The shelter manager’s letter:

“I am posting this (and it is long) because I think our society needs a huge wake-up call.

As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all – a view from the inside, if you will.
Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don’t even know – that puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it’s not a cute little puppy anymore.

How would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at – purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are “owner surrenders” or “strays” that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

No shortage of excuses
The most common excuses I hear are:

We are moving and we can’t take our dog (or cat).
Really? Where are you moving to that doesn’t allow pets?

The dog got bigger than we thought it would.
How big did you think a German Shepherd would get?

We don’t have time for her.
Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs!

She’s tearing up our yard.
How about bringing her inside, making her a part of your family?

They always tell me:
We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her. We know she’ll get adopted – she’s a good dog. Odds are your pet won’t get adopted, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is?

Well, let me tell you. Dead pet walking!

Your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off, sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy.
If it sniffles, it dies.

Your pet will be confined to a small run / kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it.
If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers that day to take him / her for a walk. If I don’t, your pet won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose.
If your dog is big, black or any of the “bully” breeds (pit bull, rottweiler, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted.
If your dog doesn’t get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed.

If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed, it may get a stay of execution, though not for long. Most pets get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment.
If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles, chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don’t have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

The grim reaper
Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”.
First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk – happy, wagging their tails. That is, until they get to “The Room”.

Every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the door. It must smell like death, or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there. It’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are). A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your pet doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk it’s leg. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood, and been deafened by the yelps and screams.

They all don’t just “go to sleep” – sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.
When it all ends, your pet’s corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back, with all of the other animals that were killed, waiting to be picked up like garbage.

What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know, and it probably won’t even cross your mind. It was just an animal, and you can always buy another one, right?

Liberty, freedom and justice for all
I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can’t get the pictures out of your head. I do everyday on the way home from work. I hate my job, I hate that it exists and I hate that it will always be there unless people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.
My point to all of this is DON’T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to – the truth hurts and reality is what it is.
I just hope I maybe changed one person’s mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say “I saw this thing on craigslist and it made me want to adopt”.
That would make it all worth it.”

Author unknown

Here’s an excerpt:

19,000 people fit into the new Barclays Center to see Jay-Z perform. This blog was viewed about 96,000 times in 2012. If it were a concert at the Barclays Center, it would take about 5 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

FORGE NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP TO SUPPORT

SECOND ANNUAL AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION HERO DOG AWARDS

Time Warner Cable to Feature Unique “Hero Dog Awards” Content

On Local Video On Demand Platform Across Entire Digital Subscriber Base

“Hero Dog Awards” Premieres November 8th at 8:00pm ET/PT on Hallmark Channel

Hallmark Channel and Time Warner Cable announced today a unique national partnership to provide custom local video on demand content around the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards, a program that launched last year as a celebration of dogs and the many ways they save, support, protect, and enrich our lives every day. Rolling out on October 22nd, the “Hero Dog Awards” content will be available on Time Warner Cable’s local Video On Demand platform.

“‘The Hero Dog Awards’, part of Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project initiative, is a very special program and we are thrilled to be able to bring the show to life in a unique way for Time Warner Cable subscribers through customized local video on demand content,” said Laura Lee, Senior Vice President, Distribution, Crown Media Family Networks. “This is a fantastic opportunity for Crown Media to expand on our relationship with Time Warner Cable through this added value opportunity, while also promoting Hero Dog Awards and broadening its audience.”

The custom Hero Dogs Awards content will be accessible for subscribers in the “Pet Folder” on Time Warner Cable’s local Video On Demand platform and include videos highlighting each of the 8 finalists from the 2011 class of Hero Dogs, a sneak peek at the 8 finalists from the 2012 class of Hero Dogs, and the full length feature presentation of the 2011 “Hero Dog Awards” show, hosted by Carson Kressley. All of the VOD content will include tune-in messaging to drive viewers to the 2012 Hero Dog Awards broadcast, premiering on November 8th and hosted by Kristin Chenoweth.

“We are very excited to be part of this great program that shares the inspiring stories of hero dogs, their owners and handlers,” said Dennis Patton, Vice President, Partnership and Development for Time Warner Cable. “Having the opportunity to share additional unique local on demand content that celebrates these remarkable dogs gives our customers even more compelling programming they can enjoy better.”

The American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards is a culmination of a year-long program, which began with an online contest soliciting stories and pictures from dog owners about their pets and why they are heroes in eight different categories: Law Enforcement and Arson, Guide Dogs, Hearing Dogs, Service Dogs, Therapy Dogs, Search & Rescue Dogs, Military Dogs, and Emerging Hero Dogs, a category honoring ordinary pets who have done extraordinary things. After nearly 3 million online votes, thousands of dogs were narrowed down to one finalist per category. The eight finalists – one per category – were flown to Los Angeles for a star-studded, red carpet gala where they were honored with a special award. At the end of the evening, one of the eight dogs was crowned as the overall Hero Dog of 2012.

Hero Dog Awards is part of Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project, a new advocacy campaign designed to celebrate pets and raise awareness of the pet homelessness epidemic. Through public service announcements, local grass-roots events, and strategic partnerships with such national non-profit organizations as American Humane Association and PetSmart Charities, Hallmark Channel’s Pet Project aims to shine a spotlight on this country’s epidemic of pet homelessness and provide the public with the information and resources they need to find their new best friend.

ABOUT HALLMARK CHANNEL

Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming available in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) to a national audience of nearly 87 million subscribers. Hallmark Channel is the nation’s leading destination for quality family programming with an ambitious slate of original TV movies and specials, as well as some of television’s most beloved sitcoms and series, including The Golden Girls, Frasier, Little House on the Prairie, and The Waltons. Since 2010, Hallmark Channel has also been home to original daytime lifestyle programming and recently launched two new daily series, Home & Family and Marie, on October 1, 2012. Hallmark Channel’s sibling network is Hallmark Movie Channel, also available in HD and SD, which focuses on family-friendly movies with a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, original Hallmark Channel movies and special events.

For more information, please visit http://www.hallmarkchannelpress.com

Become a fan of Hallmark Channel on Facebook

Follow us @HallmarkChannel on Twitter

Check in on GetGlue

ABOUT TIME WARNER CABLE

Time Warner Cable Inc. (NYSE: TWC) is among the largest providers of video, high-speed data and phone services in the United States, connecting more than 15 million customers to entertainment, information and each other. Time Warner Cable Business Class offers data, video and phone services to businesses of all sizes, cell tower backhaul services to wireless carriers, and through its NaviSite subsidiary, enterprise-class hosting, managed application, messaging and cloud services. Time Warner Cable Media, the advertising arm of Time Warner Cable, offers national, regional and local companies innovative advertising solutions. More information about the services of Time Warner Cable is available at http://www.timewarnercable.com, http://www.twcbc.com, http://www.navisite.com, and http://www.twcmedia.com