I was shocked beyond belief recently when I visited an animal shelter in town here. It was the shelter tied to the local Animal/Vector Control, and an official 501c3 charitable organization.
It was also a nightmarish hellhole of filth, cruelty, disease, and neglect.
Almost immediately after I posted a scathing account of my visit, I was accosted by people claiming that the cruelty and filth I witnessed is acceptable because insert-excuses-here. For example, that it is okay to keep dogs in tiny wire cages in the halls day in day out, living in their own shit and on pee-soaked towels, because there's no more kennels available. It isn't and should NEVER be okay to keep dogs in such inhumane conditions.
I was also made aware that they are NOT the only shelter in town, just the most horrid. I found out there's a shelter (also a 501c3 charity, but privately run and not affiliated with the Animal Control or police) literally less than five minutes drive away. I looked up the address, and lo, it is the same shelter that about four years ago, I got my cat Ember from.
Back then they had major issues with flea outbreaks, sanitation, and were quick to lie to potential adopters to try and move animals.
Let me explain a little. Just a little, for context.
When I first saw Ember, I knew she was my cat. I don't care to discuss the sudden, instant bond we shared here; just suffice to say it was an immediate feeling of adoration and the need to protect and care for her, and she responded with such overwhelming affection I knew she felt an instant bond, too.
In other words, I didn't care what issues (health OR behavior) she might have had, I was taking her home. No need to lie to me, because there would be NOTHING they could have said that would be a deal-breaker.
Yet, they still lied.
The biggest lies were her age, and her health. They insisted she was two years old, because she was an adult when she arrived at the shelter, and she'd been there at the shelter for a solid year. Now...I'm a professional pet groomer, I'm pretty good at telling an old or even geriatric pet apart from a young thang. Ember had "old cat" feel. She was very mature, had some tartar on her teeth, and had a bunch of benign fatty tumors, also known as lipomas. That is primarily an age-related thing. One was larger than a golf ball.
I told them that I don't care if she's two or TWENTY, she's my cat now, I just wanted to know the truth because senior cat care is light years apart from young cat or kitten care. They insisted she's just two.
My vet later confirmed she was in her TEENS when she arrived at that shelter. We estimate she's 17-ish now.
They also told me she had NO health problems. None whatsoever. She smelled awful, had hunks of fur missing, and scabs all over. No health problems MY ASS!!! They insisted she was healthy and that they had the records of her whole year-long stay to prove it.
When I took her to the vet, the vet looked in her ears and found she had SEVERE ear infections, both yeast-based AND bacteria-based, and that she'd had ear infections so long and without treatment that her ear canals are totally messed up with scars and BOTH HER EARDRUMS RUPTURED SOME TIME AGO, due to infection. Because of the damage to her ears, she's almost totally deaf.
The vet said part of the problem, and the cause of her patchy/scabby coat, is because of a flea allergy. The shelter did grudgingly admit they had flea infestations on a regular basis.
It was such a negative experience, I would have cancelled the adoption EXCEPT...I was totally bonded to this cat, and vice versa. But I vowed never to return to that shelter.
After years had gone by, I changed my mind and decided to go have a look, yesterday. It was a different world.
First, the people who run it are all new, and have all new volunteers. They have a really gorgeous new building; no cramped cages in hallways, it's all spacious dog kennels and cat towers. Everything smelled fantastic, it was well organized, and all but one of the animals looked SO HAPPY. They all had soft beds to lie on, toys to play with, fresh water, and clean living spaces. The one dog that was scared was new and huddled in the back of her huge kennel, clutching a soft plush in her mouth as she lay curled up on a soft bed. The kennels were much more than TWICE as large as the city shelter!!!! The city-shelter dogs had no toys or beds to lie on...by contrast, this private shelter animals were so content and calm.
The cat rooms were so pleasant!!! Some cats are allowed to roam the room for extra exercise and socialization. I kept getting accosted by an overly friendly tabby and a pair of normally-shy torties as I looked at the cats taking a break from "floor time." The volunteers, instead of acting like I'm some kind of criminal, were eager to chat with and engage with me, talking about their favorite shelter pets and the pluses as well as minuses of each of their charges.
In short, it is the shelter that every shelter wishes they could be.
Clean. Spacious. Comforting to the animals. Well-lit. Well-maintained. Good sanitation and drainage.
The flea problem is a thing of the past, as is the previous staff and their lying. It's beautiful.
Each pet had a little card describing them, some with photos of the day they arrived. It was this, combined with my keen groomer's eye, that showed me that if a pet arrived in rough shape, they'd be vetted, fed, and groomed as needed. The descriptions of personalities and favorite things, as well as the volunteers telling me about the pets in their charge, speaks volumes about how much attention each animal receives.
I am still leery of taking on shelter pets ever again, but I think I'd like to start volunteering and fostering for this shelter after I graduate. Right now I just don't have TIME, what with being a health-sciences major, but later on when my life is less hectic and I have a place of my own? Yeah, I might try fostering for sure. I saw no less than THREE dogs that seemed promising who simply had a lack of training and manners. A little work polishing their behavior and putting some training on 'em and they would be very ideal companion pets.
It is within the scope of my abilities, so I think I'd like to try.
But Afghan Hound, I hear some say, you hate shelters! Uhm, that is bullshit. I hate BAD shelters. The fact is there's more and more bad shelters out there (over 6,000 shelters were raided for animal cruelty and neglect last year, comprising about a third of all hoarding cruelty cases...so don't try and tell me the bad ones don't exist!) and it has become difficult to find a good one. Indeed, the local Vector/Animal Control affiliated shelter is a sight worthy of nightmares!!!
I am a staunch breeder ally and advocate. But a part of supporting good breeders is to support ethical breed rescue. I would be comfortable offering my services to this particular shelter in the not-too-distant future.
Furthermore, it paints the other, cruel/neglectful/disgusting shelter in even a more disparaging light, since this haven of love and care is literally about a mile or two away from the shithole. It's like heaven and hell on earth for stray or lost animals. Except the actions or inactions of innocent animals don't decide to which place they go, it's simply luck-- or lack thereof.
By the way...I'm still trying to get the rotten shelter reported. I'm holding back a little until an attorney can find more information. Hopefully that shithole can be shut down soon.
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