It’s the end of the work week and the beginning of a holiday weekend for some. If you will be around tomorrow evening, we are planning to light candles in honor of and in tribute to the pets at MAS, as suggested by reader Morgana. You can participate by either lighting a candle at home or lighting a virtual candle. If you are in Memphis and are planning to participate publicly, please let us know and get a photo if you can. I’ll put up a post tomorrow night so people who want to can share thoughts or simply share that they are participating.
“While I breathe, I hope.”
Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~ His Holiness The Dalai Lama
Update: Webcam watchers capped this dog being taken to the kill room yesterday:
I set this post up in advance to be an uplifting end of the week post – a beautiful dog at MAS being handled gently. I know we are all grateful to see occasional images such as these. They give me hope, thus the theme of this post. And yet even here, there is sadness.
My question: Why was this dog kept in a cage in the stray area for 2 days?
If the dog was brought in as a stray, she should have been held for 3 days, not 2. If she was brought in by an owner requesting euthanasia, she should have been euthanized immediately, per MAS policy. If she was a regular owner surrender, she should have been offered for adoption, rescue and foster. If there were some special circumstances regarding the dog – for example, a judge had deemed her dangerous or she bit a person and the owner surrendered her – she should have been euthanized immediately after any required rabies quarantine period, per Memphis city law as I understand it . I could sit here and make up possible scenarios all night but my point is – I can’t come up with any reasonable explanation for keeping this dog in a cage for 2 days and then killing her. Can you? If anyone has any information on this dog, please leave a comment.
I’m sorry my “uplifting” post turned out to be such a bummer.