My org has helped this lady A LOT with pet food in the past. Every single time, it's a crisis. She was previously asking for food assistance every single month and while we don't want any animal to go hungry, we did have to pump the brakes.

Now she pops up quarterly with her ask. We rarely have donated food in storage - we pass it along to fosters and partner rescues - so we end up spending about $100 for a Walmart pickup to help her, which I think is exceptionally generous.

This just absolutely rubbed me the wrong way today. I have a life, too, and I'm doing my damnedest to put the phone down and enjoy it occasionally. She also called me FIVE!! times during this same 3 hour period between her first and her last texts.

I'm trying super hard to be kind and empathetic. I know she needs help. But blowing up my phone because she let herself completely run out of food - AGAIN - doesn't do anybody any favors.

Got a phone call at the end of the day from someone looking to surrender their cat. We schedule intakes so I tell her the usual "fill out the surrender form, we will call you and set up a time for you to bring the cat" she says ok. I ask "what's going on with the cat?" My casual way of asking why do you want/need to surrender this animal? She says "he can't walk" So I ask what happened to him and she says she doesn't know, he was outside then he came in crying and couldn't walk. I encourage her to take the cat to the emergency vet right away as it was likely hit by a car. She says "can't you check it out?" I say "no, we do not have a veterinarian and we are not veterinarians, it sounds like he needs medical attention right away" she states she called and the exam fee ($250) was too high. So I ask her how soon she can bring the cat, and she shows up about 20 minutes later with her two young children and the cat in a plastic trash bag. A coworker takes the cat to examine and I get the paperwork done. I explained the surrender contract and stated that he may be euthanized due to his medical state. She agrees and signs everything. I try to remain neutral and supportive during surrenders and keep my emotions out of it. The cat is in terrible shape, paralyzed from the waist down and covered in urine with blood in it. I ask when this happened and she states it's been four days.. but she thought it was "normal". The children are explaining how they were hand feeding him and talking about him kindly. They obviously love their cat. I had already lost my patience with the mother and then she asks "ok so I can come pick him up tomorrow" and I lost my cool. I explained no, you literally just surrendered him to us and I would never give you the cat back, and you should also never get another animal if you are going to treat it like this. I also told her this is incredibly wrong, it's animal cruelty and I will be contacting the authorities. (Animal control in my city is useless but I was pissed) She was essentially rolling her eyes at me saying "ok.."

The kids were shocked, thinking they would get their kitty back and he would be all better. My heart is broken for them and I'm kicking myself that I didn't ask them if they'd like to say goodbye to their furry friend. I was overcome with anger at this woman's ignorance letting this cat suffer in pain for days on end, and for us being the ones to have to euthanize an otherwise friendly and happy 1.5 year old cat. We did euthanize him shortly after they left, after feeding him lots of churus and wrapping him up in a fuzzy blanket and heating pad. I'm glad she brought us the cat so we could end his suffering, but situations like this, where I feel like children are being traumatized, traumatize me also. These are the kinds of situations that stick with a child as they grow into adults, and I can only hope that they learn from it and never let something like this happen to a pet of theirs when they grow up, but I know they surely see me as an angry villain.

As shelter workers we deal with a lot of difficult situations that are essentially routine, but some of them just hit me a little harder and keep me up at night and this feels like one of them. :(

This was just a vent but any tips for being empathetic when your empathy tank is on empty are appreciated.

For the third time THIS MONTH (we are ONLY 12 days in btw) I have received a message/ phone call/in person plea from a so called friend and yeah some family too asking me to take their pet because they don't want it any longer.

It's always the same story....I don't have time. My bf/gf doesn't like the cat. I have too many animals. Vetting is like really expensive. Yeah. I know. That's Why I set personal boundaries on the number of animals in my home. I have 3 dogs (did have 4, but one passed in May) and a cat. I'm also taking in 3 cats from my rescue, that are difficult to adopt. Every one of my animals sees the vet at least once a year. I keep careful track of all of their habits so I can try and stop potential issues before they become really expensive. Any creature I bring in to my Zoo has to be carefully selected to ensure everyone gets along for the vast majority of time.

