Comments on: Kill rate soars at county animal shelter; adoptions decline

By: swk

swk — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 08:52:09 +0000

boo hoo, the economy is killing pets, hell no!! Irresponsible pet owners are killing pets, not the economy! The same fools who think they can handle a mortgage also thought they could handle a pet. If pro-life groups are good for anything, they should be up in arms with this issue…

By: PAT

PAT — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:53:31 +0000

ive never adopted a dog. Ive bought from individual breeders shih tzu’s & great danes. I did adopt one cat & love her beyond words. I have however, taken in dogs and cats from friends who could no longer have them (or just didnt want them anymore). at first, because I took them cuz Im a soft heart, I didnt love them like I loved “my own”..but it doesnt take long for them to melt your heart away. Gypsy (mixed) had obviously been hit by a car yrs, before. One of her front legs just kind of hung there. By the time I got her, it was too late to do anything aobut it and she was quite old. she would sit there and watch as I took my dogs for their daily walks. One day she ran to the door with us. I asked her if she wanted to go out. so I tried. I wasnt sure how she would do, but man the minute I got her out that door she was running like the wind/ It looked like she was smiling! I took her for a walk every day. that little dog was so grateful! she did everything I said. eventually It was her time to go, I cant tell you how I cried. Animals have feelings. they know youve save their life..they appreciate and love you beyond words.

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:59:00 +0000

We have owned may dogs. Some were expensive show dogs and some were pound dogs. Our best dog was a mixed breed adopted from an animal shelter when she was a year old. She went over the rainbow bridge almost ten years ago. Even though we love the dogs that now own us, we still miss our special shelter dog.

We are going to follow in Tammy’s footsteps. We are off to the pound to find another dog to add to our pack. We have never purchased a puppy mill puppy from a pet store. We would never support the horrible puppy mill industry.

By: tammy

tammy — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:41:09 +0000

I adopted a dog from the OC shelter last week and all they asked for was my drivers licence and costs for neuter, vaccines, avid microchip, worming, flea control. So far the best dog I’ve ever owned.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 13:55:26 +0000

Thanks again to the OC Register, our county citizens have more information on the welfare of our pets. The numbers are there on the killing of animals per year. The county had a chance to lower the number of intakes by 10% so they wouldn’t have to kill so many animals. Citizens from five south county cities went to their city council meetings and asked their cities to do a feasibility study for a shelter. The county shelter director showed up to each meeting with a power point presentation showing how great the county shelter services were. She used county funding to block a lowering of the number of animals being sent to the county. Why would she do this?
We can no longer pretend we don’t know about the killing at the county. And we can do something about it. Stop sending so many pets to the county. The county shelter is not an “open access” shelter. They would not even take in pets from cities they contract with last summer. They are what they are, a kill shelter. The numbers say so. Lets all do something to stop this. Support any movement that gets your city to go pro-humane. Support any candidate that wants your city to go that way. Yes, we can all stop this killing

By: Linda

Linda — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 05:41:25 +0000

When you purchase a puppy mill puppy from a pet store you are supporting dog abusers. Educate yourself. Dogs are alive and have feelings. Dogs are not a fashion statement.

By: Messenger

Messenger — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:55:48 +0000

I’ve adopted three dogs from the shelters in OC. The only thing they required from me is to show proof that we were allowed to have a pet. Before you go to a shelter, you need to do your homework on what is required. My first was a yorkie mix, beautiful little dog. Second is a border collie/aussie shepard mix, wonderful dog. A pure joy. Third is a goofy little terrier/chihuahua mix with a wart on his nose. Couldn’t have found…..nor asked for…..more love in this world.

By: Doggie_Volunteer

Doggie_Volunteer — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 00:42:25 +0000

The Man said…..”Then rescues come in and take specific breeds before the public gets access to them. The rescues then sell the dogs for hundred of dollars. Meanwhile the shelters are left with all the unwanted mutts.”….are you sure about that?????

So a pet gets dropped off at a high kill shelter on a Tuesday and your family goes on Saturday to pick up your pure-bred non-mutt. Sorry it is too late….he is probably already had his last call on Thursday morning and the network of breed specific rescues get a day or hours to pick up these dogs. I hear about owners being contacted time after time and they don’t care to pay the fees to release their stray or tell them to keep the animal.

Rescues do not really get first dibs, but are around 24 hours a day 365 days a year to get their specific breed. And honestly in this economy and so many owner turn ins we are passing up on so many pure bred dogs.

The pure-bred dogs also are altered and often require medical care that comes out of the rescue’s pockets. We are not caring for just one great healthy well adjusted dog, but also the sick, neglected, deformed, imperfect, and three-legged ones too. One major illness sets us back $2-4K, plus orthopedic costs can be $4-6K.

The rescue I work with is over 10-20 weekly volunteers and we are still a bare bones operation, no fancy marketing materials and we are almost always in the red. We do bake sales, garage sales and fundraisers, so I am not sure how a few hundred dollars for a rescued purebred is such a money machine? Seriously.

By: homer92630

homer92630 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:16:10 +0000

BTW: the only animals we have been allowed to adopt from the shelters were hamsters and guinea pigs. So, apparently even the shelter people draw the line just above fuzzy critters.

By: homer92630

homer92630 — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:06:33 +0000

Doubt it all you want, but the animal care people become pet nazi’s when it comes to placing the animals in homes. We were denied three times. Three strikes, and we quit visiting the pound.