Although it applies generally, this particular story concerns the Hillsborough County Pet Resource Center which I have mentioned before in articles about the mismanagement of the seizing of cats from a shelter in Plant City, Tampa, Florida. In those articles there were indications that the cats that they had seized were being unjustifiably euthanized. A rescue from a rescue that went wrong.
Today I have been directed to another story about the Pet Resource Center in which it is alleged that animals are being killed to make space but the reason given is that they are suffering from kennel stress or some other ill health problem which justifies the euthanasia.
If it’s correct then the reason why shelters cover up killing for space is because they need to attract sponsorship and sponsors quite naturally find euthanasia (killing) of healthy animals to make space as unattractive and a resource to which they might not wish to donate funds.
Dr Alan Alence, who you can see in the video, says that it is frowned upon to euthanize a dog for space. She says that it is taboo to do this. But doesn’t it happen all the time? Or am I being too cynical? I am not saying it occurs universally but it does happen in many places.
If there is one thing which comes across clearly on the Internet about animal shelters is that they are not infrequently short of space and often there’s a lot of euthanasia of animals. No-kill is being advanced in America and many fewer animals are euthanized at shelters than they were years ago but there is still a resource issue and in many places shelters struggle to cope with unwanted animals. If they are not strictly no-kill shelters then they can make an excuse to kill an animal on, for example, behavioral grounds. How many cats at shelters are killed on behavioral grounds which is a wide-open description, describing whatever you wanted it to describe.
Or a healthy dog is conveniently described as suffering from kennel stress and has skin and ear health problems.
You can always get around the problem of killing animals at shelters. It doesn’t take much imagination to find a reason acceptable to those who pay the bills.
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