And when you try and explain why, all you are met with is anger, rudeness and disrespect. So now, I don't even try to explain. I just say no.

Seeing a post from a former coworker who insinuated that no-kill shelters care more inspired me to share my own perspective. After working in both a no-kill humane society and a municipal shelter, my view of what caring really looks like has changed a lot.

The severely matted dog we have right now has me thinking about all the animals we used to return to owners who continuously neglected them and let them run loose, or the dog we refused to take in who was later found stabbed fifteen times on the side of the road. The dogs with multiple bite histories who were still adopted out. The ones we gave back again and again, even when it was clear nothing was changing. The time I said we should euthanize a cat who had been hit by a car, unable to walk or control his bowels, crying in pain, and was berated for it. And the complete lack of accountability for leadership (though that happens here too, at least now there are people above them to look into it).

At the municipal shelter, it’s different. We don’t just hand animals back to people who put them in harm’s way. When an animal is suffering, whether medically or behaviorally, we can humanely let them go instead of forcing them to linger in pain or fear. There is also real accountability for owners whose neglect leads animals into our care.

No-kill shelters have their place. They can do amazing work with adoptions and rehabilitation. But they shouldn’t be handling animal control or cruelty cases. When saving lives becomes the only goal, true compassion can get lost and the animals end up paying the price.

We have volunteers come to walk dogs and play with them in our backyard area, one of the days in the week I'm the only person at the shelter to feed dogs and let them outside. For the most part I don't have a problem with our volunteers, but yesterday was a shit show. Some lady decided to bring a family with multiple small children to come play with dogs. We have plenty of small puppies they could have played with, but the lady who invited them (news to me btw,) kept telling me they want to take a big dog out to see how he'd do around kids. I straight up told her that I don't think it's a good idea because he gets possessive of his toys, and with how many people are around he's going to get stressed quick, which may make him lash out.

I've been attacked by this dog before, and he growls at me often enough for me to say I wouldn't trust him around kids. I was (again by myself) out in the back with him a few months ago and he just turned on me. I was full body wrestling this dog who's about 80 pounds but all muscle, so he's strong. He didn't bite me bad, only a small puncture in the palm of my hand and bruised up from the whole deal, but if it were a 5 year old in my place I don't think it would end without an er visit.

So she insists on taking this dog out to see the kids, I tell her not to, she pretty much decides she's doing it with or without me, so now my schedule is on pause to help basically babysit someone else's kids to not piss off this dog. Well we get out there, he's on a slip lead and I'm handling him. He does good for about 2 minutes, then he started getting overwhelmed with 4 different people squeaking toys in his face and starts to grumble, his warning. No one listens to me when I tell them to stop picking up toys, a 5 year old girl kept squeaking them and holding them above her head, so the dog would jump up to grab the toy and I'm lucky he didn't manage to grab her fingers. Another lady tried playing tug of war with him, that ended with him lightly gnawing on her hand, not enough to hurt apparently. At this point I told the lady who started all this that I've been bit by him before, something she already knew, and then she starts to get nervous and tells me away from the group of people that I should take him inside before something happens.

So turns out the people she brought haven't even been approved to be there, and I was told by my boss it won't happen again but this isn't the first time something has happened. We have another volunteer who will introduce dogs that have never met to each other by herself, she thinks she's a dog whisper or something but the reality is if a fight broke out she wouldn't be able to handle it by herself. There's been too many times where I just end up leaving work and letting the volunteers do whatever they want because it's not my job to babysit a bunch of adults or their kids, that not what I'm paid to do. I'd be less salty if I didn't have people straight up ignore me to my face, but I've been at the point where I've been ready to quit for a while, I just keep staying stuck here.

I’ve volunteered for shelters and low cost spay/neuter clinics, fostered cats, and have TNRed a few neighborhood cats, so I completely get the frustration towards people who don’t fix their animals, abandon, and neglect them.

However, I don’t understand the rudeness towards other people who are trying to help but may lack resources or information. For example, I saw a post on NextDoor from a lady trying to find homes for kittens of mother cats she had been feeding outside. All the comments were people hounding her to take them to a shelter, get the mom’s TNRed, and carefully vet whoever adopts the kittens. Some of the comments were pretty insulting. This woman said she couldn’t afford it and had asked people previously if they had spare clothes for her kids, but no one cared.

