Dear Mr and Mrs Average Pet Owner - from a Rescue Volunteer

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Average Pet Owner:

Thank you for contacting us animal rescuers, shelter volunteers, and
foster-homes about your inability to keep your pet. We receive an
extremely high volume of enquiries and requests to accept surrendered animals (and none of us is getting paid, OK?). To help us expedite your problem as
quickly as possible, please observe the following guidelines:


1. Do not say that you are "CONSIDERING finding a good home" for your
pet, or that you, "feel you MIGHT be forced to," or that you "really THINK it would be better if" you unloaded the poor beast.

Ninety-five percent of you have already got your minds stone-cold made up that the animal WILL be out of your life by the weekend at the latest. Say so. If you don't, I'm going to waste a lot of time giving you common-sense, easy solutions for very fixable problems, and you're going to waste a lot of time coming up with fanciful reasons why the solution couldn't possibly work for you.

For instance, you say the cat claws the furniture, and I tell you about
nail-clipping and scratching posts and aversion training, and then you
go into a long harangue about how your husband won't let you put a
scratching post in the family room, and your ADHD daughter cries if you use a
squirt bottle on the cat, and your congenital thumb abnormalities prevent you
from using nail scissors and etc., etc. Just say you're getting rid of the cat.


2. Do not waste time trying to convince me how nice and humane you are.
Your co-worker recommended that you contact me because I am nice to
animals, not because I am nice to people, and I don't like people who
"get rid of" their animals. "Get rid of" is my least favorite phrase in any
language. I hope someone "gets rid of" YOU someday. I am an animal
advocate, not a people therapist. After all, for your ADHD daughter, you
can get counselors, special teachers, doctors, social workers, etc. Your
pet has only me, and people like me, to turn to in his or her need, and
we are unpaid, overworked, stressed-out, and demoralized. So don't tell me
this big long story about how, "We love this dog so much, and we even
bought him a special bed that cost $50, and it is just KILLING us to
part with him, but honestly, our maid is just awash in dog hair every time
she cleans, and his breath sometimes just reeks of liver, so you can see how
hard we've tried, and how dear he is to us, but we really just can't . .
."You are not nice, and it is not killing you. It is, in all probability,
literally killing your dog, but you're going to be just fine once the beast is out of your sight.
Don't waste my time trying to make me like you or feel sorry for you in
your plight.


3. Do not try to convince me that your pet is exceptional and deserves
special treatment. I don't care if you taught him to sit. I don't care
if she's a beautiful Persian. I have a waiting list of battered and/or
whacked-out animals who need help, and I have no room to foster-house
your pet. Do not send me long messages detailing how Fido just l-o-v-e-s
blankies and carries his favorite blankie everywhere, and oh, when he
gets all excited and happy, he spins around in circles, isn't that cute? He
really is darling, so it wouldn't be any trouble at all for us to find
him a good home. Listen, we can go down to the pound and count the darling,
spinning, blankie-loving beasts on death row by the dozens, any day of
the week. And, honey, Fido is a six-year-old Shepherd-Lab mix. I am not
lying when I tell you that big, older, mixed-breed, garden-variety dogs are
almost completely unadoptable, and I don't care if they can whistle
Dixie or send semaphore signals with their blankies. What you don't realize is
that, though you're trying to lie to me, you're actually telling the truth:
Your pet IS a special, wonderful, amazing creature. But this mean old
world does not care. More importantly, YOU do not care, and I can't fix that
problem.
All I can do is grieve for all the exceptional animals who live short,
brutal, loveless lives and die without anyone ever recognizing that they
were indeed very, very special.


4. Finally, just, for pity' s sake, for the animal's sake, tell the truth,
and the whole truth. Do you think that if you just mumble that your cat
is "high-strung," I will say, "Okey-doke! No problemo!" and take it into
foster care? No, I will start asking questions and uncover the truth,
which is that your cat has not used a litter box in the last six months.
Do not tell me that you "can't" crate your dog. I will ask what happens
when you try to crate him, and you will either be forced to tell me the
symptoms of full-blown, severe separation anxiety, or else you will resort to
lying some more, wasting more of our time.
And, if you succeed in placing your pet in a shelter or foster care, do
not tell yourself the biggest lie of all: "Those nice people will take
him and find him a good home, and everything will be fine." Those nice
people will indeed give the animal every possible chance, but if we discover
serious health or behavior problems, if we find that your misguided
attempts to train or discipline him have driven him over the edge, we
will do what you are too immoral and cowardly to do: We will hold the animal
in our arms, telling him truthfully that he is a good dog or cat,
telling him truthfully that we are sorry and we love him, while the vet ends his
life.
How can we be so heartless as to kill your pet, you ask? Do not ever
dare to judge us. At least we tried. At least we stuck with him to the end.
At least we never abandoned him to strangers, as you certainly did, didn't
you? In short, this little old rescuer/foster momma has reached the
point where she would prefer you pet owners to tell her stories like this:
"We went to a car boot sale and picked up a free pet in the parking lot a
couple of years ago. Now we don't want it anymore. We're lazier than we
thought. We've got no patience either. We're starting to suspect the animal is
really smarter than we are, which is giving us self-esteem issues.
Clearly, we can't possibly keep it. Plus, it might be getting sick; it's acting
kind of funny.
"We would like you to take it in eagerly, enthusiastically, and
immediately.
"We hope you'll realize what a deal you're getting and not ask us for a
donation to help defray your costs. After all, this is an (almost)

