06/30/2025
Ever have those days where it feels like thereās a full moon, but thereās not? For those of you who are not in animal welfare (and maybe more importantly for those of you who are and making comments like this), please take note. Burnout and compassion fatigue are absolutely real things! A post I made earlier in an attempt to help an animal that isnāt even one of ours- received multiple hateful comments. If I have learned nothing else from rescue, itās that you will never be good enough for everyone. People always expect you to do more. Everyone has an opinion, but never a legit solution. If you think you can do better, please start your own rescue- we donāt have enough. Please remember we are all on the same team with the same goals. Just because opinions differ, doesnāt mean people are enemies, so letās not treat them as such. Everyone making comments is well intending. But perhaps we donāt hear how we come across? Or maybe we donāt know a better way? Below are several comments, along with answers as to why those comments are not helpful. Below that is a list of things that are truly helpful. Yes, we understand these people are the few, and not the majority- but it doesnāt make it any less tiresome.
āā....Whichever organization was responsible for letting her be adopted should be hung by their thumbs....you are responsible for her being euthanizedā
šš¼Municipally operated shelters do not always have the luxury of denying an adoption. This is not the staffs fault. This is likely a process and procedure they are required to follow. Secondly, some animals that are harder to adopt out- you have to truly weigh options. Sometimes all you can do is provide all the information to the adopters, but some people are determined to try against all the best advice. And sometimes, that could be that animalās absolute best opportunity. In a nation in crisis where thereās more animals needing homes, than homes open to taking animals in- we donāt live in an ideal world. We live in a world where we make the best choices with the knowledge we have in that moment.
āāMaybe shelters should be like human adoption agencies they go look at the home look at everything to make sure everything will be o.k. and also if your going to be a shelter you should not be killing dogs if you can't take care of the animals properly you shouldn't be a shelterā
šš¼In an ideal world this would be great! We donāt currently live in that world. There are currently more animals needing homes, than homes available. We need to make adopting animals easier for people to choose, not harder. It would be time prohibitive keeping animals in shelters longer, and animal welfare agencies are already operating on fines for budgets- where would the money come from? You can also say to use volunteers, but youād have to have reliable, consistent volunteers to be able to do this, and this can slow it down even further keeping animals out of a home for even longer periods of time. And if it isnāt mandated for every animal welfare agency, adopters will just go to the organizations that donāt require it, because people are inpatient.
āāQuit murdering these animals for human stupidity.ā
šš¼While human stupidity may be to blame, it isnāt in the same context in which this comment is referring. Blame the people who failed these animals and they ended up in a shelter in the first place. Blame people for not spaying/neutering or microchipping their animals. Blame law makers who donāt understand the state of animal welfare right now, and not implementing mandatory spay and neuter laws.
āāCan't she be taken out of the shelter into yours and assigned to a foster? For the time being. (To save her life)ā¦ā
šš¼This is not this simple for a multitude of reasons. We, as well as every other shelter and rescue in America right now, are full. We donāt assign fosters. We solicit fosters through urgent pleas- fosters are volunteers, who do this out of the kindness of their hearts. Most fosters are animal lovers, and already have a dog of their own. Finding a foster for a dog that needs to be the only dog is incredibly difficult to do. If we had space at the shelter, a dog like Bendi would occupy a spot for an undetermined length of time. We have dog friendly dogs weāve had in our shelter for over 6 months we canāt get adopted out. We can help find 20+ āeasyā dogs in the same time it would take us to find an adopter for a more challenging dog like Bendi. Same goes for resources- they can go further when trying to help the less challenging dogs.
āāJuly 1st doesn't give much time for people to go throughā¦ or she could be sent to another shelter where she has more timeā¦ā
šš¼This is not our dog, this is a curtesy post. Also, we did post on her 4 days ago in the form of a video. Can she be sent to another shelter? If you can find one that has room right now, please let me know! Every rescue and shelter I know of has waiting lists of surrenders.
āāCan Pawportunities just take her inā¦ā
šš¼See above. Also- taking animals in isnāt always just about space. Itās also about only having a finite amount of time. Each animal in our rescue- we need to be able to accommodate both the foster and potential adopters. So if we have 100 available animals right now, we are very likely trying to accommodate 200+ people associated with those animals. Some have medical needs, appointments that need to be scheduled, results of tests that need to be gone over, grooming needs, medicated baths, transport needsā¦. They each need to have pictures taken, stories written, questions answered, promoted in different ways. The list goes on and on, and thereās only so many staff members, and only so many hours in a day.
āāThe adoption coordinator should be held responsibleā¦ā
šš¼This is not the adoption coordinators fault. Most people donāt listen to what other people are trying to tell them. Most people listen to react, not to take the information in. Additionally, municipal shelters have policies and procedures they are forced to follow. This is a hard job as is, we donāt need to make it harder on them. This is why good people leave rescue.
āāthe laws then need to be changed. it's so hard to see a good dog put to sleep for a system that can not protect an animalā¦ā
šš¼Yes, the laws do need to be changed. They need to be changed mandating spays, neuters, and microchips. As for a system that cannot protect the animal- do not blame the shelters and rescues. Every person that works in shelters or rescues is doing it because on a passion for animals, not for the crappy paycheck they get. This is a community problem, and requires a community solution. This is not the sole responsibility of shelters or rescues- we are here trying to clean up after the mess other people create.
āāPlease don't kill this beautiful baby. Find her a loving home. She deserves to live.ā
šš¼This animal is not in our shelter. Every animal in every shelter deserves a chance to live. Unfortunately the reality is there are more animals needing homes, than homes available. There is a lack of space, lack of funds, lack of accountability for people who fail their animals. Millions of animals are euthanized every year. This is why people in animal welfare cry adopt donāt shop incessantly.
āāWhy didn't the adoption coordinator just say no?ā
šš¼See a couple different answers above that address this.
āāWouldn't it be better to just fire the worker who caused this problem. What organization would do the euthanizing? Hopefully they lose their funding.ā
šš¼Same thing with seeing above answers in regards to the worker. But how is loosing a shelters funding going to help animals? Every shelter and rescue around works their asses off every single day to help as many animals as possible. So one animal may be beyond what they can help, so letās defund the program entirely? Please make this make sense. Want more people to start rescues to help more animals- smart people see posts like this with comments like these, and realize animal welfare advocates are set up to fail- they will either burn out or fade out.
Things that are helpful:
ā”ļøAdopt Bendi.
ā”ļøShare this post.
ā”ļøRead the post to take in the information, instead of to react.
ā”ļøRead through comments to find information thatās already been provided answering questions.
ā”ļøTag people you think may be interested in adopting Bendi, or may know people who might be interested.
ā”ļøPray.
ā”ļøBe kind.
ā”ļøBe compassionate.
ā”ļøBe understanding.
ā”ļøBe patient.
ā”ļøBe a part of the solution, instead of creating even more problems.
ā”ļøDonāt allow your emotions to override your logic.
ā”ļøDonate time or funds.
ā”ļøKeep a positive attitude.
ā”ļøDonāt be quick to judge.
ā”ļøUnderstand thereās always more to a story.
All of these things are absolutely free!!!