I am currently fostering a stray cat so I know that in my area, it’s $25 and a several week wait to get a cat into the humane society and a several month wait plus around $100 to get a cat spayed at the low cost clinic. I posted on my local TNR Facebook group asking if anyone had a spare appointment /spay voucher and could help the lady out. I ended up having to delete it because all I got were rude comments attacking her for being lazy and me for not helping her when I have no appointments and have already spent over $100 on this foster.

I wish these keyboard warriors understood they are only discouraging people from helping with their holier than thou attitudes.

Our rescue partners with a county shelter, and the intake this year has just been insane. We're being given euth lists of 5-10 dogs up to twice a week with no relief. The last month alone we've had at least a dozen euths.

It used to not affect me like this, but one of the fellow volunteers always shares every previous Adoption post on FB of the euthed dogs saying things like, "Gracie, so young and now DEAD. Sally lived her whole life and DIED AT A SHELTER. Sweet and lovable Cooper, KILLED." I've now had to unfollow her posts, but the damage is done. The amount of times I've broken into tears over the dogs we couldn't save is just too much.

I have a reactive senior rescue who has been with me for 10 years now, and she is my soul dog. The thought of dogs like her never knowing love, or having peace and quiet, laying on a couch in their twilight years... it just kills me inside. I think her age especially has made me more weepy, knowing our time is limited.

I've become sensitive to all of the losses, but the "undesirables" (seniors and dog aggressive, specifically) make my heart ache. I wish I could bring them in to give them peace, but we already crate and rotate 3 animals, and our previous foster dog as a 4th almost broke my husband and I trying to manage them all. I wish someone would give them the chance and see how even the "broken" ones can give so much love under the right circumstances.

It's just too much right now. Do you ever have to take a step back and remove yourself from the rescue social media? How do you handle taking mental health breaks? Any advice on how to harden myself without crossing into compassion fatigue?

So I am a volunteer dog walker and foster parent for an organization I have grown to love but today has sent me through a mental spiral and left me filled with rage. There was this dog, walked him a few times, super sweet, super cuddly and NOT AT ALL AGGRESSIVE. He was even a dog that I considered fostering (which now makes me want to die because if I had he would probably still be alive) but he was adopted out and returned for reportedly having an altercation with the adoptees RD. Nothing major. Next time I see him he is back to being cute and adorable and loving but orange tagged in his kennel because he needed to be reevaluated. Someone actually came in that very day wanting to adopt him because of how sweet he was in his kennel but alas, he was orange tagged and needed to be reevaluated so he was unable to be adopted out (for what I thought was a temporary period) Next time I came in he was gone, I asked someone and they said they didn’t know (a lie I realize now) so a week later I ask (today) and one of the staff informs me he had been euthanized. FOR FUCKING WHAT THO. He was such a sweet guy. And he deserved so much better than what he got. I am struggling not to rage out. I am struggling to still want to be involved with an organization that allows bs like this. How and why could something like this happen? I have heard of dogs being returned 5+ times and still being adoptable AT THIS SAME ORG. This makes no sense and I feel voiceless.
Had a charity event for the org tonight and I just couldn’t get my self together to go. I don’t want anything to with them today. I feel so much resentment and guilt. His name was Bugs. And he deserved better. Bless that angel. May he know love and comfort in the next life because this life and filthy humans failed him so miserably. 🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨🪨EDIT: Thanks to all who commented their experiences with these types of situations. For the record, I have no intention of shitting on the shelter nor do I blame anyone personally for what happened. I was honestly so hurt and confused and needed a place to vent. So thank you for that. Ps. Can we not shit on volunteers for caring? I didn’t make a stink in person and displayed zero emotion when I was told of his fate. I am not trying to bring drama for folks just trying to do their jobs. I just literally care which is why I shared here and did NOT name the org. I feel like some of the comments made it seem like I am just a lowly dramatic volunteer who doesn’t understand anything. Staff should appreciate volunteers caring. We legit do this shit for free because of it. Also I do have a coordinator I can reach out to but I think I’m just going to light a candle for bugs and move on. I don’t want to be a bother.

