I COULD NEVER WORK HERE!
When
you say to an animal shelter or humane society employee "I
could never do your job, it would break my heart, I love animals
too much" or words to that effect, it sounds like you are
saying:
-- That we don't also love animals, even though we've taken
minimum wage (or no wage) jobs in order to work with homeless
animals. For many of us it is our life's work.
-- That we, somehow, don't get our hearts broken.
-- That in order to do this job one has to be either cold hearted
or an animal hater.
Your declaration leaves us with some questions.
If you can't do this job, who will? Someone must.
When we've euthanized the 500th kitten for the month, because
there are no homes available, will you take the 501st? Our hearts
are completely torn out and we just can't kill one more. You
already have enough pets? We understand, we do too. Our cages are
over capacity, our foster homes are all full. Do you have a
solution? If so, please tell us, we hate
this part of the job. Right now, at this moment, there is a dog
or cat in a shelter employee's arms and there is no where on
earth for this creature to go. There is no cage space, no foster
home, no forever home. Nowhere. It is a heartbreaking feeling.
There is a really nice yellow lab mix named Jake. He's 3 years
old, healthy, housebroken, loves kids, loves everyone! But, he
can't find a home because he's quite generic looking, he's not real
flashy and he's not a puppy ("I want a dog
to grow up with the kids"). We've had him here for 3 months,
but can no longer justify taking up valuable cage space for a dog
that's showing no signs of becoming adopted. What would you do?
There are 10 dogs that came in today. We have two open runs. Who
has to die? Walking through the kennel, having to choose which
ones have no more time is the worst part. It breaks our hearts.
If you know of a way to keep Jake alive and still be fair to the
other animals, please tell us. We've grown so attached -- it's
our hearts again you know -- they're breaking into a million
pieces this time.
Will you talk to the woman who brings in a blind, 10 yr. old
peek-a-poo with bad skin and says "Don't kill her! Find her
a good home!"? Oh puhleeeeeeze. We can't find homes for the
healthy 1 year olds; who's going to adopt a 10 year old,
unhealthy dog? You? Me neither. I already have four dogs
that were considered unadoptable. Because this owner won't face reality and allow us to euthanize right away, the dog has
to spend her last 24 hours on earth in a holding cage, wondering
what happened. But, we held her as often as we could and tried to
comfort her because you can't. It would break your heart.
"Wait!" you say, "Someone might want her!"
It's quite unlikely that there is someone that wants an elderly
dog that needs a few hundred dollars worth of veterinary care. Our crystal ball is broken, but if you
think she can find a home and you want to save her please go back
to the kennel and pick which young, healthy dog has to give up its space here.
OK. You can't work at a animal shelter. Not everyone can. Can you
help in other ways? Can you buy us a bag of food when you buy for
your own pet? Can you come in and talk to the cats? Walk the
dogs? We are so busy running the place that we often don't have
time. When you come back next week we won't tell you the final
disposition of your favorite one if you don't want to know. We
are, after all, a compassionate group and we understand about
broken hearts. Could you go to your friend or neighbor and offer
to get their pet spayed/neutered? Tell your friend about us and
how we get our hearts broken every day. Could you trap one of
those stray cats in your neighborhood and get it vaccinated and
neutered? That will be one more free-roaming cat that's out of
the reproduction loop.
Maybe you could send a small check to say "Thank
you". Anything at all would help.
I know you mean well. I know you mean to say "I couldn't
work here because my own emotions get in the way of doing what
has to be done for the animals, thank you for doing it."
©1993 Debbie McKean
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02/22/06