pure-bred animal, and we'll send the leftover food along with it. We get
the food at Tesco’s too, and boy, it's a really good deal, price-wise".
"We are very irritated that you haven't shown pity on us in our great
need and picked the animal up already. We thought you people were supposed to be humane! Come and get it today. No, we couldn't possibly bring it to you; the final episode of "Survivor II" is on tonight."
Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Pet Owner, for your cooperation.
Author Unknown, but could be any shelter worker or rescuer.

I found this very apt, just how I feel at times when I am being told what a wonderful dog we are getting into rescue almost that we should be grateful that this beautiful dog is now mine to be responsible for and find a new home for, and neuter and vaccinate and microchip and pay the vet bills to get it healthy enough to rehome.........I could go on.

As you seem to like brutal honesty, I trust I'm permitted to return with equal honesty?

While I understand the basic premise behind the post, and indeed your plight, I think that it serves only to make some people find 'alternative' methods of 'disposing' of their dog, than to have to face such, sometimes, unwarranted berating from those at the rescue centres.

I was going to say that I don't mean this personally, but on reflection, how could I not, as you were the one posting it. But on reading this, if I really had to take my dog to a rescue centre, yours would be the last one on earth I would select, based on your apparent attitude. Sorry, but that's how I perceived it.

i think the point is that its different for genuine cases of people falling ill and being unable to look after their animals but the excuses that rescuers get for giving the animals up is ridiculous and sometimes quite unbeleivable and that is the thought behind this post. as far as I am concerned

Whereas it sounded to me that even if you were ill, unless you went along with a Doctor's note, you wouldn't be believed anyway!

I agree,
Some people simply do not have a choice when having to give up animals, a friend of mine got very sick and had to give up her beloved dog, It broke her heart to think she could no longer look after him but the kind thing to do was rehome him so he could still lead a great life with a new family.
I totally sympathise with rescue workers because im sure whilst many cases are like my friend, I can understand that lots would be very frustrating.
Whats really important is the welfare of the animal in question, as long as they are ok in the long run thats all that matters.

no disrespect but have you ever been slightly involved in rescue - i am not sure if you know what reasons are given for giving up dogs:

some of them are just incredibly sad -and like adele said some are genuine - but most are just people getting bored/wanting a younger model/kids are sick of the dog/too expensive/ etc etc

there is a dog I think currently on Oldies website that is 18years old and was given up by its owners who have had him all his life because they wanted him put to sleep - the rspca were called in offered vet treatment etc and the family still wanted rid - why and how could people do this to an 18yrd old dog who is still a happy and relatively healthy dog for his age?

No I haven't but I'm not sure that I need to have been in order to recognise plain out and out rudeness in cases where it may not be in the least bit warranted.

You can't tell me that several people don't also have genuine reasons for having to submit their dog to a rescue centre too. I really fail to see how the initial post could create anything but hesitation for some of those who have that genuine need, to think that the level of apparent distrust and, it seems, being thought of as almost criminal, and just dropping por ol' Fido off at the next t-junction instead! I'm sure it was well-intended, but I think it's one of the most irresponsible posts I've ever read on a dog forum.

It's akin, it seems to me, to someone from the RSPCA ranting off about the number of complaints of cruelty they receive -- thus making people think twice about reporting them!

I can see the purpose in posting this to a point as there are many people out there who don't think rationally about what they are taking on.But I also have to agree with GSDLover,for most people there is a genuine reason behind rehoming and I could see this puttiong some people off,and it is more than likely to be the genuine people needing the help because they will have a conscience.The type of people this is aimed at wouldn't care anyway as they have no compassion and are selfish in the first place.harsh

who do you think made her so cynical, only the people she has come into contact with.

I completely agree and see the way this post is meant to be taken...to make people aware. People who do the jobs in rescues deserve our support and our admiration