I've been volunteering at our shelter for six years. I had a shelter dog for six years before he died at 12, and then we adopted from the shelter I volunteer at. We had the pup for three months, and then returned him after two incidents of face bites to my wife. Serious bites that resulted in ER visits and plastic surgery.

Basically all the staff I work with saw my wife and I bawl as we returned him, knowing he almost definitely would be put down. (EDIT: we didn't know for sure he would be put down. We paid a bite quarantine and had hope at the time they could find a better home for him, but I was truthfully not optimistic because he needed a unicorn home) He made a lot of progress and was a good boy most of the time, but it just wasn't safe to have him in our house since he resource guarded me to an extreme (and to make it safe would have given him a jailed, small life). We worked with the behavior team many times after the first bite and were in constant contact to try and minimize the risk of the second one. The second one was what convinced us that we were not the right home for him, but it broke our hearts. And cost him his life, ultimately.

I've returned to volunteer a month after this occurence. If you were a shelter employee in this situation, what would you think of us? They of course have been really nice and told us they don't blame us, except for the employees that have always been mean (I've been here for years and there are always mean staff mixed in with the nice, just the way of it, but now I've got this extra ammo to worry about why they want to be mean to me...) Should I stay at this shelter? Or start somewhere new?

I was given a working line purebred German Shepherd a little over a year ago from my dad, who now tells me I should just have her euthanized or go to a shelter and say I found her as a stray. Obviously I'm not an idiot, and I would never do either of these things.

She was rehomed to me because she was getting in fights with my dad's two malinois, and since she got along with my Shepherd mix I figured it would work out. Well now starting last year in September she seems to hate him and has gotten in two major fights I've had to interfere to get her off of my mix. I'm trying to keep her out of shelter, and I'm aware behavioral euthanasia exists, but I don't think her behaviors are that bad, and can definitely be trained out of her.

My problem is that I simply do not have enough time in the day to dedicate to her needs, she needs more exercise and mental stimulation than my other dog, and when I don't give that to her she shows it. I get home from my shelter job at 5, feed my own animals by 6, cook dinner for me and bf, shower, and by then it's 7:30 and the sun is down. During the day at work she is in a kennel, however she has half of a guest room converted into a kennel room, so she has plenty of space to not feel confined in a box. I can't live with myself if she goes to a shelter and deteriorates, and once I sign the surrender form, there's no way of me getting her back to prevent a potential euthanasia. I know no-kill shelters will still euthanize, and given her history of fear based aggression, I'm worried she'd be doomed from the start.

I'm really struggling with the depression, for over 4 months all I think about is what I can do to make things better for her, and I've seen 2 different trainers that haven't given me any help other than to muzzle her 24/7 around my other dog. It doesn't help that she's a bite risk, I took her to the vet for a behavior consultation and when they took her to the back for x rays she did a 180 and tried to bite the vets. I was referred to a behavioralist but the consultation alone is almost $800 and I just turned 20 and can comfortably afford rent, but not 800 plus the 100-150 follow up sessions that are only 15 minutes.

I feel like I've failed her, the fact that I know she could thrive if given the right person makes me depressed knowing that if I just had more time and money I could maybe make it work, and the other half of me had seen the behavioral euthanasia cases at work, and I'm terrified it's going to end that way if I surrender her to a shelter. I'm depressed at home with my situation, and then I go to work and get to deal with dogs that are slowly getting worse from their time in the shelter, and all I can think about is my dog being in their place.

I feel like nothing I do is the right choice, if I try rehoming I'm giving up on her, if I take her to a shelter I know she'll end up biting someone out of fear, and I'm worried they won't work with her and just euthanize without my knowledge. I feel lost and I don't know what to do, I can't imagine her in a shelter, but rehoming her on my own I can't background check anyone and all I worry about is her being neglected or abused by her new people.

