Aside from that issue, I have another issue around the question, “What are Animal Shelters For?”

Do we exist to attempt to provide care for the homeless pets in our community alone? If we can provide good care for those animals, should we take in animals from other communities who don’t have the same resources we do?

Do we exist to provide similar veterinary care as a pet might get at a private veterinary clinic? If a shelter across the street can only provide minimal veterinary care for the animals in their care,and we can afford to spend hundreds of dollars in veterinary care for individual animals,is it right to spend the money on the individual animals when others can’t get adequate vet care, and may be euthanized because they have an upper respiratory infection?

Many shelters use universal categories to determine if an animal is Healthy, Treatable, Manageable, or Unhealthy.

Some communities demand that animals only be euthanized who are in the Unhealthy category. There is gray area in the definitions. One shelter may not consider an animal unhealthy unless it is nearly dying, another shelter may euthanize far sooner. This causes sometimes misleading data from shelters across the country as to which animals are chosen for euthanasia and whether they could have been saved after all with a little more time and a recategorization as “Treatable”.

Which animals are “worth” putting resources into? Only young, friendly animals? Is age a consideration? How much senior care is too much?

These are the ethical issues shelter managers struggle with daily, and I am plagued by these questions, so much so, that I must find a year-old article to attach my rant to in the middle of the night.

I will say, it is very hard on the people who work at shelters who don’t have a final say in which animals are saved. It leads to a lot of feelings of hopelessness to want desperately for someone to just once allow you to be the one to directly make the decision to save one animal that you just have that good feeling about.

I do have my opinion on these matters. I have a very specific idea of what should be the veterinary care provided to shelter animals. I feel going above and beyond basic care leads adopters to think we have unlimited resources to “fix up” their animals, instead of sending them out the door with some issues that their veterinarian can help with. I think any resources spent above and beyond that care, i.e. any specialist/emergency care would be better spent on animals in other shelters where they can’t even provide basic veterinary care.

I don’t believe it is responsible to adopt animals who only have a few years left and have serious diseases like diabetes out to adopters. I think It’s too much to ask them to take on, and I think often they take it on because they feel bad for the animal, not because they fell in love with it.

I think euthanasia of the old and sickly in shelters is reasonable and responsible. If space is created by the euthanasia of these animals, that space can be filled by animals from other shelters who are younger and healthier, allowing that shelter’s euthanasias to decrease. I think sharing a common goal would be fabulous, and I don’t even share my goal with my superiors, much less with other shelters. It’s a quandry.

It makes people (specifically, people on the board of directors) feel good to point to one animal and say- I helped save that old cat with medical problems, who otherwise would have been euthanized. when I hear that, I only think of the 3 or 4 other animals in other shelters that might not have been euthanized, if we would have taken the money for vet care for the old, sick cat and treated the younger, less sick ones.

Maybe I’m a communist, but I just don’t think it’s fair to let shelter animals in a poor area suffer, while shelter animals in a rich area (with rich donors) thrive. I don’t think it’s fair to the shelter workers in poor areas to make them watch the animals they care for have to be euthanized, while we, who work in a shelter in a wealthier area, get to save just about every animal that isn’t dangerous or dying of illness. We are lauded for our efforts and they are criticized, when we all do the same work and love the animals in our care equally.

“Humans hardly ever learn from the experience of thoers. They learn—when they do, which isn’t often—on their own, the hard way.”

—Robert Heinlein in Time Enough for Love

Christie, you rock.

I’ve been around other animal rescuers who were very vocal people haters (And the animals are going to be adopted by what other species?). It got tiresome. For me it was a distraction from why I’d gotten involved, which was to help and work with the animals.

The anger and venting seemed self-indulgent and ritualized (as in knee jerk). Very attractive environment for getting and retaining volunteers. Not.

I know someone here knows what I’m talking about. I would love the link.

The gist was don’t do it, it won’t make you feel better, it causes damage and those bottled up unresolved feelings are likely to escalate and breed rather than diminish or be replaced by better emotions.

I always think of it during the shelter system vs whoever (public, breeders, other sheltering philosophies). Rightous anger and the desire to punish or revenge are powerful emotions and many times I think people get into a mind set wherein it defines them and their views of the world.

Tough stuff to quit, but also not the right place to solve problems from. getting people to let go of long held grudges, emotions and deeply held, emotionally charged and fueled beliefs is going to be a big challenge. Maddies Fund I think might be able to play peacemaker pretty well.

“Every time I see someone say that the goal of the shelter movement should be to put itself out of business because there are no more animals in need of their services, I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry.”

I realized long ago that to claim the goal of the shelter movement is to put itself out of business fits right into “the check is in the mail” category… it *sounds* good, but that’s about it. And now that so many shelters are going with the corporate model of doing business, it’s an even more ridiculous idea.

As someone who’s worked for 15 years in a shelter that has undergone all kinds of changes, I have a lot more to say on this, but no time now. But I am really glad you did write this and am hoping it will get some eyes opened up.

In the meantime, I’m linking here to a story on ZooToo (which I hate with a passion, our marketing person seems to think we have a chance at winning one of their “makeovers,” so she wants us all to participate).

If you read the story and can stomach a few pages of the comments, you’ll see what kind of mentality we deal with out here in the trenches:
http://www.zootoo.com/petnews/.....eekem-1174