there was lots of time. I always had a hash brown and a medium Sprite. Graham and Vince always had Egg McMuffins and orange juices.) It was the same kind of early morning watching-things-starting-up feeling. When we drove around in the big white truck with a trailer with a big tractor on it and leaning our arms out the windows and the temperature was a regular summer morning temperature. Maybe it inspired the same sort of happy, early morning feelings ('Oh, those people are working to make the world a better place. The world is where I live and I've realized that every little bit helps. Thank you for using your tractor to cut our grass. I also try to do my best to make the world a better place. But it is very difficult to make a difference.') in people who saw us. (It's a bit different in a big city, though. I'm not sure how. I think in a big city the feeling is more like fascination than whatever the opposite of fascination is. There is less kinship or whatever. [It's the same feeling as when you're downtown around lunch and you see one of the platform things that window washers use and you see the window washers getting all of their stuff ready to clean windows. Or when you see a city crew doing something and you aren't sure what they're doing, something with a manhole and a special truck.])] I think it kind of feels like the city has been shut down for maintenance.) (Last night I was walking up Fifth Avenue. Between Retallack and whatever street above it and there was a schoolbus all lit up and smoking and parked by the side of the street and a few people standing beside it. Old white men with green car salesman jackets on. [Zippered up to the crest of the stomach. White shirts underneath.] Up close: nice white teeth and nice grey hair. When I walked up one of them asked me, "How about a coffee?" "Oh. I'm fine." "Orange juice? Hot soup?" "I'm fine." "Chilly night!" "Yep." "What are you up to tonight, just walking around?" "Oh. I'm going home, walking home." "What are you guys up to?" He said something about ministering and he said "going where the Lord takes us. I'm [I forget his name]" and he put his hand out for us to shake hands. I shook his hand and said, "I'm Dylan." "What?" "Dylan." And I shook another guy's hand, who was standing near the first guy and he said "God bless you." "Have a nice night!" [The bus said LOVE LIVES HERE on the side and it was full of indians.] [While we were talking I saw two men go running down an alley toward two prostitutes. To stop them, I guess.] [While I was walking away a woman (a rich white woman with short hair) came up to the two men and there was a man beside her who was another Christian and she was crying and the man she walked up with was holding her by the arm and then she hugged the second man whose hand I shook and she was crying really hard and hugging him because she was so sad about the prostitutes and the poor people. (It is amazingly weird and sad to see prostitutes walking around in the same place where people live. Not just downtown on some street with just a bunch of overpasses and boarded up stuff and closed pawn shops with bars on the window and garages [ones where people go to get their cars fixed] and all of the prostitutes would be in a line-up and be wearing their prostitution clothes, like they were on TV. But wearing regular clothes and walking around the neighbourhoods that they live in and standing alone on corners and men who are alone in cars drive up and down a couple of streets and the girls give little waves to let the men know that they are prostitutes but they're the only people out that late so everyone really already knows. That's really sad, right? Standing in the place where you live and doing such a horrible thing and everyone knowing. I think it would be really bad. But it might be kind of normal. It seems sad, though. I know why rich white women would cry about it.)])
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blissedout


Registered: 11/11/04
Posts: 22,320
Loc: Yonder
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: HELLA_TIGHT]
#5912345 - 07/29/06 03:21 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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What the hell?
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adamj
Superhero


Registered: 11/11/03
Posts: 1,562
Loc: Ontario, CAN
Last seen: 3 years, 1 month
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: Dreamer987]
#5912405 - 07/29/06 03:35 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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I know the feeling you get when you work/volunteer at a shelter.
I volunteered at a shelter once. It was just an hour a weekend and my duty was cats!
Hah.. those cats loved it when I came into the room. They would just turn into amazing animals when I took them out of the cage. But since I only had an hour, I could only have each cat out for 5 minutes at the most. Think about it... practically 24 hours in a cage and only 5 minutes out.
There's one thing I will always remember from those cats.
Imagine this if you will. You got 5 cages in a row, and 5 rows ontop of each other. So 25 cats facing you. I had this little furty ball on the end of a stick... and I would wave it around, and every single cat would follow it with their head. It was the most hilarious thing, you had to have seen it.
But anyways, I will always adopt from a shelter for the rest of my life.
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eris
underground


Registered: 11/17/98
Posts: 48,024
Loc: North East, USA
Last seen: 4 months, 18 days
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Re: Kind of a downer but.. [Re: HELLA_TIGHT]
#5912454 - 07/29/06 03:55 PM (17 years, 6 months ago) |
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And I thought I had seen some bad ones before... that one takes the cake.
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