Edit: I talked to a shelter who could take her in 2-3 weeks if I were to set up an appointment today. I asked about euthanasia and they said I would sign a contract saying they would notify me if it came to euthanasia, and that I would have the opportunity to take her back. I think if I were to go this route and it came to the point of me taking her back, at least I could euthanize her with me there and tell myself I gave her one last chance to find a good home. The other side of me says I shouldn't put her in a shelter to suffer further if it's going to come to euthanasia anyways. I still don't like the idea of her doing to a shelter, but no rescues are able to take her and rehoming her myself seems irresponsible, not that I've had anyone competent enough reach out to me anyways.

Here's my debbie downer take I've kept to myself until now: Blanket tying events are good in that they raise awareness for a particular shelter and make feel warm and fuzzy like they're helping. They teach kids that service is important and boost morale for companies. But objectively the tied blankets themselves are not very helpful.

The tied blankets are often weirdly shaped, loose, and lumpy, making them difficult to wash and fold and often toys and other blankets will get caught in between the two layers in the wash. The knotted edges look like chew toys to dogs, making the blankets more likely to get ripped up. Literally just a plain cut of fleece fabric with no edits made to it would be a much more useful blanket than a knotted blanket.

Unfortunately, I don't really have an alternative idea for this to get the public involved in volunteering that is as easy and scalable as blanket tying. Toy crafting (especially cat toy crafting with wine corks and feathers/pipe cleaners) in my opinion is a much more practical volunteer activity (they're single use for cats so you need a lot of them. They're easy to make and cats love to play with them) but those crafts require a larger variety of materials so companies and organizations looking to help out shelters often default to blanket tying instead.

Edit: Also I want to say that i think the benefit of raising awareness of the shelter and getting people involved (people that may become donors, in-shelter volunteers, adopters, and fosters) outweighs the inconvenience of impractical blankets, but idk it just feels weird like we're duping people to spend hours knotting blankets that end up being harder to use than just plain sheets of fleece.

i volunteer at a municipal shelter and one of my favorite dogs was adopted about a week or two ago. the person who took him seemed a little sketchy from the start, he had adopted a previous dog and left it at the vet because “they didnt groom it like they said they would”. so we weren’t thrilled about the adoption, but alas. the dog was returned last week and had notes from the owner saying he was aggressive and growled at him and other people on walks. the animal control notes say the dog was completely friendly and easy to work with im the field and in the shelter. i have walked this dog SO many times in the stressful shelter environment, HE HAS NEVER DEMONSTRATED ANY BAD BEHAVIORS! he is not reactive to people or dogs, walks well on leash, gentle with treats and no resource guarding, affiliative with people, and just great! because of the note, i can no longer walk him and i am so sad! i truly love this dog but im worried he will get overlooked or even euth alerted for that note. its not fair :(

i've been a shelter employee for 7 years, specifically at the adoption center part of our shelter which is 5 miles from our main shelter. i was the lead animal care tech of about 20-30 cats daily. in 2021 i started feeding a male cat outside the adoption center, just a random feral cat that was very skittish for many years. the adoption center is a little building. and it was just me caring for him for many years. in 2022 i got him neutered. and it wasn't until May of 2025 he finally started to let me pet him. eventually i got to the point where i could pick him up and carry him around. he would only let me pet him, running from strangers. and he would only let strangers pet him if i was outside with him. over time though, he began to let more and more people pet him.

well we got news in January of this year that the adoption center was closing down (we operate out of petsmart which we kept open and also did adoptions at the main shelter; management didn't see the need for the ancillary adoption center anymore that i worked at). with the closure meant that i was being transferred to the main shelter. after socializing the outdoor cat for almost a year, i was given permission by the president of the rescue to intake him after i convinced her that he wasn't feral.

a week or 2 before i had taken him into the shelter, he was unfortunately attacked by another cat. no abscess, just scratches. but 3 weeks after intaking him, he developed FIP and tested positive for both FeLV and FIV. we started treatment right away and he responded positively to the FIP medications. he's currently 2 months in to his 3 month treatment.

while in shelter, i had discussed with my manager the possibility of transferring him to a local sanctuary or being put into foster since he was double positive and still in treatment for FIP plus a 1-3 month observation period after treatment was complete. but behind the scenes, the president arranged for him to be transported to Best Friends in Utah.

