Thistlenook Northern Inuits

Responses (2)

1. 

   Dianne

   July 16, 2010 at 3:41 am ·

   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 animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life
   drain from a few sad, 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 it’s
   not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that
   there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter
   it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the
   dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays”, that come into my shelter
   are purebred dogs.

   The most common excuses I hear are; “We are moving and we can’t take our
   dog (or cat).” Really? Where are you moving too that doesn’t allow pets?
   Or they say “The dog got bigger than we thought it would”. How big did
   you think a German Shepherd would get? “We don’t have time for her”.
   Really? I work a 10-12 hour 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
   a place for her we know she’ll get adopted, she’s a good dog”.

   Odds are your pet won’t get adopted & 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 and 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 have to
   relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it
   will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is
   lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a
   walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl
   of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen
   with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the
   “Bull” breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead
   when you walked it through the front door.

   Those 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 its 72 hours and the shelter is
   full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is
   good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of
   execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after
   about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest
   dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of
   those 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 £40.00 treatment.

   Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never
   witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.

   First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always
   look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their
   tails. Until they get to “The Room”, every one of them freaks out and
   puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or
   they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it’s strange, but it
   happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held
   down by 1 or 2 vet techs 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 in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink
   stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk.
   I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the
   resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps 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 of 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 that 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 much farther than the pets you dump at a 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 everyday than there
   are homes.

   My point to all of this DON’T BREED OR SELL WHILE SHELTER 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 made me
   want to adopt”. THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT

2. 

   Margaret Fosrer

   February 20, 2016 at 10:40 pm ·

   We Northern Inuit breeders always take a dog back if people’s circumstances change and we have our own rescue so please do not lump us with back street breeders