So the other day on my way out of the Apt. Complex I saw a cat sitting next to the road...being me I had to stop to check for a collar, etc.

It took a little coaxing but once I got a hand on her the skitish skinny cat turned into a buttery love kitten and melted into my hands all attention starved. Soooo I took it back to my place and gave it some food (luckily my last roomate ate meat and left a couple of cans of meat-stuffs here...so, tuna isnt the healthiest for a cat but its better then starving) and made a make-shift litter box and figured I'd take it to the shelter next chance I got.

So today (about a week later, first chance I had) I dropped it off and was all heartbroken when I went into the shelter. It was the first time in a long time I had been in an animal shelter and I forgot how...SAD it is in there. All the animals just so....CRAVE your attention and love. They are desperate for it.

The people were friendly enough, and it was decently clean. The cages were so bare though...and, though it depends on the animal, they have a general two-week policy before they destroy the animal.

Once again it struck me how it seems so damn unjustified to "rescue" an animal only to have it spend its last two weeks or so in a cage before it gets euthanized.

So on one hand they have potential disease, starvation, exposure, getting hit by a car, and loneliness.

On the other they have food, water, shelter, and the POTENTIAL to be adopted into a loving household....but it means sticking them in a small, lonely cage for about two weeks and the likely possiblity of being put down.

What do you do when you find a stray? Do you feel it is a sad necessity to put them in shelters like these (I realize not all shelters are like this)

I signed up on their volunteer sheet and have a feeling I'll be racing back in a few days to truly rescue that cat, though I can't afford it....

So the other day on my way out of the Apt. Complex I saw a cat sitting next to the road...being me I had to stop to check for a collar, etc.

It took a little coaxing but once I got a hand on her the skitish skinny cat turned into a buttery love kitten and melted into my hands all attention starved. Soooo I took it back to my place and gave it some food (luckily my last roomate ate meat and left a couple of cans of meat-stuffs here...so, tuna isnt the healthiest for a cat but its better then starving) and made a make-shift litter box and figured I'd take it to the shelter next chance I got.

So today (about a week later, first chance I had) I dropped it off and was all heartbroken when I went into the shelter. It was the first time in a long time I had been in an animal shelter and I forgot how...SAD it is in there. All the animals just so....CRAVE your attention and love. They are desperate for it.

The people were friendly enough, and it was decently clean. The cages were so bare though...and, though it depends on the animal, they have a general two-week policy before they destroy the animal.

Once again it struck me how it seems so damn unjustified to "rescue" an animal only to have it spend its last two weeks or so in a cage before it gets euthanized.

So on one hand they have potential disease, starvation, exposure, getting hit by a car, and loneliness.

On the other they have food, water, shelter, and the POTENTIAL to be adopted into a loving household....but it means sticking them in a small, lonely cage for about two weeks and the likely possiblity of being put down.

What do you do when you find a stray? Do you feel it is a sad necessity to put them in shelters like these (I realize not all shelters are like this)

I signed up on their volunteer sheet and have a feeling I'll be racing back in a few days to truly rescue that cat, though I can't afford it....

I'm glad you're looking into volunteering with them. To state the obvious, the only way they can help more animals is if they have more help.

The best thing to do if you find an animal is to try and find the owner on your own (posting info at shelters & vets), or if that fails, to find them a new home on your own! Dropping them off at a shelter causes the shelter to become more crowded and able to help less animals. (If they're already full when you drop off an animal then they may have to euthanize one of the others to make space.) But most us can't take in strays or don't have time to find them a new home, so taking them to a shelter is much better than leaving them out on the streets. I almost always have to drop them off at the shelter. On the streets their chances of getting reunited with owners is slim, and chances of getting hit by a car or attacked by predators is high.

Shelters are doing the best they can to make a sad situation less sad.

THis is such a great post! It's so commendable that you're volunteering, most people never think to do things like that. There are usually no-kill shelters around (these are shelters with a no-kill/no euthanasia policy), but they seem hard to get into and very exclusive. I've rescued a few dogs and bunnies and what I always do is take them to the shelter to allow the owner the mandatory 5 days to find their pet (or else it's against the law) and then I sign up as the last resort adopter. If the animal doesn't find a good home, I'll just adopt it to keep from being euthanized. It's tough, since there's no way I could adopt all the animals at the shelter, but I figure it's still doing a little bit of help to a few lives. If I can't keep all the animals, I usually adopt them or foster them and find homes on my own. Surprisingly, I've found many people to adopt pets...they just don't go actively look at the shelters. A lot of people that want to buy a puppy or a cat don't place very much faith in shelter animals, but by owning them for a while first, you take on some of that risk and show them that they're great pets, too.

Good luck~

There are usually no-kill shelters around (these are shelters with a no-kill/no euthanasia policy)
The person who did orientation at the shelter where I volunteer asserted that most/all of 'no-kill' shelters are weaseling a bit: she said that they transfer unadoptable / overflow animals to other shelters, who do euthanize. I'm sure there are sanctuaries out there that are no-kill, but I suspect that they run at full capacity pretty much all the time.
I've rescued a few dogs and bunnies and what I always do is take them to the shelter to allow the owner the mandatory 5 days to find their pet
Great! It's three days here, and I think something like 20-30% are reclaimed.
and then I sign up as the last resort adopter.
Sometimes people do that at PAWS, too, though I've yet to see the kennels more than half full. Only when the facility is *full*, or if an animal is really far gone medically, do they regretfully euth. They don't have any time limit, and I've seen dogs that've been there for several months before finding a new home.
If the animal doesn't find a good home, I'll just adopt it to keep from being euthanized. It's tough, since there's no way I could adopt all the animals at the shelter, but I figure it's still doing a little bit of help to a few lives.
Anything we do helps. :yes:.
A lot of people that want to buy a puppy or a cat don't place very much faith in shelter animals, but by owning them for a while first, you take on some of that risk and show them that they're great pets, too.