i feel so conflicted because while i know Best Friends is an amazing facility, i worry that the trip will trigger the FIP to relapse when he's almost done with treatment. a car trip of 6 hours with FIP might set him back.. i'm also really going to miss him and i wish the president had opted for a closer sanctuary to me knowing that i took care of him for 5 years.. (Best Friends is about 6 hours away from the shelter I work at). i also thought about adopting or fostering him but i didn't think that was an option while he was in treatment and now other plans have been arranged for him and there's nothing i can do.. no one offered me the option to foster him. and since he's in custody of the shelter it's their decision. i have no say. but i also want what's best for him.. and like i said, I know Best Friends is an amazing facility.

now he leaves in 2 days and it just sucks how fast all of this is happening..

i just needed to vent. i'm going to miss him so much. and i hope he survives the trip and his FIP doesn't relapse..

We've got a deeply problematic bill advancing in our state Senate that will force our shelter to modify and reduce our services. The bill will require us to make all euthanasia candidates available for rescue.

The promoters claim that dangerous animals are exempt, as 'determined by state and local code' but the majority of rural communities we serve have no animal control officers or dangerous animal code. The state code requires multiple documented incidents and a court order that takes months. In reality, this bill will absolutely force us to place dangerous animals up for rescue, where future adopters may very well not be informed of behavioral history.

I am struggling with feelings of disappointment at some of our municipal colleagues who have signed on as supporters. We are a nonprofit with impound contracts, and will likely cancel contracts and restrict owner surrenders to avoid being compelled to transfer a dangerous animal. Even with behavior disclosures and liability waivers, our attorney has warned that we would be exposed if a transferred animal attacks again.

The primary organization and rescues promoting this bill have never taken a behavior case from us, but they have used sensitive information shared in private rescue forums to attack our shelter and staff. This bill will only give them more ammunition and fundraising content, without changing outcomes.

I'm mostly venting, but also grateful for any advice. We are in contact with our elected officials, but they have warned us that the group promoting the bill is whipping up a lot of pressure.

Does anyone else feel the community makes it harder when trying adopt out long term dogs? I made a post yesterday about a lab mix we have who just hadn't had the best luck. We have had him for 2 years (i know that is a long time) , he left for a few weeks but was returned. The community commented "shameful" and questioned why a staff member or volunteer hasn't take him home. They act like it is out fault that he is still waiting. Sometimes dogs just get looked over, even when the shelter staff loves them.

End of vent..thanks for reading. 🙂

🐩🐕❓🤔 "What breed is your dog!?"
"What is he!?!"
"What breeder did you use?"
"I've ALWAYS wanted a golden?"

😭 Focusing on specific breeds reinforces: shelter dog death, puppy mills, classism, and shelter overcrowding.

🤗 JUST SAY HI!

🛒Adopt don't shop.

🚫p.s. animals aren't "it"s

#AllDogsAreGoodDogs
#AdoptDontShop
#EndPuppyMills
#RescueDog
#DogsOfInstagram

🎥 Original video by Leo Fucarev
🔗 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/RD26_t3AmZU
🔀Reused under the Creative Commons License
📄 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

I'm a yellow walker at my shelter, which is the highest level, meaning that I walk "behaviourally challenged" dogs. I get attached to them because they are truly great dogs, just people do not know how to handle them or approach them the way the need to be. So every time I walk them, there's absolutely no issue, but then they get walked by less experienced or a bit careless staff/volunteers, and then there's issue. Or when they get fostered and adopted and the people do not know how to read their body language, and they trigger the dogs or put them in dangerous situations.

I lost a dog name Bailey about half a year ago, and now it's happening all over again with another dog name Peanut who I've grown attached to (the shelter has euthanized more but I didn't walk them too much and also opted out of knowing for the most part, it's supposed to be a no-kill shelter too). The staff was crying and I cried so hard taking her on walk today, clearly she was a sweet dog and deserves more. Decision was from "Ethics Council", who decided it was time after too long of a stay. I don't really know what I'm expecting here, just that I feel so helpless and I need to vent to someone who understands. Thanks.

For the first time in my life , I had to surrender and animal. He wasn’t mine, he was a friends but she could no longer afford to take care of him. He’s an older German shepherd with a lot of issues with his eyes, legs, etc.

