No kill animal shelters?

[Ruth]

It's nice when that happens but the fact so many animals are given to shelters suggests it doesn't work out like that for a lot of people.

A lot of people are taking their older dogs to the shelters and abandoning them. It's terrible. I would never do that to my dog.

 

[psalms 91]

That is the kind of dogs I look for, they are harder to place and it is a nice thing for a senior as they are free if 7 or older

 

[tango]

A lot of people are taking their older dogs to the shelters and abandoning them. It's terrible. I would never do that to my dog.

I would never plan to abandon my cat at a shelter, but if I found myself unable to care for him any more it's hard to know what to do.

First choice would obviously be to give him to someone I know who would look after him. But sooner or later you run out of options, and if I needed someone to step in and care for him quickly I might have little option but to hand him over to a shelter.

If you're talking about people just deciding they don't want their dog any more because it's older then I agree it's very sad. It seems that if a dog still has quality of life left it's hard to see why you'd want to get rid of it if it's been part of your family for so long, and if it doesn't have any quality of life left it makes more sense to take it to the vet to be put to sleep. Sadly I suspect a lot of things people do with animals are because what they really want is to have the animal put down but don't have the guts to go ahead and do it, so look to dump the problem on someone else.

 

[Ruth]

I would never plan to abandon my cat at a shelter, but if I found myself unable to care for him any more it's hard to know what to do.

First choice would obviously be to give him to someone I know who would look after him. But sooner or later you run out of options, and if I needed someone to step in and care for him quickly I might have little option but to hand him over to a shelter.

If you're talking about people just deciding they don't want their dog any more because it's older then I agree it's very sad. It seems that if a dog still has quality of life left it's hard to see why you'd want to get rid of it if it's been part of your family for so long, and if it doesn't have any quality of life left it makes more sense to take it to the vet to be put to sleep. Sadly I suspect a lot of things people do with animals are because what they really want is to have the animal put down but don't have the guts to go ahead and do it, so look to dump the problem on someone else.

Pets are a part of the family and people who get them should know the commitment it takes to have one. You wouldn't put a family member to sleep.

 

[psalms 91]

I agree to a point but when the animal is suffering and they cannot do anything to relieve the pain then it is time to put them to sleep, any other reason I agree, it shouldnt be done

 

[marti]

i agree also with you Bill

 

[tango]

Pets are a part of the family and people who get them should know the commitment it takes to have one. You wouldn't put a family member to sleep.

I agree up to a point, although what happens if you're faced with crippling vet's bills to restore a sick animal to health and you don't have the money to pay the vet?

It's easy to say that we shouldn't put an animal to sleep but realistically speaking sometimes life just throws such a curve ball you don't have a lot of choice. There are people who have animals put to sleep just because they got bored of dealing with them but there are also people who have dearly loved animals put to sleep because they simply can't come up with the money to pay the vet to treat them.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

I love this!
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/after-4-years-of-living-in-a-shelter-this-dog-182010777.html

 

[psalms 91]

I do to that is a really neat story

 

[Krissy Cakes]

I say NO to kill shelters. Is it hard to Spay/neuter your pet? Nope so there should be no "extra" animals out there that need to be killed.

 

[Krissy Cakes]

I love this!
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/good-news/after-4-years-of-living-in-a-shelter-this-dog-182010777.html

Such an amazing story!! Thank you so much for sharing. :hug2:

 

[tango]

I say NO to kill shelters. Is it hard to Spay/neuter your pet? Nope so there should be no "extra" animals out there that need to be killed.

The trouble with this is that it's great in theory but the sad reality is that there are animals out there that nobody wants, and sooner or later shelters either have to start killing healthy animals or turning away new arrivals, in which case those would-be new arrivals will be either turned loose or killed and probably not killed as humanely as a shelter might do it.

 

[dogs4thewin]

In theory it would be good if all shelters had a no-kill policy.

In practise it just creates another problem further down the line. A shelter can only take so many animals before it runs out of space to house them, or runs out of money to feed them and pay vet bills. If a shelter has a guaranteed no-kill policy then sooner or later it will have to turn away animals. If people are trying to surrender an animal and no shelter nearby will take it, sooner or later they will either kill it themselves or turn it loose. If they turn it loose and it hasn't been neutered/spayed then it starts to contribute to the problem of stray animals.

