I Could Never Work Here

K9Deb

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 year 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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