There aren't any shelter hours but something came up today that I wanted to express some thoughts on.
I have an economic geography class (which is actually more interesting than expected, due to having a young, enthusiastic professor but anyway…). Every monday in this class we take a few minutes and have "story time" where we share something that happened over the weekend.
Well I of course shared about my decision to start volunteering at the shelter and while in the midst of sharing about cute little Stuart and the other dogs, a guy in the class pompously interrupts with :
"Don't they euthanize?"
…….I had to try hard to refrain from glaring and telling him "Shut up. It's my story. Stop raining on my parade, jerk!" But I just tartly said "yeah." and continued on about how much fun my experience was.
[the guy followed my story with one of how a few weeks ago he rescued a puppy and made sure it went to the No-Kill shelter in town. Gold star for you, bro.]
Now don't take my sarcasm toward this rando to mean I'm "pro-kill" shelters or anything like that. I just get ticked when I'm interrupted, and especially in this situation because his comment took me of guard and embarrassed me. Of course I don't support killing animals, but it also brings up the question:
Do kill shelters even support killing?
Obviously the answer isn't simple. It's not as if shelters who euthanize enjoy euthanizing. They obviously do it for certain reasons, while No-Kill shelters don't euthanize for certain reasons
So I did some google-ing and what I found is a way more complex set of reasons why each type does what they do.
First off the terms "Kill" and "No-Kill" should really be "Open Admission" and "Limited Admission". [Note the change in the connotation of these terms. "Kill" is negative while "No-Kill" is positive but it's switch when using "Open" and "Limited", hmm]
[[Big note: below are generalizations about most shelters. Obviously individual places will differ depending on their region's animal situation]]
Most kill shelters have open admission meaning they accept all animals no matter age, temperament, or health, and there is no appointment to surrender an animal. Obviously, as a result, space is more limited and with no health requirements when taking in an animal, most euthanizations are done to protect the other animals from a disease spreading. Euthanizations also occur due to limited space: less adoptable animals are put down to make room for more adoptable ones.
Now on the other hand there are No Kill shelters, who mostly use limited admission. This means that the type of animals they allow in are the more adoptable ones. Meaning they most likely do not accept older, temperamental and unhealthy animals. And appointments must be made if an animal is to be surrendered.
So yeah, the guy in class was able to take the puppy he found to a No-Kill shelter where it was accepted because is was a puppy, and has high probability of being adopted quickly. Now if he had found an older dog with, say a broken foot, the No-Kill shelter would have turned him away leaving the guy with 3 options:
1. keep the old dog and pay its medical bills
2. return it to the streets
or 3. take it to the Kill shelter...
My point is, just because they kill doesn't mean we should ignore them. It could be argued that more help should go to them instead. The animals in no-kill shelters are safe...
while searching the topic I found this great quote:
"It is not the fault of the shelter that the dogs are euthanized.
It is a reflection on our society,
our throw away mentality, and
the irresponsible owners who refuse to spay or neuter their dogs."
Maybe one day I'll volunteer at the local No-Kill shelter in town and see how they run things, but for now I'm going to stay at Bryan Animal Center because that's where I feel I can help out the most.
Thanks for reading my rant…I feel much better and more justified in my decision.
(this blog thing is really therapeutic!)
Info Source:
"Kill vs. No Kill Shelters"http://www.pet360.com/cat/adoption/kill-shelters-vs-low-kill-and-no-kill-shelters/eC_zmPaWME-mF0Gn95SijQ
Another blog on the topic:
"I Used to Hate Kill Shelters, Now I Think They Get a Bad Rap" http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/cat-kill-shelters-bad-rap
Big blue quote:
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