“I’m sure someone will adopt him.” Wake up.

So you’ve left your dog at the shelter. Now the clock starts. Your dog has about 72 hours to find new owners, starting at the time you dropped him off. This 3 day deadline can be extended if the shelter isn’t jam packed with other abandoned pets, and if your dog manages to ward off one of the many infections that inhabit animal shelters. Your dog will lay on a cement floor, confined to a small kennel, surrounded by other displaced dogs. Your dog will shiver, whine for you, and wonder what it did to deserve such a horrid punishment. It will be forced to relieve itself in the same place it sleeps. Each day their cement box will be pressure washed to clear the area of their excrement. Your dog will cry for companionship, attention and care. Most will receive attention via a metal bowl filled with donated food slid under their door twice a day, and the lucky ones (at facilities with lots of staff and volunteers) will get to go for a walk or two during their stay.

Eventually, all this anxiety and confusion will make your dog more succeptible to picking up one of the many viruses and bacteria that are housed in the shelter. As soon as your dog shows any signs of poor health, he will euthanized. As soon as your dog starts displaying any type of adverse behaviors, he will be euthanized. If your dog gets into an altercation with another dog, he will be euthanized. The shelter employees and volunteers do not do this because of a sadistic love of euthanizing pets, they do it because they lack the resources to nurse your ill dog back to health, and because they lack the space to separate dogs with special needs. [Read more…]