02/05/2025
Thank you Trish McMillan for sharing this post from the Saving Grace Animal Rescue of Maryland.
It's a hard read, a harder discussion, and an even harder reality. If you work and/or volunteer in animal welfare and rescue please be kind to yourselves...yours is a hard calling. We, at Procyon, consider it a privilege to be able to assist you in your mission to help animals who cannot advocate for themselves.
I am prepared to take some heat for this, you know-as the black sheep of the rescue community, but after our little (back yard) breeder bash this morning, let us now turn our attention to how the "no kill movement" and the warehousing of dogs, specifically dangerous ones, has contributed to our current shelter issues. Yes in fact I, as a rescue, am partially blaming rescues and shelters for contributing to our current crisis. So let me explain.
What exactly does "no kill" mean and why is it such a glorified status to have as a shelter? Well, it simply means that the shelters have a live release rate of 90% or more, allotting for a small margin of euthanasia cases for extreme illness or aggression. It means that they are not euthanizing for space or treatable issues, and in many cases are able to procure additional funding. It also often means they are turning animals away. When we think of the shelters with poor reputations, they often have very high euthanasia rates, and those we praise "kill" less animals. But at what cost? Is it fair for animals to live in kennels for years, at the sake of maintaining that status? Are we pushing animals who really aren't great candidates off on adopters, or rescues, to keep those stats up? Are we considering quality over quantity?
When a rescue pulls a dog from a shelter with a known bite history, places them into a kenneled boarding situation for months on end, continues to promote them for adoption against trainer advice, even after biting a guest at an event, and several months later he ultimately attacks his caregivers, did they really rescue that dog? How many dogs could they have saved with the time and resources poured into one they already knew wasn't adoptable? Were the multiple lives this dog endangered, worth saying "we saved them when no one else would"?
When a rescue is busted for hoarding animals in deplorable conditions, deceased puppies found on the premises due to a parvo outbreak, and the confiscation of these dogs led to shutting down a county shelter for days, who did they actually save?
When a rescue is busted and over 100 dogs confiscated once again shutting down a different county shelter due to distemper, only for the shelters that sent those dogs to the rescue to find out there are dozens upon dozens of dogs unaccounted for, and presumed dead, is it safe to call that rescue? I mean, they saved hundreds right, but at what cost?
When a rescue imports puppies from across the country, fails to put them in quarantine because we need a quick turnover rate, only to adopt them out and then find out they have rabies, thus forcing the puppies to be confiscated from adopters and destroyed, is this rescue?
We all see the never ending LAST CALL, FINAL DAYS, DEAD DOG WALKING posts, and frankly- they are tacky and designed to target the wrong people. I receive dozens of messages from people asking us to save animals from euthanasia lists from MD to CA, and every state in between. We are ALL in crisis. ALL OF US. Even our shelters here, right in your own backyard. When you message me and ask "where is a no kill shelter I can surrender my pet too" my answer is there are none. We need to do away with this terminology and face reality.
The save them all mentality and judgement from the public (and pressure from other shelters and rescues) has led us to placing unsafe animals in homes. It has led us to overextend ourselves, taking on more animals than we have time or space to properly care for, often warehousing animals in unsafe conditions. It has led us to try and "quick flip" to make space for more, forgoing quarantines and behavioral evaluations. It has led us to lose sight of what adoption should really be about, which is finding the best families for our animals, and the best animals for our families.
Please stop bashing shelters for being forced to euthanize. Your energy would be better spent on trying to help reduce the population, BEFORE it hits the shelters. Please stop calling us baby killers, when we promote spay abort. Please stop trashing rescue orgs who responsibly perform behavioral euthanasia. Please stop thinking we can save them all, because we cannot, and nor should we. And please stop trying to guilt us into taking unsafe animals into rescue because you believe they all deserve a chance. I don't see you, or anyone else lining up to adopt dog aggressive dogs or dogs with bite histories, or feral cats, so I am not sure why you think MY home is a suitable place for them either. We all need to do better.
And for the love of dog, please stop calling everything from the shelter a lab mix.
Certified Professional Trainer with almost 20 years of experience helping dogs with people problems
