25/02/2025
Powerful and important words from our good friends at Dogwood Animal Rescue Project
Please read the post in its entirety.
Some thoughts on our current overpopulation crisis from a longtime shelter worker.
I’ve worked as an animal control officer, vet tech and in shelters for more than 35 years and most of them were at what some people call “kill shelters.” Of course it was hard, but I worked there because I have a passion for helping animals who had nobody else, and because the animals needed me. I’ve spent most of my life dedicated to saving lives and working every day, all day and far into the night to save animals from unnecessary euthanasia. I helped found Dogwood Animal Rescue that has saved many thousands of dogs and cats that were out of options and has helped provide tens of thousands of affordable spay/neuter surgeries to owned and feral animals.
BUT, I also did euthanasia. I was the one who held the animals nobody wanted and comforted them as they gently slipped away. I was the one who inserted the needle into the vein and told them how beautiful they were and how much I loved them as the overdose of anesthesia did its job. I was the one who dripped heartbroken tears on their fur as they took their last breath. And I was the one vilified by people who love to point fingers but certainly weren’t going to take that big unruly, unwanted, untrained, maybe even aggressive, dog into their home and make a lifetime commitment, or even a foster commitment.
There are far more unwanted animals than homes that want them. Period.
I used to anesthetize animals for spay/neuter at the shelter too. They all slipped quietly into unconsciousness in exactly the same way as the animals I euthanized, they just woke up, sometimes scared and in pain, and the others didn’t. Humane euthanasia of unwanted animals in overcrowded shelters is a sad waste of life, but it’s far from the worst thing I’ve seen in more than 35 years dedicated to animal welfare. In fact it’s not even in the top ten.
Because shelters are vilified for euthanasia, and because they are always full, many have just stopped taking animals and turn them away at the doors, only to be dumped elsewhere. As sad as euthanasia is, it’s better than having animals abandoned to suffer and reproduce even more unwanted animals before dying a miserable death alone on the streets.
The difference between a “kill” shelter and a “no kill shelter” is not what you think. We know some wonderful “no kill” shelters, but no kill is often just code for ship it elsewhere so someone else has to do the dirty work of euthanizing it. And many of the shelters labeled “kill” shelters are actually helping save far more unwanted animals than the “no kill” shelters. It's easy to be no kill when you turn away everything that won't be easy to adopt out.
If a madman with an ax beats a dog to death, that is killing. If some poor compassionate, overworked shelter tech gives an unwanted animal a gentle overdose of anesthesia that it doesn’t wake up from, that is humane euthanasia. A gentle death. A sad waste of life, but still a gentle death, and better than the alternative. Every animal currently alive will die at some point. Will it be painless and without suffering in the arms of someone who cares? Or will it be an agonizing death alone and unwanted from parvo, distemper, starvation or being hit by a car?
Death is inevitable and while we all want animals to live long wonderful lives, it’s not death that’s the enemy, but suffering. When all the public looks at are euthanasia numbers or live release rate, it can mean that shelters are just turning away huge number of animals to suffer and die on the streets alone, after they reproduce a bunch more unloved and unwanted litters. There's so much more to successful sheltering than just live release rate. Turning animals away increases the problem tremendously, both because that animal often suffers and dies anyway, and because they produce so many more unwanted offspring to suffer and die.
Who takes all the big unsocialized guard dogs from a drug raid? Who takes the owner surrender dog that's been showing aggression for more than a year? Who takes those 10 large mixed breeds puppies that nobody wants when the shelter is already full of similar dogs?
Because many shelters aren’t euthanizing dogs nobody wants, dogs already in shelters can be endlessly warehoused and kennel stressed, day after day. Other dogs are turned away because there is no room. Because there are far more of the large, over-represented breeds and mixes than adopters who want them, they don’t move and potential adopters avoid county shelters because that’s all they have, which further adds to the problem. We recently observed a large mixed breed dog up for adoption in a crowded shelter. We spoke to the dog gently through the chain link and he sadly plastered himself against the far corner, tail tucked and snarling. The dog clearly felt extremely stressed and threatened to the point that it was heartbreaking and inhumane for him to continue living like that, not to mention potentially dangerous for those caring for him. And while he would no doubt bond to staff and a very savvy, patient adopter, there were a hundred other dogs there that nobody wanted who were up front wagging their tails and begging for attention.
We respectfully invite the shelter critics to found a 501 C3 rescue and take any dogs that you don't want to see euthanized into your home and make a lifetime commitment. You must spay/neuter and fully vet them (not cheap) or you are just compounding the problem. You can rehome them into responsible, well researched homes, but if it doesn’t work out, you must take them back. For life. You are responsible for them for as long as they live. Just pulling them off the euthanasia list and dropping them in the lap of the first person who says they will foster or adopt is not enough. If the adopter moves, gets divorced, gets cancer or dies in a fiery car crash, you take that dog back. It's a lot harder than it looks and we need to pull together as a community to support our shelters and make them better rather than vilifying them for doing hard things.
Yes many shelters can and should improve, but they can’t do it without help. Some counties have far more strays and fewer resources than others which makes getting a handle on overpopulation much harder. Vilifying shelters doesn’t help the overpopulation crisis. Turning unwanted animals away from shelters doesn’t stop death and suffering, it compounds it.
We can never rescue our way out of the overpopulation crisis. Never. Spay/neuter is the only way to curb the suffering and death associated with the critical overpopulation crisis. Without S/N, rescue is like bailing the boat without plugging the hole. Dogwood has helped fund more than thirty thousand free or affordable spays and neuters since our inception 9 years ago. Thirty thousand animals who won’t add to the heartbreaking numbers of abandoned and unwanted litters born, and yet it’s just a drop in the bucket.
Stop shelter bashing. Do something to make a difference. Work in a shelter. Volunteer. Adopt. Start a RESPONSIBLE rescue. It’s a thousand times harder than it looks.
The pet overpopulation problem is getting worse instead of better. Rather than expanding shelters we need to expand spay/neuter programs.
Euthanasia is never to be taken lightly but it’s better than many alternatives.
Spay/neuter, spay/neuter, spay neuter.
Making a difference one animal at a time.
www.dogwoodanimalrescue.org
