A perhaps heartless suggestion

I've always thought that people bringing kittens or puppies to the shelter (because they were too lazy, cheap, to have then altered) should bring the whole family and watch while other animals are euthanized to make room for those cute little babies. And I would make then spend a few minutes with those animals before it happened, so they could look in their eyes, understand that they're a living, breathing creature with a personality.

There's too much "if I don't see it, it didn't happen" in the world today. I would not be opposed to people seeing the consequences of neglecting their responsibility to their pets. But then, my life has been somewhat taken over by taking care of other people's discards, so I'm kind of a hardass on the subject.

get ready to have a lot less volunteers.
Usually, it is the volunteers and rescue workers who ARE making a difference and picking up the pieces of the irresponsible owners and backyard breeders. We need to reach the irresponsible, the ones that are the problem, not the ones trying to be part of the solution and helping already.

Your mind IMHO is in the right place but check your heart... I have had my last three :rb: babies go in my arms and still have Nightmares though it was the right and loving thing for them... I might say yes if you have some there for abusing animals but not a school kid who is just trying to graduate or someone who messed up non violently...

For me it has a lot to do with understanding consequences. I think those who contribute to the problem maybe sleep too well at night, perhaps a nightmare is what they need. A responsible pet owner who wants nothing other than to walk the dogs or give the kitties some love and companionship, probably not. Although, I don't know how you volunteer somewhere without being aware of what goes on in THE ROOM. Seeing a face one day and not the next, I don't have to see it...my imagination takes care of that for me.

Of the thousands of cats taken in by our local HS in 2009, I think 40+% found homes. Maybe some people have to witness it to make it real. And even worse, there are probably people made to work as punishment who could care less one way or another. People like that should probably not serve out their sentence with animals anyway.

Those who are there of their own free will trying to help know already. They wouldn't be there if they didn't. Some may not act like they do, but you can't really judge someone because you are not them and can never know what they truly think or feel.

The other two categories.. I agree, it's going to be rough enough on a lot of kids. And who's to say those serving community service haven't been through loss already to understand?

Treat them like human beings. Don't coddle them, but don't seek out teaching them any sort of lesson because of other people's mistakes. That just sounds like spite.

I hear where you're coming from- however I don't think it should be mandatory. Here's my opinion- and this is gonna sound weird but it's the only thing I can think of right now that's similar....

In 9th grade Biology, we had to dissect a frog. We weren't required to dissect the frog, but if we didn't then we would have to do a totally different project but we wouldn't be penalized for it. It would just be more work.

So, I think that it should be like that. It should be requested, and if the person declines to do it, then they should have to do some crappy shelter work, like picking up poop or cleaning windows or doing laundry something, not the fun parts of volunteering at a shelter. And they should have to do a certain amount of hours doing that instead of watching an animal or two being euthanized. That way they have an option. I don't think that there will be that many less volunteers if that was the policy.

(I know, my description of the frog thing was kinda weird but like I said, it's the only thing I can think of at the time.)

People meeting a school or legal community service requirement...that, I'm not sure about. Someone who's serving a sentence might have fun watching the critters die, and I wouldn't want that to get fed in them...and for the kids that pick it because they love animals, I'd expect it to be hard enough for them just to know it's going on. Don't shelter them from it, but also, there's no need to push it at them.

But...people who bring in a pet to surrender...I think they should have to assist or at least observe in putting down the same kind of animal, and be told about Fluffy or Fido's real odds of coming out of the shelter alive. I can't believe people still don't know that they're practically killing their pet by surrendering it, but if they don't, someone definitely should remove all doubt for them.

Not a good idea. Volunteers who get upset by seeing this kind of thing would get very upset, and anyone who doesn't care isn't going to suddenly develop empathy. Doesn't work that way.

Not everybody who brings animals in (like a bunch of kittens) is the person responsible for their being. Sometimes it is a person in the neighborhood bringing in strays, or sometimes it is someone who is bringing in a cat or kitten dumped off on their property. Why should they be made to watch a euthanasia as punishment as it were?

I know of a few people that were forced into public service chose to stay and continue to volunteer at the shelter I used to work with, even when their obligation ran out. I understand what you are trying to do with this, but think that you have the wrong audience. Have the people that drop off their pets at shelters stay to watch them be euthanized. It might change their minds the next time around.

That is a very good point- the audience might be the wrong type. I mean, if you have people that HAVE to do public service for their probation for instance, they might not give a crap about animals in the first place, and if they watch them die, then they might just be like "well who cares one less thing to think about" or something. But the people that don't take the time to try and find good, secure homes for their pets before just dropping them off at some shelter not knowing their fate should HAVE to watch them die, knowing that poor, innocent lives were taken solely by their doing and could be avoidable (in most cases- every case is different and unique) but in general, most people don't want to face the reality of the situation.

