Kill Shelter
The title to this entry is a phrase that absolutely infuriates me. When I hear this used in regards to an open admission shelter, it tells me immediately the person using the phrase has zero experience working in a shelter whose doors are open to ALL animals. It also tells me this person is a narrow minded, judgmental individual unwilling to educate themselves or do anything to relieve the burden for care in the open admission shelters.
I would encourage such individuals to work one day in a facility charged with the care of a never ending intake of homeless animals, then share their opinion. I know from experience they will not rise to this challenge. Their excuses range from I just could not face it to I have other things to do. This is how they remain in the safety of their ignorance and in most cases outright stupidity.
This entry is the result of an incident which happened this past week at an open admission in Franklin County Ohio. A shelter was forced to shut down and destroy 52 dogs due to a distemper outbreak.
I was invited into the conversation surrounding this tragedy. It did not take long to see where the conversation was leading. When I politely asked the participants to consider the heart break of the staff before passing judgment, I was promptly attacked and told I was not answering the question as to why this happened. I do have firsthand experience and promptly answered their question.
First you must have some understanding of Distemper. Like Parvo it is a virus and is air born. That means dogs do not need physical contact to be exposed and infected. Basically all they need do is breath the same air. It also means an infected dog must “ride out” the disease. The only treatment is for the secondary infections such as pneumonia. There are treatments available which have seen remarkable results when administered within the first six days. On a good day, these treatments may be found as low as $100 per dog, times 52.
Exposed or sick dogs must be quarantined. For an open admission very few have a facility large enough to house 52 dogs for the weeks required since their space is generally occupied by the vast numbers of homeless. In most cases this means boarding costs at a veterinarian clinic. Again, minimum cost is $12 daily for a healthy dog. Those costs increase according to treatment and again times 52.
Rescues and the arm chair experts screamed this shelter could have asked for help, they would have taken these dogs. When a shelter cannot even get medical sponsors for Heartworm treatments, who will come forward to sponsor medical treatments which can go quickly go into the thousands for distemper treatments times 52?
As for taking the exposed dogs, this had to be an immediate pull. These groups would not have had the luxury of arranging fosters or transport. Time is critical and then there is the consideration of what is required to house and treat animals exposed or suffering from this disease. How many rescues are equipped to address this need and able to make a pull like this in a matter of hours, not days or weeks, times 52?
The next outraged point was that these dogs could have been tested for the disease. Very true but again how many people are willing to dip into their wallets for the cost of the tests, times 52?
Judgment was passed with no actual knowledge of what this shelter faced. These people are outraged by the fact that euthanasia is performed to be able to provide space to even house these dogs. How many of these squeamish individuals doing nothing to ease this burden have the “brass” required to watch helplessly as a dog suffers from distemper?
This is a horrifying disease which attacks the brain and central nervous system. In addition to vomiting and diarrhea there are also violent seizures. At the end of the illness lesions can be found on the brain itself. Survival rate with treatments beginning within the six-day window can be raised to 50%. Death can occur 2 to 5 weeks after contracting the disease. Then there is the resulting brain damage to be considered affecting any quality of life for dogs which have survived.
Puppies and old dogs are most susceptible but none are immune if they have never received any type of vaccination. In an open admission there is no way to know medical background on the majority of dogs coming through their doors. The average owner surrender is a dog with no history of veterinarian care. That means ALL dogs without a history must be considered at risk.
The Franklin county shelter did wait until it became obvious the shelter was indeed entering an epidemic period. The first dog which broke with the disease was tested and found to be positive for distemper. The Lab mix had already suffered neurological and brain damage. It was euthanized.
The shelter waited two weeks until the next two dogs began showing signs of distemper. That was when the decision was made to close the doors and address the outbreak as an epidemic.
Groups began coming out of the woodwork at that point screaming the dogs could have been saved. If they had been steadily working with this shelter how is it, they were unaware of the possibility of an epidemic? This shelter has the ability to vaccinate dogs upon arrival and keep new dogs segregated until they consider them relatively safe to be placed on the adoption floor. Few shelters are this lucky. But if these groups who attacked and instigated the actions taken after this incident were in fact dedicated to saving these animals, then where were they in the two weeks leading up to this catastrophe?
The outrage of the groups screaming the loudest have resulted in an injunction against euthanizing any more dogs. For the unicorn and glitter groups they consider this a victory. The reality of what they have done is they have crippled this open admission in their ability to accept anything other than the strays which they are contracted to take for animal control. Reality is ugly and it lays at the feet of the irresponsible among us. The intakes in an open admission cannot be fathomed by those who sit safely behind their righteous indignation. It is experienced daily behind the intake desk of the open admissions.
I have asked more than one group screaming for blood or condemning the open admissions as being “kill shelters” if they are prepared to eliminate these shelters and pick up the slack which will occur if they no longer exist? My answer has been the sound of crickets or a full out attack on me as being a “puppy killer”.
Our local shelter has staggering numbers and they are held in contempt by a number of groups. You think you know everything, consider a shelter such as the one in Joplin Missouri whose intake is in excess of 10,000 animals a year. This shelter contracts with 17 different counties to help ease the burden of the stray population thus insuring the days of the “dog pound” are over. Imagine facing an intake of 60 dogs in one day. This is the reality of the atrocities an open admission must face.
Do they do this job because they enjoy the killing? NO, they do this job because someone must. The daily horrors faced are countered by the successful, forever adoption. But when you see dogs being dumped into the system with no regard for how room is created to be able to give them even a slim chance at survival, then must face a crisis such as the Fayette county shelter faced, these dedicated individuals must live with the damage which runs straight to your soul. Add in the attacks by those who cannot begin to comprehend what is required to run an open admission and it goes beyond heart breaking.
I personally condemn the attackers as being more culpable for the hard ships faced by the open admissions. When I hear the phrase “kill shelter” you can rest assured I do judge you as being part of the problem, not part of the cure!
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2016/09/11/0911-dog-shelter-distem...
http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/respiratory/c_dg_canine_distemper
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