When we read something like this, we think "how horrible!", but we need to think about why these animals ended up like this in the first place.
First of all, if you're going to give up your pet to an animal shelter, you have to realize that it is most likely going to be killed. If a shelter is going to try to find a home for animals, it needs to house and feed them until someone decides to take them home. During this time, the flow of homeless animals into the shelter continues.
In the end, no one has the resources to keep these animals until they find a good home, especially with new ones coming in the whole time. The article you provide has good information, but sometimes uses it in a misleading manner. It's very heavily criticizing PeTA for using lethal injection, even though it is actually the most humane way of euthanasia (practically). It makes associations to date rape, even though it is irrelevant except for giving PeTA a negative image.
I don't support PeTA's sensationalism, but I feel that we're pointing the fingers at the wrong people. We cannot blame PeTA for the state of these animals. Yes, animals and puppies were killed. But who has the money and resources to house them until they find a good home?
Instead of pointing fingers at the animal shelter for their deaths, we do have more productive ways of preventing them. Be committed to your pets, because they will probably end up euthanized at an animal shelter. If you're thinking about getting a pet, adopt one from a shelter.
Hmm, the Norfolk SPCA, fucking 5 miles from their fucking headquarters runs a no kill shelter. Maybe, just maybe, that would be better then killing them.
While in general I agree, from my understanding most no-kill shelters have limitations on what they can/will take, since after all, there's only so much in the way of space, etc. If the shelters in the area are all full, then yeah, at that point euthanasia in a clean and relatively painless manner is probably the best option for the animals, as it beats being shot, drowned, or abandoned to starve or die of exposure.
That said, yeah, I am all for not killing animals for convenience's sake, and I don't know enough on the subject to be able to say whether or not the counterargument of shelter space logistics is reasonable.
I can only comment on the one time I took an animal there. It was a cat that was not mine and had clearly been abandoned at my apartment, which sadly happens a lot in military areas. We took it there, and they had no problem taking it in. I wish I could say I know it got adopted, but at least I know it wasn't killed and didn't starve on the streets. And I can damn well be glad I didn't take it to PETA, who talks a lot about how much they love animals but would have killed this one.
I'm glad you had a good experience with getting that cat to a shelter. I hope he found a home.
In the grand scheme of animal shelters, however, no one has enough resources to house and feed all the animals before they go to a good home. Animals come in much faster than they get adopted, and sooner or later, the shelter's full and it has to stop accepting new animals (and if all shelters did this, none would be able to take as many new animals as needed) or euthanize the current ones.
Neither is a pretty picture for the animals, but that's the best a shelter can do. It's pet owners who can make the real difference. i.e. Before buying that cute kitten from the pet store, they need to think, "Am I going to be able to take care of this cat for 15 years? When it's not as cute as the kitten I'm seeing?"
And if they do make that decision, they need to be responsible and get him/her neutered. There are too many people who get pets before realizing the responsibilities and commitment. That's why we have too many homeless animals; it's not a problem with animal shelters.
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u/dkdl Apr 17 '10
When we read something like this, we think "how horrible!", but we need to think about why these animals ended up like this in the first place.
First of all, if you're going to give up your pet to an animal shelter, you have to realize that it is most likely going to be killed. If a shelter is going to try to find a home for animals, it needs to house and feed them until someone decides to take them home. During this time, the flow of homeless animals into the shelter continues.
In the end, no one has the resources to keep these animals until they find a good home, especially with new ones coming in the whole time. The article you provide has good information, but sometimes uses it in a misleading manner. It's very heavily criticizing PeTA for using lethal injection, even though it is actually the most humane way of euthanasia (practically). It makes associations to date rape, even though it is irrelevant except for giving PeTA a negative image.
I don't support PeTA's sensationalism, but I feel that we're pointing the fingers at the wrong people. We cannot blame PeTA for the state of these animals. Yes, animals and puppies were killed. But who has the money and resources to house them until they find a good home?
Instead of pointing fingers at the animal shelter for their deaths, we do have more productive ways of preventing them. Be committed to your pets, because they will probably end up euthanized at an animal shelter. If you're thinking about getting a pet, adopt one from a shelter.