This is from an email that I recieved.  Haunting…

A letter from a Shelter Manager,

     I think our society needs a huge “Wake-up” call.  As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all…

a view from the inside if you will.  First off, all of you breeders/sellers, should be made to work in the “back” of an

an animal shelter for just one day.  Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few, lost, confused eyes, you would change

your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know.  That puppy you just sold will most likely

end up in my shelter when its not a cute little puppy anymore.  So how would you feel if you knew that there’s more

than a 90% chance that a dog will never walk out of the shelter its dumped at?  Purebred or not!

About 50% of all the dogs that are “owner surrendered” or  “strays”, that come into shelters are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are “We are moving and can’t take our dog (or cat).”  Really?  Where are you

moving to that doesn’t allow pets?  Or they say “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”.  How big did you

think a German Shepard would get?  “We don’t have time for her.”  Really?  I work 10-12 hours a day and still have

time for my 6 dogs!  “She’s tearing up our yard”.  How about making her a part of your family?  They always tell me

“We just don’t want to have to stress about finding her a place for her we know she’ll be adopted, she’s a good dog”.

Odds are your pet won’t get adopted and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is?  Well, let me tell you,

your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off.  Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t

full or your dog manages to stay completely healthy.  If it sniffles it dies.  Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel

in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals.  It will likely have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps.

It will be depressed and cry constantly for the family that abandoned it.  If you pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers

to take him/her for a walk.  If I don’t, your pet will not get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the

kennel door and the waste sprayed out of his pen with a high-powered hose.  If your dog is big, black or any of the

“bully” breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastif, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door.

These dogs just don’t get adopted.

It doesn’t matter how ’sweet’ or ‘well behaved’ they are.  If your dog doesn’t get adopted within 72 hours and the kennel

is full, it will be destroyed.  If the shelter isn’t full and the dog is good enough, and of a desirable breed it might get a

stay of execution, but not for long.  Most dogs get kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing

aggression.  Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment.  If you pet makes it over all of these hurdles chances

are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the

funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you who have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being

“put-down”.  First, your pet will be taken from its kennel to a leash.  They always think they are going for a walk happy,

wagging their tails.  Until they get to “The Room”,  every one of them freaks out and put on the brakes on when we

get to the door.  It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, its strange, but it happens

with every one of them.  Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by one or two vets depending on the size and

how freaked out they are.  Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process.  They will find a vein the front leg and

inject a lethal does of the “pink stuff”.  Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk.  I’ve seen

needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yells and screams.

They all don’t just “go to sleep”, sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all the other animals

that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage.  What happens next?  Cremated?  Taken to the dump?

Rendered into pet food?  You’ll never know and it probably won’t even cross your mind.  It was just an animal and

you can always buy another one, right?  I hope that those of you who have read this are bawling your eyes out and

can’t get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work.  I hate my job, I hate that it

exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are

affecting go farther than the pets you dump at the shelter.

Between 9 and 11 million animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it.  I do my best to save every life

I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in every day than there are homes.  My point to

all of this is Don’t BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTERS PETS DIE!  Hate me if you want to.  The truth hurts and

reality is what it is.  I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet

to a shelter or buying a dog.  I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this and it makes me want

to adopt”.  THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT.

We attained our second animal yesterday.  It was a little Shih TZu that had been running around the local golf course for a while already.  I called Karen and she picked it up and took it to her place until she can get it vet checked, spayed/neutered and placed in a foster home.  I’m not sure about the details of this dog but he or she will be very easy to place as it’s a very friendly small breed dog.

We have 3 foster homes!  That may not seem like a lot to some people, but since we’re in the baby steps of this process, it’s huge to us.  I’m also placing my first S.H.S. kitty in her foster home today after her vet check is done.  I’m very excited, because I know that I saved her.  Her owner gave me a deadline to find a foster home for her or he would put her down.  We did find a foster home for her, so she was saved!  Her name is Pretty Kitty.  She’s a super sweet affectionate tabby who is shy but has a lot of love to give.

Here’s a picture of our new Chihuahua puppy taken by Laury Dodge.  Isn’t she adorable?  We still haven’t chosen a name for her yet, but I’m still taking suggestions.  I have one name in mind, but if someone can come up with something better then Sugar, I’d love to hear it.  This little girl will be a long haired cream Chihuahua.  I’m so excited.  Mike and I both said that our next Chihuahua we wanted to be a cream/blond long haired Chi, and here she is!

Well, the Steinbach Humane Society is getting off the ground on wabbly legs.  We have two potential foster homes, calls and emails about animals in need and donations of food from our local Pet Value.  Thanks guys!  I also met with D’ARcy from D’ARcy’s A.R.C. who was a fountain of information and advice.  Our grant proposal is slowly looking better and better as well.  Our next list of tasks includes:

• fund raising
• getting the website up and running
• making a wish list
• finding foster homes
• promoting public awareness
• having a board meeting
• working on our projected budget
• Have our logo contest

Karen’s under the weather as well right now, so prayers for her would be much appreciated as she our CEO and vital to the SHS survival.  Plus, I care about her and I know how much this means to her.  This has been her dream for years, and she feels so helpless having to be sick in bed.
I’ll beep you updated.

Ok, here’s a just-for-fun competition.  I need a name for our new puppy, and I’m looking for your suggestions.  If you win and you happen to have a website, I’ll put a link to it on my site.  Happy thinking.

If it helps, she so far will be a blond or fawn color.

Well, it seems that 2 of Tia’s pups didn’t make it and a third one is sick and Laury doesn’t think that she’ll make it through the night.  It’s the little blond one that we were hopong for.  Laury said theat even if the pup makes it, she probablky won’t be a very healthy dog.

So I emailed Laury and asked if there was any chance of us getting a little blond female from another female’s litter.  I’m waiting for a response right now and will let you know what she says.

Well, the S.H.S. (Steinbach Humane Society) is off to a great start!  We’re organizing a fund raiser called Pets At The Park and getting a wonderful board of directors together.  We’re still working on our grant proposal and gathering foster home applicants.  We’d like most of the animals in foster homes in order to socialize them and have them getting daily love and attention.  We’re also raising awarness in the community by holding a logo contest.

We’re very excited and can hardly wait to get a building in order to properly care for the animals that come in.   Along with simply being a pet rescue center, we will also become the local animal control departmen, as right now there is one man who is the pound.  He catches animals, holds them for a short period and then disposes of them.  HORRIBLE!  We would be catching them, having them vet checked, working with any social/behavioral issues and then working to return them to their owners or spaying/neutering them and finding forever homes for them.

Remember Tia? She was a scared little Chihuahua with a lot of social issues that we gave to Laury in trade for one of Tia’s puppies. Well Tia had her puppies today. There is 6 of them! That’s a pretty big litter for a Chi. There is 2 blond females, 2 chocolate females, 1 chocolate male and 1 white and brindle male. Mike and I are hoping to get one of the blond females, but we’ll see. We’ll go see them sometime soon to make our final decision. Pretty cute hey? Now we have 8-10 weeks to choose the perfect name for her.