Okay, everyone, I'm a little annoyed, so I'm going to go on my soapbox for a moment:
See this guy?:
I found him playing in traffic on the street in front of where I work. He had a collar that was on way too tight, but no tag. He also hadn't been micro-chipped. So, I had no way of getting him back to his owners.
LESSON NUMBER ONE: If you fail to tag or microchip your dog, your dog will not be returned to you, genius! Your dog cannot tell me where he lives. A microchip is only about thirty bucks, and if this dog had been given one, I would have taken him home instead of to the animal shelter.
So, because he was starving and in very real danger of getting run over, I took him to the animal shelter. On the way there, he lay his head in my lap, stopping only to lick my face at a traffic stop. Once I got there, I was greeted with a sign that said:
OUR DOG AND CAT ADOPTION PROGRAMS ARE FULL. IT IS LIKELY THAT YOUR ANIMAL WILL BE EUTHANIZED IMMEDIATELY.
So, this awesome dog, who trusted me and spent the twenty-minute drive over to the shelter loving on me and thanking me for being such a great pal, is most likely dead at this point. When I dropped him off, he clawed at the door and howled at me through the glass, so I get to carry the guilt of that around for... oh, I don't know, the rest of my life.
Why didn't I keep him? Because I'm already at the legal limit, and the city will prosecute me for animal hoarding if I go beyond it. Sooooo...
LESSON NUMBER TWO: Get your pet spayed or neutered. Having a littler of puppies or kittens to show your children the miracle of life is teaching them a horrible lesson. Even if you find homes for them, you are taking a potential home away from an unwanted animal. As long as there is even ONE animal at a shelter, you have no right to add to the overpopulation problem. None. NONE!!!
In short, people, earn your spot at the top of the food chain and show some responsibility. These animals are suffering and dying (in Tulsa, the report is that upwards of thirty.... yes THIRTY animals a day are being killed). If you are really an animal lover, love all animals and quit putting people like me through days like that.
Sorry... nothing funny today. I don't want anything to distract from this message. Be glad that I didn't show a video I was considering. We'll get back to it tomorrow.
Posts
10 comments:
You have a 45 year old man in tears right now. I'm sorry for your painful experience, and especially sorry for all the animals who's owners are too cheap to ensure this doesn't happen to their pets. At least you gave the little guy some comfort.
'nuff said
There's nothing I can add to what you've said. I hope someone (even one person) listened and thought about what they were doing.
When I was a kid, I saw a small dog on the off-ramp of the Tri-State Tollway near O'Hare. No way the dog wandered off from ANYwhere. I still see that guy, the exact area, in my head close to 45 years later.
Your post was a good thing, Adam.
Adam, my border collie died at home last Sept. I still have the photo I took of him afterwards, along with the bandana he was given after his last bath & haircut a few weeks before. This sounds stupid, but I just talked to the photo and told Buddy to look out for a dog from Tulsa. Having dead dogs talk to other dead dogs is not much crazier as talking about comics every day. My day is a bit easier now.
Wayne, I'm one of those folks that thinks every creature has a soul, so who knows? Even Billy Graham once said that he believed we met our animals in Heaven (or how could it be Heaven?). Before I put an animal down, I ask it to wait for me. Maybe that's weird, but I don't want to go into the next world without my pals.
I'm sorry. It's so sucky, horrible, there is no word in the english language to encompass the suckitude, of having to feel guilt like that. I mean you were trying to be the GOOD GUY. I hope, dearly hope, your words bore into the brain of someone who would otherwise be irresponsible for their critters.
Take heart, you are one of the good guys!
You cant keep more than a number of animals because it's against the law and classed as animal hoarding?
What kind of fucked up country are you living in when you couldn;t take the poor fella to a nice home instead of send him to his death?
Land of the free indeed! And wtf is Animal Hoarding anyways? And how did such a ridiculous law come about?
It's a municipal ordinance that came around about 10 years ago, John. If I have more than 3 dogs, I'm "over the limit" and can be prosecuted. I can understand when someone clearly has more animals than they can care for, but an arbitrary number is ridiculous. I can take better care of five dogs than most people can take care of two.
Post a Comment