I am going to say this again and again loudly: Animal shelters, rescues and humane societies across the country are in crisis.
And I am saying this next sentence particularly loudly: Stop blaming the animal shelters. Instead, blame the communities who are creating this problem.
People in the animal sheltering world, volunteers and staff are working themselves to death each and every day to care for and save as many as we possibly can.
Here at the Animal Protection League we are completely full of dogs. Crates are stacked on top of each other. We do not have a single open kennel.
And yet they keep coming. We are stacked to the ceiling with cat cages and have cats and kittens in fosters and still we are full. Staff and volunteers are taking these animals home to foster and to adopt.
We are full.
In one day, we got a mother dog and her nine puppies, and another basket full of seven puppies. The owners just couldn’t take care of them. Not to mention the bags, baskets, boxes and totes of kittens we have received.
When we ask people if they are going to spay the mother, more often than not they tell us no — even when we offer assistance. When we ask them if they can foster the animals they are bringing us and we provide supplies, nine times out of 10, the answer is no. They tell us they just need them gone.
A man brought in his poor, overbred female pit bull who had just had 13 puppies which he told us he had gifted to his neighborhood. He told us he just couldn’t care for her. It didn’t look like he had cared for her at all…she is emaciated with much hair loss and fleas… and of course, she is so sweet.
I know you are tired of hearing this — I am tired of saying it — we simply have to address the issue of backyard breeding and dog fighting as well as dogs being tethered 24/7.
It is in our ordinances; it can legally be done. Animals are coming to us in various stages of neglect and abuse. People doing this need to be charged to the fullest extent of the law to send a message that animal abuse will not be tolerated in our community.
The constant criticism of the public and the keyboard warriors wears down those of us working ourselves to death. It diminishes our commitment and our effort. It diminishes us and makes an already heartbreaking job that much harder.
Come volunteer at a shelter. You will quickly see why the phone is not being answered. And please do not say that we need to simply give these animals away to whoever wants them, that we need to stop calling landlords and references. If we do that, we are simply perpetuating the problem.
Please spay or neuter your pets. Make a lifetime commitment to your pets, and if you can’t do that, do not get them.
These animals deserve so much more than they are getting. And just to be clear, all animals deserve compassion, whether they are cats, dogs, livestock or wildlife. They all know fear and pain. How we treat them matters. You don’t get to choose when you are compassionate and humane.
You either are or you aren’t.
Maleah Stringer is executive director of the Animal Protection League, 613 Dewey St., Anderson. She can be reached at 765-356-0900 or at maleahstringer@aol.com.
