Originally published on May 5, 2013 for Yahoo.Voices, a website that no longer exists.
IMAGE SOURCE~PERSONAL PHOTO~Me as a baby with the family dog Candy, a Beagle
We seem to be living in an age where everything seems disposable, to be gotten rid of if it doesn't serve our purpose or is useful to us anymore. Perhaps only fifteen or twenty years ago, if one's TV went on the blink for whatever reason, instead of throwing it out, one would've called a TV repairman to fix it; the same could also be said for stereo systems and appliances. Decades ago if one bought furniture, it was often considered an investment of sorts and one kept it for nearly one's lifetime; one may even have handed some of the furniture down to relatives. Now however, instead of getting an item repaired or handing it down, we dispose of it to get a new and improved version of it.
Sadly and tragically, no longer are only inanimate items tossed away like so much garbage, but pets are as well; they have become disposable. I do a lot of crossposting of urgent pets needing to be rescued over at Facebook and I'm aware of the alarmingly high rate of pets being surrendered. Each and every single day, nationwide, pets are surrendered into shelters, particularly high kill municipal shelters. High kill shelters have an open admission surrender policy; these high kill shelters are obligated to take in any and all pets for whatever reason the owner gives. Quite frankly, some of the reasons an owner gives are poor excuses and to my mind a betrayal of trust that the pet may have had with the owner particularly if that owner had the pet for many years.
Here are some of the reasons, which I find rather lame, for why people get rid of their pets:
1). "New Baby": I really have no idea why people think they need to "dispose" of their pet due to a new baby coming into the family. While I've had cats nearly all my life ever since I was five years old, prior to that, my folks were dog people, and consequently there was a dog, named Candy. When I came into the world, it never crossed their minds to get rid of the dog. In fact I have a rare photo of myself as a baby; I'm not even a year old, and there I am sitting on the living room floor and right next to me was Candy who was a beagle. I in fact include a photo of me as a baby with Candy here in this article.
2). "Allergies": Yes, people can be allergic to pets, but what I can't understand is why people surrender pets into shelters due to allergies after having the pet for eight or more years. And guess what folks? Yes I have allergies. Also, when my grandmother was still alive and living with my mother and myself, she developed asthma. Her doctor recommended getting rid of the four cats we had at the time, and what was her response? She got rid of the doctor instead. So yes, she had asthma however she was able to control it via medications.
3). "Moving": People move for a variety of reasons: perhaps to upgrade to a better living space, foreclosure, or even eviction, yet why does one feel it necessary to surrender a pet or leave it behind due to "moving"? Often I hear that the excuse is that the new place a person is moving to won't allow pets. Well, like duh? If a person truly views their pet as a family member, shouldn't they go out of their way to find a place that does accept pets?
In most cases with moving there is a known time factor involved, and yes even in cases of foreclosure or eviction, it's usually not like one has to move pronto overnight. Some of the saddest cases are the "foreclosure" pets…pets abandoned and left behind. I came across one such case while crossposting urgent cats on Facebook. The former owners left their orange tabby cat behind, the cat mind you was 18 years old! The new tenants upon moving in found the cat and took it to a shelter, a high kill shelter I might add. Diligent crossposting between us all over at Facebook began for "Ginger". In Ginger's case she was lucky as someone was willing to adopt her for the remainder of her "senior" years. But not all stories end happily ever after and in many cases the cat (or dog) will be "euthanized". Would people "abandon" their human children for the moving excuse if children weren't allowed in a new place? I don't think so, they would go out of their way to find a place that did accept children, so why do people feel it's all right to abandon their pet(s)?
4). No Pets Allowed: Yes many landlords will have a no pet clause in their lease or he/she may all of a sudden decide no pets allowed even if previously pets were allowed, however there are some loopholes people need to know about. In many cases, despite a no pet clause, if the pet owner has had the pet for at least three months, the landlord can't take legal action or demand the pet owner to give up their pet, so it's wise for people to know the specific pet laws that are in a pet owner's favor and not the landlords.
5). "No Time": Are people so busy in their lives that they don't have time for their pet? If they can make time for their human children, and other family obligations, then in my opinion so should they for their pets.
