From a rescuer
From:
Mindy
Date:
16/12/2007
As many of you know, I get multitudes
of bulletins and emails regarding homeless animals in animal control shelters
all over the country. Most are urgents that need out in a matter of hours. I
open everyone of them and repost everyone of
them.
I look at all the little sad, scared
faces. I see the broken souls of older animals abandoned by their owners of many
years. I see the hopeful pleading in the eyes of puppies wanting to play and not
being able to. I see the depressed that have given up on life. I see puppies
that are born and live in a cage until they die at a few weeks old, never
knowing what a home or love was.
This is not easy for me. My days are
filled with tears, many times over. It never ends. Rarely do you get an email
back that these beautiful babies have made it out
safe.
My soul is troubled. It feels like a
tornado is constantly stirring in my stomach. I have no true peace where I can
sit down for one minute and forget the horror of the cruelty I have seen people
do to animals or the fact that in the morning, the babies in the bulletin I just
posted will be dead if no one helps. I can not go to sleep at night without
praying to God that these precious angels die peacefully in the morning. My soul
is troubled because I am not big enough to change it–but so many choose to keep
their blinders on about life and only chose to recognize what is happening in
their span of vision.
What happens in front of most peoples
eyes is what they deem to be
reality.
I am ashamed to call myself human. I
am not bragging here, but my IQ is far higher than the average human so maybe
that gives me an advantage. Or maybe it hinders me. Maybe ignorance truly is
bliss. For most of the people on my buddy list, it really
is.
When the holidays are here, as they
are now, I see so many people wondering around in their fantasy induced
happiness as if all is right with the
world.
Well, it’s not. There is alot wrong
with it. Alot that people like you have created. Animals dying at the rate of
35,000 a day in shelters. Most rural shelters running a 90% + kill rate per
year. This is because people look at animals as accessories. They purchase or
adopt on a whim…
Then they leave the people like me and
the guys that work diligently posting and cross posting bulletins on myspace and
other sites to place their pets in homes because you just “didn’t have the time
for it” or “they are moving and can’t take it” or “they have a new baby
coming”.
All are lame excuses. If you take the
responsibility to adopt a pet, know it is like a child. You are the parent. A
bond exists. The animal has no one but you. Loves no one more than it loves you.
It was not given the ability to chose its owner, because had it, it would
undoubtedly have made a questionaire, checked vet references, interviewed
previous and current pets as to your parenting skills, play ability, longevity
of interest in new things, and devotion to
responsibilities.
It would likely have added a yes or no
check box after the two most important
questions:
Will you keep me and love me the same
even if you have children, accidentally or planned? yes or
no
If you move, will you be willing to
pay the extra $300.00 non-refundable pet deposit and ensure that a future
residence will allow and welcome me onto the premises? yes or
no
People that can not honestly answer
these questions with a yes, have no reason to have an animal. Adoption for a
short time is irresponsible. If you want to enjoy an animal on a short term
basis, look into fostering because it is people like you that ruin my
holidays.
When you think about what Santa is
bringing the kids…I am the one thinking “Can I make room for one more for
Christmas?”
When you are running your credit cards
up to the max on irrelevant Christmas gifts, I will miss Christmas because I
will be on the computer networking your dogs and the puppies that you have
allowed it to create.
When you are outside giving the stray
kitten Turkey scraps, I will be outside catching them and having them
spayed.
All because irresponsible people keep
adding to the misery of these animals. You take them to the shelter and dump
them off with the sincere belief that because they are smart, cute, and funny
they will be adopted no matter how big they
are.
WRONG! The go into shock and many are
not their normal selfs, so those cute tricks you taught him are forgotten when
he is cowered in a corner. That cuteness is turned into fear with other dogs
barking non-stop all around him. The pretty coat no longer is, as him dances
around in his own feces all night until the shelter crew gets
there.
If he is grown, completely give up
that hope. Grown dogs aren’t cute and fluffy like they were WHEN YOUR KIDS
PICKED THEM OUT.
You dump them at the shelter because
they are old and you know they are going to die soon. You would rather it be
quick and you not know when or have to look at the deed being
done.
Your dog dies, often a painful death
because if the shot cannot be administered straight into the blood flow, it
causes a prolonged death. This is not uncommon in shelter animals because of the
tremendous fear that the shelter creates. Nice animals turn mean. They struggle.
The administrators jab them where ever they can just to get it over
with.
Some should be so lucky. Gassing
shelters are far worse. It can take up to 30 minutes to die. This is especially
true if the animal has contracted any lung ailment while there. This creates a
prolonged death because they can’t breath enough in to kill them quickly. No
matter how you look at it, these guys suffer tremendously, sick or not, as they
look out the window of the gas chamber, begging to be let out, fearful, and
alone…their last sight is the person who is killing
them.
I cannot fathom how people can look
into the eyes of an animal and think that they are disposable. Daisey is 13
years old. If anything happened to her, I would absolutely die. I know it is
coming, and coming soon. I don;t want to watch her leave me…she has been my best
friend through the good and bad.
When I was homeless in Boston after my
husband broke my nose, Daisey and I slept in park together. When I picked her up
from the babysitters, she knew we weren’t going to a “home” but she was all wags
and kisses, just because she had me. When I was at work during the day, I would
call to check in on her and make sure she was happy. When I was at school, I
would leave class 15 minutes early just so I could go get my baby and spend time
with her.She was the only reason I didn’t blow my head off. She was my sanity in
the most turbulant time in my
life.
No, I don’t want to watch her die.
But, I be damned if I will go dump her off in a shelter because I am so selfish
that I don’t want to watch. She will die in my arms, and I will die with her,
but she will be with the person that she loves most in the world. That was the
responsibility I took when I took
her.
Animals are not to be mistreated. Not
to be adopted because they are cute. Not to be adopted for short term. Not to be
abandoned by you when they have been loyal to your for
years.
Just remember this holiday that
animals are work. They make a cute Christmas present…but most end up back in the
shelter at the beginning of the year. While you are returning them, I will be
diligently looking for homes for
them.
If you can’t take care of it forever,
you don’t need it for any length of time. If you can’t spay or nueter it so that
we don’t have to clean up your mess, then you don’t need
it.
I’m tired of looking into the eyes of
these old souls and seeing fear, confusion, depression, and a sense of knowing
that they are nothing but a number in a cage. Stop being ignorant, don’t take a
pet unless you can spay it, love it, and keep it
forever.