(Please do not stop reading until you've reached the end)

Many people think that it is a positive solution to dropping their unwanted pets at the shelter. Well, think again.

Here is a letter from a Shelter Manager:

"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 breeders should come work in the "back" room for just one day.

Secondly, if you haven't spayed/neutered your pet, you need to come see what goes on back here.

Thirdly, if you're thinking of dropping off a pet at a shelter (whether stray or owned by you), why don't you come work back here with me 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 or leaving your pet to die at the pound. That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. That adorable kitten you just gave away because your cat wasn't spayed will likely end up here when she's an adult and not so cute.

So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 95% chance that your dog or cat will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the pet that are "owner surrenders" or "strays" that come into my shelter are purebred or designer "mutts."

" The most common excuses I hear are:"

"We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving to that doesn't allow pets and why did you choose that place instead of a pet friendly home?

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 s tearing up our yard". Wow, How about making her a part of your family instead of leaving her alone or tied to a chain without any attention?

" We're allergic to the cat now." So you didn't try HEPA filters, allergy meds vacuuming, isolating the cat to give her a chance to live out her life? Were you allergic when she was a tiny bouncing kitten?

" We're having a new baby/we're pregnant." Since when did having a human baby mean your cat or dog has to be kicked out? Didn't you think about that when you adopted this pet 13 years ago?

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 pet."

Yeah right - your stress is so much more important than your pet's life! The shelter is NOT an adoption facility-- it is an "impound facility" where pets are kept until destroyed.

"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 or cat manages to stay completely healthy.

If it sniffles, sneezes or gets sick which commonly happens-- your pet is killed. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel/cage 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 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) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door with your sorry smile. Those dogs just don't get adopted.

It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are. If your pet doesn't get adopted within 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.

If the shelter isn't full and your pet 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. Most cats become depressed or become fearful and hiss.

Your older kitten or adult cat will be overlooked by people looking for tiny, friendly baby kittens even if they are friendly. Most older kittens and cats cower in the corner, depressed, and scared. If they hiss or act really scared, then they are deemed "feral" and banished to a back room where they will be killed with certainty.

***Even if you left a kitten or puppy at the shelter, during the spring and summer months, most do not get adopted and are euthanized quickly because of the high intake of animals coming in daily.***

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 freak out and put the brakes on 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 cover the pet and techs with massive blood. I have been deafened by the yelps and screams of the terrified animal. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pet's corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other dead animals waiting to be picked up like...garbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into "pet food" sold in stores? 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? What's one life when there are millions more to choose from. These photos are of dead puppies and kittens in containers waiting to get picked up by the "rendering truck."

(Rendering means that your pets will be ground up and processed into... you guessed it! Low Quality Pet food!)

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 deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes

and realize that the lives you are affecting go much further 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 those amazing rescue volunteers can only save so many at a time. There are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this:

SPAY & NEUTER YOUR PETS. DON'T BREED OR BUY FROM PET STORES. AND DON'T LEAVE PETS AT THE SHELTER TO DIE-- FIND YOUR PET A GOOD HOME & SCREEN PPL CAREFULLY SO THEY DON'T END UP DUMPED, ABUSED, OR BACK AT THE SHELTER.

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one person's mind about not spaying/neutering their pet, taking any pets to a shelter, or buying from a breeder. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this and it made me want to adopt."

THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT!

Your Shelter Manager

Below is a photo of a 3 month old puppy being euthanized. The second photo is what happens to pets after they're routinely euthanized. The last two are senior cats that people dumped after 10 years of living in a home. Yes, 10 years they shared with these cats only to dump them at a local shelter.

Jan. 27, 2010

orangecounty.craigslist.org/pet/1573621535.html