10/05/2024
We are going to post this AGAIN! THIS IS ALL TRUE! You can’t surrender YOUR pet to the animal shelter and think we have a magic wand to find YOUR pet a home, when the shelter is already busting at the seams with dogs and cats that we can’t find homes for or get rescues to pull!!!
Owner surrenders do NOT do well in shelters. They stress, they don’t eat, and their temperament can sometimes change due to the environment they have been left in. Sometimes these animals completely shut down no matter how hard the staff tries to make them comfortable.
Radford shelter posted this a few weeks ago! Every word rings true for ALL shelters right now!
We really need to step up in the animal welfare world and encourage more responsibility. They are living creatures that experience emotions and shouldn't be treated as they are throwaway or disposable.
I feel its time for a little blunt honesty.
We are full, we have been full for months, we have sweet puppies, cute doodle mixes, very sweet loving dogs that deserve a loving home.
We are getting multiple calls a day from people wanting to surrender their animals here, even from other jurisdictions. We cannot help all of the people who are trying to surrender animals and we’re getting up to 10 plus calls a day.
We still have not euthanized for space, we are not going to threaten to do that in order to get them just out of here, our policy and procedure still stands, our due diligence will be met for every animal adopted here.
However, if we are struggling to adopt babies, sweet dogs, no aggression, no vices, just sweet dogs that are here through no fault of their own, we most certainly are not going to take your reactive dog and put it up for adoption. We have a duty to the public to keep them safe, if you tell me your dog is animal and people reactive I am going to recommend behavioral euthanasia, its hard to hear I know, but you the owner/caretaker also have a responsibility to that animal to ensure that its wellbeing is taken care of.
Bringing a reactive dog to a shelter is the worst thing for them, they are surrounded by strangers, they are surrounded by barking, noisy dogs and that stresses them, their mental health takes a nose dive and the risk of staff and other animals in the shelter of being hurt or even killed is not a risk I or any other shelter wishes to take. (shelter caretakers have been killed by dogs in shelter's, there is a real risk!).
I understand that no one wants to have the talk, but with the current climate, this is definitely a talk that needs to take place, for reactive dogs, behavioral euthanasia is not a bad thing.
I understand some are not going to agree, however here in the trenches, dealing with this daily, and most of the animals being surrendered following Covid, therefore unsocialized and having mental health issues, its unfortunately something that needs to be addressed.
STEP UP PEOPLE! Be a responsible pet owner, it’s a minimum 10-15 year commitment!!!
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