Why you should be careful where you take stray cats & dogs.
Note: Originally written during mid 2008 on an old blog
If I find a stray cat or dog I am very careful about where I take it.
The reason for this is that many council pounds/facilities and other similar places carry out large scale executions. (They use “nice” sounding words like euthanize, put to sleep and so on).
At times these can be carried out before an animal’s owner comes to claim it.
Frankly I am never going to take an animal to what is essentially an almost certain death.
Some of these places have nice sounding names that appear benign, or associated with animal welfare or similar. Granted, some of them do very good work on behalf of animals as well, however one of the aspects that I object to is that the whole system has the effect of tending to minimize public awareness of the scale of deaths, and of what really happens at these places.
Executioner
Neutering campaigns and associated PR are a good idea, however I suspect one of the reasons for the relatively low take up is that what goes on behind the scenes is served up in a “palatable” format for the public, who are left largely in the dark as to the full horror of it all. One additional side effect of this lack of awareness is that it increases the numbers of animals taken to the facilities, which I suppose is seen by authorities as helping to reduce the “excess animal problem”. And simply speaking, I cannot look some animal in the eye whilst taking it to meet its executioner. Can you? Check that wherever you are taking a stray animal to is not going to kill it. And bear in mind that some vets send stray animals they are given to these places too.
Addendum: 29 April 2008: an article on the destiny of some local pound dogs:
Another topical article; added 01 May 2008:
Pets abandoned as rental crisis bites
Added December 21st 2008:
At last…the RSPCA is planning to tell it how it is:
RSPCA to stun animal lovers in advertising blitz
Related posts:
Alex Webley
Kenn Day
Martin Day
Shaman Hawk
Ronny
