Time for a RANT!

The shelter where I volunteer would be considered a high kill shelter.  I won't go into the various rankings in the shelter shelter system, but every day the animals I'm lucky enough to work with face the threat of euthanasia.  We're essentially the pound for the entire city of Philadelphia... no animal can be turned away from our doors.  I can't begin to express how hard this is from an emotional point of view, but I feel that this is where I can make the biggest difference; even if I can only comfort a dog or cat for a half hour before it's humanely euthanized I've done something.  Some of these poor guys have not received any affection in their entire lives...

Recently one of my friends and a staff member at the shelter was called a murderer.  I'm still very upset about this and naturally, they are too.  this person puts so much love and care into what they do and even volunteers their time on top their normal work hours.  They also have to make very tough decisions on a daily basis.  Like I mentioned before no animal can be turned away and there's only so much space.  Space-related euthanasia sucks,  but it's a necessity due to the environment.

There are rescues and sanctuaries that exist that don't have to euthanize animals except in cases of poor health or mental deterioration.  That's a wonderful thing, but those kind of establishments don't take in every animal that shows up at their doors.  They can decide who gets in and who doesn't.  I know many rescues would like to do more, but there's limits to what they have available as well.

The staff and volunteers at my shelter care for and love animals deeply, but we can't fix the enitre city.  We wil continue to work hard to achieve positive outcomes every single day, but we need all of the help we can get.  One of the easiest things you can do, is spay or neuter your companion animals and avoiding buying animals at pet stores.  If you see a dog a pet store they are from a puppy mill.  No responsible breeder would ever sell their pups at a pet store!  Please help me make this world a better place for our four-legged friends.  Thank you all.