It seems to me that a better solution would be to reduce the numbers of animals left to shelters in the first place. If resources are going to be thrown at constantly enlarging animal shelters to make sure that no animal is ever put to sleep, perhaps those resources might be better used to make it easier/more affordable to get pets neutered to prevent unwanted animals being born at all.

A book I have about cats (I recently adopted a kitten) claimed that every year something like 3 million cats are euthanized in the United States alone. That's a huge number of cats to house in animal shelters for however long they live, and even assuming as many as half of those cats were put to sleep due to illness or infirmity that still leaves a huge number of unwanted cats. And that's just cats, since so many breeds of dog can grow so much bigger than the biggest cats the problems are even more serious where dogs are concerned.

that makes perfect sense, but as for making it more affordable to "fix" their pets that is fairly cheap as far as vet bills go, so in a way I almost want to say if you cannot afford that one time deal you may not need to be keeping pets right now. However, the idea in and of itself is a great one I do support.

 

[tango]

that makes perfect sense, but as for making it more affordable to "fix" their pets that is fairly cheap as far as vet bills go, so in a way I almost want to say if you cannot afford that one time deal you may not need to be keeping pets right now. However, the idea in and of itself is a great one I do support.

I agree that people should get an idea of what sort of costs will be involved before committing to a pet, although that doesn't help the people who figured it would be cheap and then get told it's going to cost $300 to fix their pet. I'm expecting my kitten to cost about $60 or so when it's time for him to stop being a little boy cat, although males are easier to fix than females. I know someone who paid nearly $300 to have an animal spayed, and if you're not expecting it that's a huge amount of money for some people. I know one couple who had their cat for years before having her spayed because they just didn't have the money to have it done. They had to keep her indoors while she was in heat, but that was better than fixing the cat and not feeding their child.

 

[dogs4thewin]

I agree that people should get an idea of what sort of costs will be involved before committing to a pet, although that doesn't help the people who figured it would be cheap and then get told it's going to cost $300 to fix their pet. I'm expecting my kitten to cost about $60 or so when it's time for him to stop being a little boy cat, although males are easier to fix than females. I know someone who paid nearly $300 to have an animal spayed, and if you're not expecting it that's a huge amount of money for some people. I know one couple who had their cat for years before having her spayed because they just didn't have the money to have it done. They had to keep her indoors while she was in heat, but that was better than fixing the cat and not feeding their child.

Well, I agree that a child is more important than a cat; however, one needs to consider the basic cost of keeping an animal before they get it and as I said of all the vet bills you will pay that will be one of the cheaper ones. Particularly, if you have a larger breed dog.

 

[psalms 91]

When I was younger we had a dog and the only time he went to the vets was when he got so bad with age that he had to be put down. It is amazing to me how much people spend on their animals. I buy good dog food and make sure he has his shots, most you can give yourself, and he is loved and taken care of

 

[dogs4thewin]

When I was younger we had a dog and the only time he went to the vets was when he got so bad with age that he had to be put down. It is amazing to me how much people spend on their animals. I buy good dog food and make sure he has his shots, most you can give yourself, and he is loved and taken care of

Well, I figure if people have the money and they want to spend it on their animals so be it. However, just like with humans regular trips to the vet may be able to prevent major problems.

 

[tango]

Well, I agree that a child is more important than a cat; however, one needs to consider the basic cost of keeping an animal before they get it and as I said of all the vet bills you will pay that will be one of the cheaper ones. Particularly, if you have a larger breed dog.

Sure, just like it's important to consider the costs of any other commitment. Sadly major life events (sickness, unemployment, divorce etc) tend to do nasty things to the most meticulously planned budgets.

Neutering isn't a particularly big bill relative to what some others might be but it's still a chunk of cash. Sadly if your pet is due for the operation two days after your car engine disintegrates while you still had outstanding finance, leaving you trying to figure out what you can afford while you continue to make payments on the now defunct car, the chances are the operation isn't going to be high on the priority list for a while.

Fundamentally I agree with you about planning, just noting that sometimes life throws a curveball and plans go out of the window.

 

[Ruth]

So what happens when the no-kill animal shelter is full and can't take any more animals? What fate awaits the animals whose owners can't cope with them when the shelters are full?

They should change to no kill shelters and get people to adopt them!

 

[Ruth]

When I was younger we had a dog and the only time he went to the vets was when he got so bad with age that he had to be put down. It is amazing to me how much people spend on their animals. I buy good dog food and make sure he has his shots, most you can give yourself, and he is loved and taken care of

And thank you Bill!!