Sunday, December 20, 2009

Shelter Pets - Nobody Knows

I found this video when I was flipping through YouTube. I watched it. I would like you to watch it and tell me what you think.















Why do I do this? Why do I watch these videos with sad footage or pictures?? WHY? Why do I keep telling you all to "read this" or "watch that"? I tell you to sit through the whole thing ... why??






I cried when I read His Name Is Sam and when I watched the video I posted above. So why do I watch/read them if I know that it will upset me?



It's very simple. Because we should know. We should all know. Remember in the post I put up called "His Name Is Sam" where the author said she was totally prepared with all the numbers and statistics and made it sound like she knew it all? Then the shelter worker said "You can't tell the whole story unless you experience the end" and after that she knew ... she knew that she hadn't been prepared at all. If you haven't read this post, please do. It is important and I may pull quotes from it from time to time.







I watch these videos and read these stories because it means that someone else knows about those animals. They all had a name once. Some were purebred and some were not. When it comes to the gas chamber ... it doesn't matter which ones had parents who won championships or which ones drove cattle or won obedience championships or was the best friend to a child.



In that box, they all die the same way.

10 comments:

Mel's Way or No Way said...

I can't even comment since I can't stop crying and shaking.

I agree that people should see this type of video so they understand these situations are real. It's easy to be in denial when someone tells you but the visual is the most powerful experience. It's time to stop sugar-coating.

Cyndi and Stumpy said...

I wasn't prepared for this whole video, it ought have a graphic warning...

Not that I haven't seen it all before. Just like then, I still need to prepare myself, as much as possible.

It's pretty easy for me to walk through my daily life and tune out the horrors I have seen. I miss being involved... I don't miss the feeling of drowning in helplessness, the nightmares, and the rage.

GoLightly said...

Yes, instead of commercials, there should be public service announcements. Education.

Everyday, in schools.
In Bus stations.
Bill-frickin'-boards.
They're all electronic now, right?

But it won't change the cruel, will it?
The depraved/deprived/psychos?
They enjoy this crap.

This enrages me just as much, if not more. Which is not healthy for my daily job, or my own mental health.

It's so heartbreaking.
Literally.

Which is why I must not watch it (again), so close to Christmas, with my own health more important, to my dogs.
and my family:)

To Kindness, in 2010.
please.

Becky said...

Everyone who takes in a pet should be made to watch this when they think they don't want it anymore. Too big, eats too much, barks too much, makes a mess. I know this goes on every day and I absolutely hate it. They trusted us to take care of them and this is the thanks some owners show them, just throw them away like trash. It truly breaks my heart!

Unknown said...

A rescue friend of mine makes it very clear, as clear as possible anyway, that she expects her adopters to care for her dogs when they are old and incontinent as well as younger and healthy. She verbally paints very visual pictures of what to expect from old dogs - including the LOVE. Society built that kill box - we as "society" can dismantle it, somehow. I agree - kindness, compassion, a stretching of every fiber of caring in 2010. God bless us, every one.

Calsidyrose said...

I am just home from the Shelter this evening, and watched the video. We don't have a kill box at our Shelter (the dogs are killed by injection, but only one--no sedative--due to cost, according to the County).

I didn't cry because I'm exhausted from the same sorts of things shown in the front half of that video and have already cried (and probably will again) over the dogs I know that have to be put down).

I'm glad you posted the video. We made ten placements today--no telling if they will work out, or if the owners will keep the dogs until they die of old age. I just keep doing the Shelter work, one dog at a time.

DogsDeserveFreedom said...

Sorry all, I should have posted a warning for the video. I wasn't really thinking of much other than the dogs.

Viatecio said...

It's one thing to watch them and cry.

It's another thing for so-called "dog lovers" to have to turn their heads away because they can't stand it.

Dog lover or not, everyone needs to watch those difficult videos, even through the tears and whatnot. Shite happens in the dog world, and turning your head away because you "can't watch it" is no different than just blindly giving to an organization with no cares as to how that money is used. Look at what your donations go to fighting. Look at the damage other people are doing to these dogs, from horrific genetic diseases (such as the screaming Cavalier in PDE) to electrocuting pit fighters (it's shown in a small clip on Off The Chain) to dumping off what is no more than excess baggage at the shelter because it doesn't fit in with their plans anymore.

It may hurt all the more to see it, but you will be much wiser and more informed.

With all due respect to the video, the music and the slow motion, etc is an obvious attempt at pathos, and there are almost too many videos bordering on sappiness/emotion rather than cold hard truth. Show me the real deal, not some highly edited thing with emotive music. This stuff I can watch...but to be honest, I had to turn away for a second when I saw that pit bull hooked up to a battery, muscles seizing. Pathos is a weak attempt at reality...give me the latter any day.

/Internet hardarse :P

DogsDeserveFreedom said...

Viatecio ... that is why I posted it.

Viatecio said...

I know, and I fully appreciate it.

I just get all confused and upset when people who supposedly love these animals stick their fingers in their ears and go LALALA when it comes to anything they don't want to see, whether from a news clip or a TV show intended for educational purposes only.