So far we have the volunteers we don't want to upset, the hardhearted who are beyond feeling, and the innocent surrenderers who are not at fault. Somewhere in the middle there must be at least a small number of people who are in denial about the end result of bringing a pet to a shelter. You know, the ignorance is bliss folks. I don't know, I still think that numbers are just numbers until you see it, then it's real. I can't imagine what kind of denial you'd have to be in to volunteer in a shelter and not be haunted by that room. If nothing else, I would think every volunteer should be taken there and the process explained, even if an animal is not actually euthanized. In the case of Emily, the RB kitty who prompted this thread, maybe knowing the consequences of a mistake might have prevented it.

If something horrible happened tomorrow and I had to get rid of every one of my cats, I hate to say it, but I would have a number of them euthanized rather than take them to a shelter. Due to temperment, health, etc., some animals can never be adopted. I'm not so naive to believe they could be. I wonder sometimes if people really know this when they take their animals in, but so long as they don't see it or know it happened, they don't have to feel bad about it. Am I making sense?

Having pretty much assisted when I lost my sixteen year old last May......I agree.........

Isn't it hard enough to get volunteers? Making that a requirement of volunteering would make sure that the volunteer pool would be significantly less. While it's true that some have to volunteer as a requirement, but they chose to do their volunteering at a shelter. I don't believe they need to taught to treat animals well.

I'm pretty sure that every volunteer realizes that animals are put to sleep, they certainly don't have to see it to know that it's real. I know it happens, I don't need to see it, I know child abuse happens, I don't need to see that, I know murders happen, I don't need to witness one to make it more "real" or teach me to be kind.

We have such a hard time getting volunteers, that would never fly. As is, I have spent an entire year not taking one single open day off, bare minimum 3 days/week - that is 8 hours. Plus I'm updating petfinder, creating a new website - we're talking over 40 hours/week because there isn't enough help. Ummm....I left at 10AM today for shelter stuff & got home at 9PM. How's that for a lack of volunteers? Oh yeah - when I got home I put 7 new puppies & 6 new kittens on the internet!

Not to mention - we don't have someone who euthanizes at the shelter, we don't want to. Yes, we can take classes to do so - but no one has to desire (not to mention having to deal with them once they're gone, storing bodies, etc). A local vet clinic is where we take animals to be euthanized.

And honestly? Some of the pets we euthanize I don't agree with, at all. It's hard enough to come to the decision of "yes we need to euthanize this pet", let alone to have to watch it. It was hard enough to euthanize the foster dog I had lived with for 6 weeks (he had human aggression issues).

If it's a true stray, that's different. It's the pet surrenders that get me. Which Chilsa was missing for a few weeks, I was at the shelter every few days to check the cages, and I'd overhear so many people surrendering their pets...I wanted to knock heads together, seriously.
... The owner needs a pound of Benadryl where the sun don't shine, if anyone wants my opinion. That is just a really dumb reason.

Is she good with other cats? My two grew up with an older cat around...

I think that the volunteers who would be willing to watch such a video will be the ones who will have the love & courage to be the best volunteers.
Depending on the crime(s) committed, I would think that a dose of watching, combined with mandatory post-euthansia cleaning & disposal duties would do the trick ( like Orange County's program where teen DUI offenders attended autopsies).
Your idea is harsh, but not as harsh as those poor pets suffering the realities!!! If we are to change this world into a better place, we humans, as a species, needs to muster the courage and the love to "cowboy up" and face the realities of life/death. Otherwise, we simply accept the unacceptable because it's easier for us, no matter the suffering that our complacency allows/ causes to happen.
Soldier on, true animal lovers

Especially here in the rural areas where they still gas them, it isn't the easy euthanasia our pets experience at the vets office. Or would that just encourage more people to dump them to survive on their own so they would "At least have a chance"? I hate that phrase. Have a chance for what? To starve? To be run over? Maybe to be killed by larger animals that someone else wanted to "Have a chance"?

Maybe one in a thousand dumped animals finds it's way to someone like me, and of the ones I meet over half are so traumatized that even I can't get their trust. And more have suffered permanent damage from heartworms or other parasites, starvation or injury.

Oops, sorry, didn't mean to turn this into a rant.

I don't think it is really fair to assume that every person who has ever turned over an animal doesnt know or doesnt care.