That's sad, especially given the population problem and conditions at puppy mills. Several times I've been in a pet store for something else, and talked someone out of buying a dog/cat there in favor of a shelter animal.
Shelter kennels do tend to be austere, but one reason is to facilitate cleaning. I'm not sure how other shelters enrich their animal's time, but at PAWS, dogs are walked around an on-site nature trail twice a day - about 1/5 mile, I think. When there's time, the higher-energy ones get to go around twice, and they all have a clean bed, multiple toys, and individual time with volunteer walkers and kennel attendants.

Today I walked a really cool dog named Duncan who's described as a Lab mix, but his coat is striped like a tabby cat, which I've never seen in a dog before. He should show up on petfinder soon since I posed him for a photo this evening.

I walked a beautiful Aussie, too http://www.petfinder.org/pet.cgi?action=2&pet=4698462&adTarget=&SessionID=42c4c81b4c86d9d7-app5&display=&preview=1&row=0&tmpl=&stat=

I love Aussies and Border Collies :smitten:

That sounds like a really amazing shelter...are there a lot of PAWS shelters around? I've been in LA for the last few years for school, and it's sad because space seems so limited here. The dogs have nowhere to run and they get no exercise. When I had to take my dog in for the mandatory 5 days when I found him, I went to visit him everyday at least once, and it was so sad how depressed he seemed to be in there. I was so happy to get him out of there =)

I had no idea about the no-kill shelters...I guess it's a really fortunate thing that I couldn't find any no-kill shelter that would take him since they were all at maximum capacity...

There really need to be more shelters out there that are like the one you volunteer for. Even the best ones I've visited haven't treated their animals so well =) Props to you!!

Oh another thing...you made such a good point about the pet stores. I'm really anti-most pet stores I've been in, because the animals are in such terrible conditions and the people selling them seem to have no interest in the welfare of the animal, just turning a big profit. THere's this one pet store I always walk into at the mall, and I try to talk to people about the right way to raise bunnies (since most people have no clue), and I've managed to convince some people to check out some shelters first rather than supporting the pet stores' success.

The person who did orientation at the shelter where I volunteer asserted that most/all of 'no-kill' shelters are weaseling a bit: she said that they transfer unadoptable / overflow animals to other shelters, who do euthanize.
:sealed: :sealed: I won't say anything since this isn't the heap.

That sounds like a really amazing shelter...are there a lot of PAWS shelters around?
Just the one. http://www.paws.org
I've been in LA for the last few years for school, and it's sad because space seems so limited here. The dogs have nowhere to run and they get no exercise.
:( I'm sure they do what they can with what they have - just wish it could be more. People sometimes gripe about the adoption fee, but if they can't afford $80 to adopt a dog, they can't afford to provide ongoing food and care, plus that's only about half of the incremental cost to the shelter, including alteration. PAWS will chip outgoing animals for just $10, which is a really really good deal.
I had no idea about the no-kill shelters...I guess it's a really fortunate thing that I couldn't find any no-kill shelter that would take him since they were all at maximum capacity...
I'm just relaying what I've been told, though it seems likely to be true :(
There really need to be more shelters out there that are like the one you volunteer for. Even the best ones I've visited haven't treated their animals so well =) Props to you!!
:) I'm just a tiny cog, but a lot of people put a lot of work into helping out.
There's a wildlife department too that I hope to start helping in a few months. They recently released three black bears.

Paws has a really nice website. I wish our shelter would do more with their website. http://www.petrefuge.com/ So much more they could do on it.

ETA: Aww, I just noticed they made my fosters Dog of the Week on the website. :)))

Oh another thing...you made such a good point about the pet stores. I'm really anti-most pet stores I've been in, because the animals are in such terrible conditions and the people selling them seem to have no interest in the welfare of the animal, just turning a big profit. THere's this one pet store I always walk into at the mall, and I try to talk to people about the right way to raise bunnies (since most people have no clue), and I've managed to convince some people to check out some shelters first rather than supporting the pet stores' success.


Oh yeah, one of my friends works at a pet store and makes commission on all the animals she sells.

Oh another thing...you made such a good point about the pet stores. I'm really anti-most pet stores I've been in, because the animals are in such terrible conditions and the people selling them seem to have no interest in the welfare of the animal, just turning a big profit. THere's this one pet store I always walk into at the mall, and I try to talk to people about the right way to raise bunnies (since most people have no clue), and I've managed to convince some people to check out some shelters first rather than supporting the pet stores' success.
Some of the conditions I've seen reptiles in really really piss me off, like a Petco that had an amel Burmese python *crawling* with snake mites. This is a white and bright yellow animal, and when a few thousand specks like ground black pepper are moving over it, no one can plausibly claim they didn't know. :grrr: I presume that pretty much any animal in a pet store is infested with something nasty and extremely communicable -- eg, I've seen rats with obvious mycoplasma.

Amanda Foundation in LA is where we adopted one of our cats. Very cool.