Frustrating animal rescue decisions!

[Chapelle]

I'm getting my first taste of shelter med this summer working as a tech at a huge county shelter. One of the most frustrating things I'm seeing is rescues taking sick or aggressive animals while completely overlooking wonderful dogs and cats at risk for euthanasia. Of all the sick cats I care for the one who went to rescue was almost impossible to handle because he was so aggressive. An older dog with a huge testicular mass and a bad heart murmur went to rescue today. At the same time, younger, friendlier animals are being overlooked and some have been euthanized including a sweet young cat with a bad URI. Have any of you seen similar things happen?

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[thedogisgreen]

The rescue agencies tend to take the ones more likely to be euthanized because the general public won't take them straight out of the shelter, but the friendlier ones are more adoptable straight out. The rescue agencies are super overloaded as it is and can't take all the animals unfortunately, so take the ones that have more of a chance of euthanasia, and hope that people will come and adopt the others quickly. I hate that in the kill shelters it is sometimes these animals that end up being euthanized, I hate hate hate no kill shelters and wish there was more funding and resources given to keep the animals for longer and find them homes. So yes, very frustrating. I was lucky enough to work at a no-kill shelter so didn't see any of that firsthand, but ...it's very...
I wish there was a way to find all of the animals home rather than have it end up like this. I don't think the more aggressive animals deserve any less of a chance because most of the time, with proper care, they end up being amazing pets. It's such a frustration, impossible seeming situation...

 

[quantized]

That's sorta how shelter medicine works. It's herd health, so that's why something that is easily treatable (ie URI) is euthanized instead of treated - that cat would have infected many other cats, and a county shelter can't afford to treat a whole shelter of infected animals.

Rescues are usually breed specific and will treat stuff that a shelter with no money can't treat, and will deal with some behavioral problems.

 

[Chapelle]

That's sorta how shelter medicine works. It's herd health, so that's why something that is easily treatable (ie URI) is euthanized instead of treated - that cat would have infected many other cats, and a county shelter can't afford to treat a whole shelter of infected animals.

Rescues are usually breed specific and will treat stuff that a shelter with no money can't treat, and will deal with some behavioral problems.

I understand the herd health idea but the aggressive cat that was rescued was just as sick as the nice cat that was euthanized. It wasn't any special breed either. They were both kept in a room separate from all the other cats. I feel like rescuing some of these animals is a huge waste of resources and time. In the time it takes to tame that half feral crazy cat they could place 5 nice cats.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I think the trick is not to worry about what the rescues are doing (unless they're harming your shelter by doing something like spreading bad rumors or cherry picking highly adoptable animals to take), cause as long as they're helping out in the slightest bit they are a private non-profit that have their own mission statements and can do whatever they want. a lot of times those missions and philosophies are very different from the views of a larger open shelter. it can be really frustrating if you let it be, but there are so much greater evils out there in the shelter world that i think your energy is better spend dealing with those. it can be emotionally draining if you let everything bother you.

have you asked them about the animals they're taking and explained that such and such animals with better temperaments are just as in danger for euthanasia? maybe they just don't know. or if there's a particular animal that you've fallen in love with, maybe asking them to take that one as a favor?

 

[Chapelle]

have you asked them about the animals they're taking and explained that such and such animals with better temperaments are just as in danger for euthanasia? maybe they just don't know. or if there's a particular animal that you've fallen in love with, maybe asking them to take that one as a favor?

Yea, I wish I could. Those decisions/communications are all up to the managers though.

 

[VeganSoprano]

As Minnerbelle pointed out, rescue can either do what they are doing or they can cherry-pick the most adoptable animals and leave the shelter with the tougher-to-place animals. The rescue can only handle so many, just like the shelter. The true responsibility for reducing euthanasia rates lies with the shelter and its policies, both internally and with the community at large. It sounds like the rescue in question is part of the solution, not part of the problem. It is fundamentally the shelter's responsibility to figure out how to save as many of its animals as possible. It absolutely sucks that a sweet cat with a URI gets euthanized, but it is also in no way the rescue's fault!

 

[bunnity]

I think the true responsibility for reducing euthanasia lies with every shelter, every rescue group, every breeder, every policymaker and every consumer. When an adoptable animal is euthanized in a shelter, ultimately our society is at fault for creating and then destroying an unwanted animal. The organization pushing the plunger is at least trying to do something about it.

@The OP: As far as I can tell, rescue groups are enigmas and I often question why they take particular animals. My guess is that in this case both cats came in, your shelter said, we'll never be able to place this crazy old cat so let's call rescue (thinking they would be able to adopt out the younger cat), rescue committed to taking the crazy cat, and then the younger cat suddenly got sick and the isolation room was full, so the younger cat got unlucky and the older cat got lucky because it already had an exit lined up. I don't know if that made sense, but sometimes it comes down to luck and not logic for that particular animal.

 

[BarnyardPunch]

Yes to what everyone has already said. In addition, I'd add that no matter what their selection criteria or how zany a rescue is (and some are zany), every animal they pull out of the system both saves one life and opens a space to save another.

Shelter work can be frustrating because you cannot save them all, but you do what you can and know that at least for some, you're making a life or death difference.

 

[thedogisgreen]

Shelter work can be frustrating because you cannot save them all, but you do what you can and know that at least for some, you're making a life or death difference.