Yes there are a vast many people who turn over animals for dumb, careless, lazy or just plain ignorant reasons...but for some it really is the very last option. After they have tried every other way. So many people are losing their homes, jobs, livelihoods in these tough times...do you think all of them who have ended in the result of having to give a pet away went to the shelter first? Do you think none of them prayed, begged, and pleaded to find a place for their pet while they are looking for a permant home for the whole family?

We all know how bad the problem is now, do we not also know how difficult it becomes to find a pet a home when so many are losing their own homes? How can we tell the next person walking in that before they do this they have to watch an animal die?

For the people who care enough to be upset by this, most are not giving the pet away without a thought. For those who arent giving a second thought to how their behavior contributes to the problem...most don't care.

In an attempt to punish the owners who don't see pets as living feeling beings, in turn you have to punish those who already know, who have tried with all they have even after losing it all. It is easy to think that all the animals turned over were turned over by ignorant or uncaring people. But many people are not just broken hearted today because they lost their home, and job but also because the result is that they lost a member of the family.

I am not saying all of the people who turn over animals are in this situation. Sadly most really do just use shelters as a dump site...but let me ask you...can you at first sight tell the differeance? Until you can...this type of "punishment" won't help anyone. Not volunteers, not owners, not anyone.

I am not supporting pet surrender, but it is some peoples last option. Until we have a way to weed out those who are using it as a last option from the vast many who are not this idea just risks punishing those who are already punishing themselves while probably only affecting a small number of the rest.
Anyway this is my opinion.

I'm curious of how many people who know how impossible it is to place an animal, and know that theirs are not likely to be adopted due to age, temperment, illness, etc., still take them there rather than have them euthanized privately. I believe the surrender cost at the shelter here is $60. Without a bunch of add ons, I still think euthanasia at a clinic is cheaper and kinder.

When I was at the clinic I remember only one such person who brought two dogs in to be euthanized. Neither was a good candidate for adoption and the owner could no longer keep them. It was hard for me to understand at the time, but I know now that this individual loved them too much to drop them at a shelter. I have probably 6 that I could never put through the shelter experience.

Euthanasia at my vet with disposal is over $200, its certainly cheaper to surrender them to animal control for euthanasia here and many people do, leaving them in a cage overnight in a strange place before being euthanised.

Then we have the vets who call us up because they dont agree with the euthanising and they end up in the shelter with issues because the vets didnt want to euthanise a 'healthy' animal but their temperments mean they dont get adopted.

But back on topic, I don't agree at all with making anyone watch a euthanasia and we could not survive, especially in busy months, with less volunteers and making them watch a euthanasia would mean less volunteers.

At our shelter, no volunteer just gets to do the fun stuff, and we don't accept court ordered community service. All high school community hours are through our feed & clean program, they clean the cages, change the food etc and can snuggle with each cat while scooping poop.

On the "person's last option" issue...I still don't buy it. Here's how I see it.

If for whatever reason I needed to re-home my cats and couldn't do it other than by taking them to the shelter, I would take them out to some middle-of-nowhere farm, let them out of the cat carrier, and wish them well. I am anti-pet-dumping too but if the option were take them to the shelter where they have no chance (they're both skitty, especially around strangers, and the less skitty one is all black...I know what I'm saying when I say NO CHANCE) or to take them to a farm where they could live out the remainder of their natural lives catching mice, to me it's a no-brainer. I know why cats are better off indoors and I keep them indoors now but if they couldn't be anyone's indoor cats I'd rather they be wild mousetraps, even with shorter lives than an indoor cat, instead of being killed and thrown away at the shelter.

I accept that this may be an unpopular opinion.

See here, the farmers do one of two things with cats dumped off - they either shoot them or the better ones will bring them into the shelter or animal control depending on how they act - I would rather euthanise the ones I know could not be rehomed and know they went peacefully.

Unpopular doesn't even come close. And I agree with you that it's a no-brainer. People who leave cats off at farms don't have any.

I live on a farm, out in the middle of nowhere. I now have 21 cats, many of which are here become someone else can't face up to their responsibilities. I feed them, I foot their vet bills, I provide shelter for them, and if I don't get to them first (or before the coyotes) I scrape their bodies off the road and bury them.

People who dump animals in the country should witness the true reality of it. They get sick. They starve. It would make watching a pet be euthanized seem like a walk in the park. All that aside, I believe it's a crime.

Wow. I was curious so I went and pulled some receipts. At the clinic here a straight euthanasia is $29. The last one I took in was to the Eclinic, which is always more expensive, $76. There is a place in Salem that does private cremations for $69., but I figure if cost is an issue that burying them is free.

Here it's $80+ to euthanize a pet, if you want the ashes back after cremation is probably $150.