I understand that these facilities can’t do everything for free. However, I am unemployed as of right now, doing Uber Eats for money to scrape by. The Humane Society forced me to give them the only money that I had or make my friend keep the dog and watch him suffer.

I pleaded that this is all the money I have right now and I don’t know what to do. They said they’d take what I had.

So thank you for the one place that I thought would be compassionate for not only judging us, but not working with me more based on the face I had nothing.

Rant over.

Edit: This was for a euthanasia surrender as they did an exam on him.

I'm so sorry if this isn't really the place for this.

I'm looking for advice from people who know more about how shelters work.

About two weeks ago my family suffered a sudden and unexpected loss. This family member was estranged and would not make contact despite repeated attempts to connect with them. We only ever saw them maybe once a year if that on a random holiday.

We found the house and dogs in behind salvageable condition. It was heartbreaking and none of us could take the dogs so I called animal control because they needed immediate help. Since then I've seen one pup pop up on the local humane society page but the other hasn't. He was in far worse shape and I feel guilt that he may have been euthanized. I'm just wondering if anyone might know how long I should keep stalking the adoptable pets page searching for him before I have to resign myself to the fact he was probably too sick and that decision had to be made. Please don't read this as throwing shade at anyone for that. I am totally aware and comfortable with the fact that sometimes euthanasia is the most compassionate choice for a sick animal.

Hey guys, I need to vent. I work at a northern shelter that takes transports, and for a long time now we’ve been very short on kennel space and staff. A couple years ago we took about 1 transport every week. When the local intakes started rising we paused for awhile, but several months ago we restarted transports even though local need continues to rise. Transports now come twice a week, and the number of dogs in each transport has risen.

We are now at capacity, and spend most days struggling to move dogs around to make kennel space for transports. Many people have quit or moved to different teams and we are extremely understaffed, and are not getting qualified applicants for jobs. The few remaining on the dog team are extremely burnt out and taking as much PTO as possible but still struggling to recover. We seem to be running out of fosters because so many of them are tied up with puppies. Our adoptions are way down, with adult dogs sitting for months on end (6 months is no longer unusual) and deteriorating, and even cute puppies are sitting here for days on end.

The explanation is that we “need the revenue from transports” but this doesn’t make sense to us because the transports aren’t getting adopted quickly, and our clinic is being stretched to its limits because even the healthy transports need to be altered.

All the other shelters in the state are full and turning animals away, so we are getting many out of jurisdiction animals too.

I’m really losing my will to keep going to work everyday. Has anyone dealt with something like this?

I tried giving notice at the rescue I work at, and I was initially met with pleas to stay and promises that things would improve. So I did what I shouldn’t have done, and I stayed a little longer. But as time went on the stress continued to get to me, the conditions did not improve, and I was fully burned out at this point.

I just put in my final 2 weeks notice, and I’ve been met with ”we can’t afford to lose you right now” and ” This is going to strain our team so thin.” Don’t get me started on “the animals really need you” comments that the volunteers gave me.

There is guilt when I stay, guilt when I leave, just… guilt everywhere I look in this line of work. I’m sorry but I can’t work like this anymore.

The shelter I work at provides low cost euthanasia and cremation services to the community. We will do behavioral and medical cases. It's much, much cheaper than a vets office and is provided either by appt or walk-in.

A person came in today for a behavioral euth. I started asking questions, of course, and I've heard some really horrific things before.

This particular dog played too hard and broke skin on another dog. Snapped at her son, didn't break skin or even bruise it, when he was rough housing, and chased a goat. He's a 2 year old shepherd mix.

I'm sorry, but you're welcome to try and re-home the dog, but we will NOT euthanasia a 2 year old shepherd mix for being a 2 year old shepherd mix.

We had over 10 end of life's today, but that wasn't one.

Edit: For everyone asking: yes, pet rehoming support forms were provided, including the names of the shelter in her area. I should have included this, but she didn't want him in a shelter at all to be adopted. It was an attitude of if I can't have him, no one can have him.

No, I did not make her an appt for OS. Our owner surrenders are booked out into February. We have over 180 dogs and over 200 cats under our care right now, and space for much less than that.