HELP! Our public shelter has no money to buy vaccines in order to vaccinate pets at intake. Therefore pets with suspected communicable diseases are killed immediately or, if it’s a weekend or holiday, allowed to suffer without treatment until they die. Can you donate money to us so we can buy some vaccines?
Yeah, see – no. Public shelters have some of our money already in the form of taxes. Sure, they could always use additional donations and honestly, if the plea was for donations to work toward or maintain a no kill status, I’d be all kinds of supportive. But as I said, public shelters have some guaranteed money. This one is just choosing not to spend it on vaccines. But they are buying other things.
Ya ever notice how shelters don’t run out of Fatal Plus?
HELP! Our public shelter has no money to buy Fatal Plus in order to kill healthy/treatable animals for space. Therefore healthy/treatable pets are being cared for until they are adopted. This takes hard work and a commitment to lifesaving that we hadn’t previously embraced. The sweeping changes have been very stressful on shelter staff. Can you donate money to us so we can buy some Fatal Plus and get back to killing?
A typical public shelter’s wish list will include things like bleach, canned food, treats and Kuranda beds. I know those beds are pricey but a 99 cent jug of bleach? Come on. The shelter director doesn’t consider inexpensive items like bleach and canned food to be important enough to include them in the budget. Those things have to be begged for and donated by generous individuals. Because the director has spent the shelter’s allotted funds on items considered essential – such as Fatal Plus and body bags and dumpsters.
Imagine if public shelters were mandated to spend their entire budgets on lifesaving efforts, reserving euthanasia only for pets deemed medically hopeless and suffering. Can you picture the shelter wish lists? Kind of a downer, huh?
To my mind, the needless killing of healthy/treatable pets in shelters is a downer. That’s why I think so many shelter directors budget for killing first, and allow the staff and volunteers to beg for lifesaving items and comfort supplies later. “Help us buy vaccines so we can save lives!” sounds heroic. “Help us buy Fatal Plus so we can kill adoptable pets!” – not so much. But in too many shelters, that’s the reality behind the pleas.
Well my shelter offers euthanasia services to the public, so we need to have Fatal + on hand
(could you imagine telling a customer that we can’t euthanize their ailing pet until next week because we’re out of the meds? no thanks)
But we also budget for day to day supplies that includes things like hand soap, laundry detergent, quat, bleach, toilet paper, etc etc etc.
We don’t buy bedding because it gets donated in a high enough quantity.
And if on the off chance we run out of bleach (or whatever) we go out and buy it
Sheesh
i wonder if a local vet clinic has some expired or almost expired vaccines that they’d be willing to donate. I wonder if they’ve even asked
Brilliant post. Tragic, but brilliant.
OMG! Rarely do I run across a statement so profound that I add it to my FAMOUS QUOTES file. This one gets added:
“HELP! Our public shelter has no money to buy Fatal Plus in order to kill healthy/treatable animals for space. Therefore healthy/treatable pets are being cared for until they are adopted.”
The rest of it is priceless and could make a great Mastercard commercial:
“This takes hard work and a commitment to lifesaving that we hadn’t previously embraced. The sweeping changes have been very stressful on shelter staff. Can you donate money to us so we can buy some Fatal Plus and get back to killing?”
Um, maybe I’m weird, but if I had an animal that I wanted euthanized (which is not what we’re talking about here) I would take him/her to a VETERINARIAN whom I know would do it in a peaceful and humane manner. I guess when someone dumps their formerly loved pet at a shelter, they are asking for it to be put down, but they just don’t want the responsibility of facing the music when the poor critter breathes its last breath. It’s not an easy thing to do; I’ve been there. But I wouldn’t just drop them off and leave them.
If the owner can’t or won’t pay the fee for euthanasia of a really sick or badly injured animal the shelter is probably doing the best they can for that animal by taking on the responsibility.
When that is the case, you’re right. But I really don’t think that’s what the original article is talking about.
Our local shelter offers euthanasia services to the public–and they do it in as peaceful and humane manner as any vet’s office, with the owner present. They also have arrangements with a local crematory, including a selection of urns in different styles and price ranges, some for people who intend to bury or scatter the ashes, and others for those who intend to keep the ashes. The “basic” urn is nicer than the only container offered by one major and well-regarded private vet clinic.
You might want to re-examine your assumptions.
My assumptions are based only on personal experience and what I’ve read elsewhere. I did not know any “local shelter” did anything like that. I stand corrected, and I do apologize. Thanks for clarifying.
i think the killing mentality exists in older shelters because so many ‘shelters’ started out years ago as animal CONTROL – with a MANDATE FROM THE COMMUNITY to dispose of ‘nuisance’ animals – strays, unwanted litters, inconvenient pets, etc., the employees were hired for their ability to deal with controlling and getting rid of animals the community had turned their back on… so, while this sarcasm and moral indignation may make you feel clever and smug, it doesnt help these shelters learn better solutions and it makes their personnel defensive and therefore even harder to reach – knock it off please
The requests for donations in kind of bleach etc. may not be as silly as they sound because people are very odd about what they will and won’t donate and often will put a lot of effort into bringing “stuff” when it would be easier, and frankly more convenient, if they just gave money. I suspect part of the reasoning is that they don’t think we can siphon off bleach etc. to use for ourselves, whereas they don’t feel they know where the money will go.
If the shelter’s doing its best to save animals I can’t see any objection to using funding appeals that have been proven to work even if what’s asked for isn’t entirely sensible.
No objection if the shelter is working toward or maintaining no kill status. Major objection (from me) if budget is spent on killing and donations are requested for sporadic lifesaving.
The food I donate when I can, can only be used to feed animals, and not to kill them. It’s not the shelter staff lining their pockets I’m concerned about.
Not all public shelters are supported by tax dollars. In my county, the local open admission shelter gets no tax funding. It gets a small amount of money from area municipalities who may choose to pay a small amount for animal control services. Not all of the local municipalities bother with even that small amount.