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Post by Tiggerwoos on Jun 28, 2006 17:37:13 GMT
What are your opinions of euthanasia in animal shelters? Are these places better than no shelter at all? Should we support them? Do you support them? Etc.......... etc. Answers on a postcard to the usual address! I personally have been put off by shelters such as the RSPCA who seem to frequently put down healthy animals on the basis that they claim not to have enough money and space (yet they are so heavily funded and within days of me joining up to give a fiver direct debit a month they were asking for a tenner, so wonder where all their money goes? ) I like the idea of shelters such as The Dogs Trust who's motto is to never put a healthy dog to sleep and feel all shelters should go on that basis.
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Post by lavender on Jun 28, 2006 19:17:16 GMT
Ive worked in dog rescue for a lonnnnnnng time now, with a number of rescues from all over. So my view on this is based on my experience in doing so... The RSPCA wellll ermmmmmmmmm.... each local branch is self funding (not a lot of peeps know this) so when you sign up for a direct debit a fiver or tenner a month it goes to the big plush offices and not to the local branches. The Branches are self funding and are allowed to use the RSPCA logo. If you want to donate to help the shelters then give directly to your local branch The RSPCA also seem to hold some strange ideas about particular breeds. Staffies are the most likely to be pts unfortunately at their hands. I like the Dogs Trust, but the term 'no healthy dog is every pts' is a little misleading. They can class a temperament 'problem' for example as 'a health problem' - I do know that that Dogs Trust work extremely hard to place the dogs in the best possible location, - as in, they will move dogs around the country to enable that particular 'breed' the best chance of getting homed. Different areas seem to home different breeds more than others. Within rescue ,Volunteers work desparately week in week out to get as many dogs out of the pounds here in the uk before their pts date comes around. If the dog is gifted in sometimes its a total different ruling to a stray dog. Places are sought desparately by the volunteers in Rescues all over the country and once secured a 'poundie run' is organised to get the dogs over to the rescue placement. Again, volunteers transport the dogs between themselves to get them up to whichever rescue they have a place at. This can be a link of a number of volunteers meeting up to take the dog onto the next volunteer and away to safety. A dog could come out of a pound in scotland and be placed down south for instance. So many people do not realise they even have a local pound. Pounds work with the council, who pay for the set amount of time the stray dog has to be kept for (usually 7 days) and then the dog is available to be rehomed to the public, pts, or released to a rescue placement. Relationships with pounds have certainly improved and most will work with the rescues. The most common breeds are staffies, staffy and bull breed crosses GSDs, lurchers and greyhounds. Rescues.. Most of the rescues Ive worked with have foster homes, Im a foster parent We foster the dogs in our own homes until a forever home is found. A lot of rescues of course are kennel based. Some dogs unfortunately are hard to home. Usually the black ones , usually the greyhounds - a black greyhound has the least chance unfortunately. As some of you may know, I work primarily with greyhound rescue now. I actually dont agree with keeping a dog in kennels in rescue indefinitely, in a foster home is another matter. Its common to have long term 'forever' fosters, where a dog is elderly, infirm etc. that way the dog gets to live out his/her life knowing love in a home enviroment. But sadly.. there simply arent enough homes for all the dogs. The situation in the States is very different to ours - the pounds there have to be seen to be believed, when it floods they are flooded, when its hot they are bake houses, and the euthanasia is totally different, usually shooting or gassing. sorry if Ive rambled...
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Post by maisiepaisie on Jun 29, 2006 8:49:18 GMT
What are your opinions of euthanasia in animal shelters? Are these places better than no shelter at all? Should we support them? Do you support them? Etc.......... etc. I am torn on this issue. I really don't like the idea of putting animals to sleep because there are not enough homes but what is the alternative? If all shelters were no kill they would become full very quickly and then what would happen to the other unwanted animals? I'm inclined to think that many of them would suffer at the hands of irresponsible owners, a worse fate than being PTS. PETAs opinion is that more can be achieved by ploughing available funds into spay/neuter programs than by spending on keeping hundreds of thousands of animals alive in shelters. Unfortunately I think they are probably right as the number of unwanted animals would continously grow because the majority of people want cute little babies rather than give an older dog/cat a second chance
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Post by veggiesosage on Jun 30, 2006 18:37:36 GMT
Its not a subject I know much about, unlike lavendar, but I think my position is very much the same as Maisie's.
Unfortunately, if all shelters became no kill, then they would not only quickly fill up but the money would also run out. No money means no food for the animals and starvation and eventual neglect would not be a good way for an animal to go.
Its a lose/lose situation for the animals, sadly.
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Post by Tiggerwoos on Jun 30, 2006 22:32:04 GMT
If I won the lottery I would build a shelter to take on all the unwanted animals that no one would rehome, like the Tower Hill Stables type of thing. Fiona that runs it must be some sort of angel, as well as being a marathon runner. Dunno how she manages to fit all that work in to each day. Their website is pretty interesting: www.towerhillstables.com.
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Post by Pob on Jun 30, 2006 22:33:53 GMT
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Post by paul on Aug 5, 2006 23:13:40 GMT
i would nt surport a rescue thet does,
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Post by peaceandglitter on Aug 6, 2006 18:55:04 GMT
I used to be a receptionist at a godawful dogs home that used to kill about 50% of the dogs every week. As the receptionist I used to have to log the euths and the boss would tell me to write 'age' or 'temperament' as reasons ,when basically. they were the dogs that would make the least money. I was fired for questioning it They used to act like they were such a wonderful place, used to really upset me when little kids would bring in money they'd raised for the dogs and I knew what really went on
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Post by tabitha on Aug 6, 2006 18:59:39 GMT
Oh God, thats awful Peaceandglitter
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Post by paul on Aug 7, 2006 0:38:39 GMT
peace and glitter i feel sorry for you is the place still open.
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