Reader Liz altered me to someone on Instagram posting photos of live and dead shelter animals. The photographer describes himself as a former ACO at Ventura Co Animal Services in CA (Click image to enlarge and read comments):
I capped 4 photos from the page but did not want to post them on the front page of the blog since the last photo is a shot of a dead pet. If you want to see the photos, click here. If you choose to visit the photographer’s Instagram account, be warned there are more photos of dead pets there.
Thank you for posting. Metro Nashville Animal Control has dead pets on their websites as available for adoption. A dead puppy has been online for over a year as available…Many miles to go before we sleep.
I remember reading an article about a photographer taking pictures of animals before they are euthanized it was very beautiful powerful sad images of animals minutes before death. This is the sad truth behind overpopulation in shelters and what happens when ppl no longer want nor care for their pets.
That is the sad myth that shelter staff who don’t do their jobs want the public to believe. The truth is, there are dozens of open admission shelters all over the country where the people ARE doing their jobs and as such, more than 90% of the pets are saved. The public is part of the solution – they adopt, foster, volunteer, rescue, donate… but not so much when they are being wrongly blamed for needless killing by shelter staff.
Amen to that. Until we start to align ourselves WITH the public and stop blaming them then saving animals will continue to be difficult at best.
They get into this place in their heads where killing is “necessary” and that is truly tragic. The old shelter model of killing for space, killing for treatable illnesses, killing because “time is up” is not only bad for animals, it’s bad for people.
Shelter killing is bad for people.
Shelter killing is bad for communities.
Shelter killing is bad for local economies.
Shelter reform is not only desperately needed, it’s inevitable.
We just need to speed up the process.
Mikken – I could not have put it better. The culture is pervasive across our country. Speeding it up IS what is needed!