Friday, September 7, 2012

Don't judge until you have walked in my shoes...

I kid you not someone wrote this on FB about a VERY VERY VERY sick dog that was humanely euthanized due to it suffering from mammary cancer

"Regardless if an animal is healthy or sick we are not the ones who should choose when they die.  An animal should choose when it is time to leave this Earth."

She was referring to the fact that the very sick dog was euthanized.

ARE YOU F-ING KIDDING ME YOUR PSYCHO!!  You mean to tell me that if your animal / dog was laying their bleeding to death you and the vet looked at you and said, the dog is in a lot of pain and it is just a matter of time you wouldn't stop it from suffering.  You would sit there looking it in his/her eye, confused, in pain and just watch is suffer.  You are f-ing sick and need serious therapy.

Until you walk into a shelter and see a dog laying on a concrete floor drooling all over, unable to get up, pissing and shitting it's self and can scoop that dog up in your arms pay the fee to remove it form the shelter drive it to McDonalds for a hamburger and then drive to your vet wrapped in a warm blanket crying and hugging it the entire time and sit with the dog in your lap while the vet ends it's suffering don't you DARE tell me or anyone else in rescue that euthanizing an animal is WRONG!  Don't you f-ing dare.

Until you sacrifice your marriage, your relationship with family and friends, spend money you don't have, eat dinner (if your lucky) at 9 or 10 pm and if you are lucky maybe when you re-heat it it will still taste ok, until you go on no sleep, spend your weekends smelling like dog crap DON'T YOU DARE EVER TELL ANY RESCUE PERSON WHAT THEY SHOULD OR SHOULDN'T DO!

Being a rescue is NOT easy, it isn't for everyone and not everyone can do it.  You have to have a mind set of #1. You can't save them all #2. Yes, there are times when you say no some will die. #3. Sometimes all you can do isn't good enough. #4. Sometimes you have to say good bye even though you don't want to.  #5. YOU CAN NOT KEEP THEM ALL!  You have to adopt them out.... set a number in your head and that is how many you can have.  My number is 4.  There are 4 people that live in my house and we each have a dog.  Granted my dad has none and I have 2 but whatever.. LOL!  That is my rule no more then 4 no matter how badly I fall in love.  And trust me I fall in love a lot!  But when I get notes from their forever homes telling me how happy the dog makes them, my heart smiles.  That is the best thing anyone could ever tell me and knowing the dog is happy that is really all that is important to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

THIS! I am so sick and tired of people with a death phobia!

Guess what folks NONE of us are going to get out alive. Not you and not your pets. With that in mind can't we all hope for the blessing of a little dignity with our death. I want that for myself although the health care industry doesn't agree with me but I CAN and WILL provide that for my own pets and for those that come through the doors of my home based rescue.

I'm also sick of death phobic shelter workers. No - ANY home is not better than no home. I do pit rescue and I'm tired of shelters releasing to unscreened rescues (at least one of which in my area is turning around and selling the dogs unaltered at $50.00 a pop) and any applicant willing to pay the adoption fee. I've seen first hand the homes that many of these dogs go to and trust me - euthing would have been better.

On a similar note in 15 years I've had to euth exactly 2 dogs for behavior issues that made them unadoptable and getting a vet to euth a so called "healthy" dog was next to impossible. Both times I had to shop through several vets before I could find someone to do it.

I'm tired of euthing for behavioral reasons being considered a convenience euth. No, it's not! I can't adopt this dog out. Do you think I didn't do a ton of soul searching before I mad this decision? Now on top of feeling like crap that I can't fix this dog you want to make out like I'm a monster who just doesn't give a shit. Well Mr. Vet I think YOU are the monster because you'd rather I dump this dog (who I've cared for and tried to fix for months) back at the shelter to
be euthed by strangers as opposed to in the arms of someone he has come to trust.

On a less ranting note I want to say I LOVE this blog! You're fighting the good fight and there a lot of us out that feel exactly like you do. So often I stop by for a read and find that you've somehow invaded my brain and written down my exact thoughts. How do you do that - :)

Thank you for all you do. Please don't stop. The rescue world needs all the common sense it can get.

Bill said...

Thanks for this post. It is all true. The county shelter where I volunteer gets animals left in the overnight drop cages that are clearly there because their owners would not or could not get them euthanized. If we did not have the overnight cages, the animals would be dukmped along the road. This way, some are saved. People who have spent no days at the shelter often have something negative to say. I am not too polite to them anymore.

Last week, our director let me send a favorite dog off to a no-kill rescue. We'd had him 6 months. I had had him neutered at my expense in hopes it would make him more adoptable. He went with me to two adoption fairs, shook hands and sat for everybody in both locations, had kids wrestle him and even sat his 50 pounds in a couple of laps. People liked him, took his pictures, called for others to check out his Petfinder pictures. Nobody adopted this calm, friendly, eager-to-please handsome dog.

Lots of county shelters have time limits that would have ended his life. Ours does not, but I really felt I needed to empty a run so another dog would have a chance. I really felt grateful to have the choice for my special guy. He had to go, beause I was mentally measuring my yard for undergound fence every time I wentout the door. I can't volunteer if I have to take care of dogs at home in addition to my other duties.

If I had seen this dog put down, I could never have gone back to the shelter. I would have takaen him home if it had come to that, but I really have the larger goal of adoptions in mind. Two of our cats are not dog-tolerant, and they were here first, so that makes it easier, too.

I know some animals will be put down, but I am doing my best to prevent unnecessary deaths. People should consider how eithanasia is the last choice for rescuers. They have no idea what happens when they scatter a dozen lab puppies around the county, along with their usual three litters of kittens. The uninvolved can't imagine the numbers or the logistics.

Here's to you for saving something every day and for giving so much, too.