6). "Too Old": I can't think of a bigger sense of betrayal to a pet than when a pet owner surrenders their pet to a shelter due to the pet being old, and especially if that pet owner then wants to get a new puppy or kitten since the "old" pet is no longer cute and cuddly. I came across one such a case only the other night while doing my crossposting over at Facebook. The cat's name was Lola and was two years old, but the owner had only adopted the cat five months ago. Now the owner was surrendering Lola to a high kill shelter. In the "evaluation/questionnaire" asked of the owner why he was surrendering Lola, the person stated, "too big getting a kitten". The cat was only two years old and the person thought it too big and old? Two years old is still practically a kitten in itself! Thankfully since I was tracking to see the fate of Lola, I found out that she was rescued. Of course, there's the other extreme where the pet is say ten, fifteen, or more years old and the owner wants a "new and improved" version. It's when I come across cases like this, I'm sorry, but I hope karma bites the person in the butt and when that person is old gets "dumped" somewhere and abandoned.
7). "Personal Problems" While there can be many types of personal problems involved, one of the biggest personal problems excuse cited is this scenario. A person has a pet, and may have had the pet for many years, but then a new "love" interest comes into their life. This new love interest pulls a either it's me or the pet threat. Since the idiot, and yes, I'm thinking the person is an idiot to be so blinded by love for the person, that person will stupidly give up the pet, and yes, it is stupid. Sorry, but if a new love interest came into my life, I would practically do a police interrogation and one of the first questions I would ask, "Do you like animals/pets?" If that person said no, well, let's put it this way, I would show the person to the door and say au revoir. (Update from original article: There actually was one case that still comes to mind to this day. I was busy coming across the urgent cats needing to be rescued from a high kill shelter. One such cat was listed that the reason for the surrender of his girlfriend's cat was due to the fact that he didn't like the color of the cat...a black cat. SAY WHAT? Is love so "blind"? I sure wouldn't put up with that crap.)
8). "Owner Sick, Hospitalized, or Death" Here is were careful planning needs to be done in the event a pet owner becomes sick, hospitalized or passes away and needs to make some kind of arrangements before something happens. Many of the pets that are dumped into shelters due to the pet owner getting sick, needing extended hospitalization or perhaps even placed in a hospice or nursing home, and/or possible death, and the main problem may lie when the pet owner's relatives, friends or other family members don't want to be burdened with the pet(s), so they dump it in a shelter. Pet owners should find a person willing to take care of their pet in the event of their getting sick and/or hospitalized, and in the case of the owner's death have very clear instructions about the fate of their pet(s).
To help with making such arrangements, there are two forms one can download. One is a Pet Guardian Form where it can be filled out and one can clearly state who is to take charge of their pet upon their demise. The other form is a Pet Profile, this is a form where one can fill out all the particulars of the pet involved, such as stating whether the pet is spayed/neutered, microchipped, age, breed, etc.
I have links to these forms below:
Pet Guardian Form
http://www.gotcats.org/guardian.html
Pet Profile Form
http://www.gotcats.org/PetProfile.html
What I have personally done is I have several copies of each form and was able to print photos of each cat directly on each form…one copy I have right in full view on my computer desk, while another is on my hallway bookcase shelf, also in plain view. With each set of forms I also have contact info of people to contact/call in case something happens to me. I also carry around on my person when I go out that contact listing.
There are several other "excuses" people will often give for surrendering or abandoning their pets, but the above that I mention are the seemingly more common reasons.
Day in and day out as I spend hour upon hour crossposting the urgent pets that need to be saved and rescued over at Facebook, especially from high kill shelters, I have to admit to being puzzled as to why people have gotten the mind set that pets are disposable, to be gotten rid of as if they were so much garbage. Animals do have feelings just as we humans do, they are living, breathing souls just as we are. They can and do demonstrate many of the emotions we humans feel. They can feel pain, can demonstrate sadness or grief (as in cases where their owner or fellow companion animal dies), they can also demonstrate joy as well.
If a person does decide to adopt a pet, that person needs to realize that they are obligated and responsible to take care of that pet for its entire life. People must wake up to the fact that pets are not disposable commodities. What's really pathetic is that many pet owners probably don't even realize what fate may be in store for that pet they now no longer want and dumped off at a shelter; if people think that their former pet is going to have a happily ever after story, and their pet will be adopted again, they must realize that isn't always the case.
Yes, while many of these surrendered pets particularly in high kill shelters are saved and rescued, the vast majority aren't and are euthanized, a nice way of saying killed, worse yet, not all shelter pets in high kill shelters are killed off by lethal injection, but by shoving these unwanted pets into a gas chamber where they die a slow and agonizing death. Everyday thousands, yes thousands of shelter pets are killed nationwide. In order to stop the needless killing of healthy pets that wind up in shelters, pet owners must view their pet as a family member and take care of that pet forever.
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