How do I toughen up emotionally?

[NStarz]

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I definitely agree, especially when there are the resources in the shelter and the community to maintain the care and comfort of the animals and work on socializing them. I wish all shelters were able to do that, and I was lucky to volunteer at a no-kill, but unfortunately, there are way too many shelters, esp in the middle of nowhere, where they receive completely inadequate care and live in awful conditions. I want to eventually work in those shelters and improve their conditions and policies, there is so much work that needs to be done with shelters. A lot of the more well off shelters take animals from the high-kill shelters and this definitely helps, but there sadly reaches a point where some of the more fearful or aggressive animals aren't taken elsewhere and will either suffer at crappy shelters or be PTS. I'm really hesitant to support such euths and conflicted on this whole topic, I think a tonnnn of work needs to be done to better the conditions and incr fostering and adoptions, but in the meantime, in certain shelters the suffering might not be worth it for some. 🙁 Thoughts?
P.S. sorry OP for straying from the topic!

Completely agree with ^^. We take animals from all over, Puerto Rico, NJ (my state), down south (NC/SC ish) because we can place dogs faster with our enrichment and adoption programs. A lot of these places ultimately euthanize for space...we ended up getting ~40 puppies a couple of weeks ago. Perfectly healthy puppies that are highly adoptable. Part of the problem is that southern states (hate to generalize, but it's true) don't spay/neuter as much as we do up here. I strongly believe that if shelters were to wake up one day and say "we don't want to kill for space anymore," they could do it. It's mainly a problem of leadership and lack of cooperation among the staff. Some shelters are only open from 12-4, when people are at work, have ridiculous adoption requirements (no pibbles to homes with kids under 10), and aren't open on weekends. If shelter directors really wanted to adopt out more animals, they could do it.

I think if everyone took this attitude, you wouldn't have such crappy shelters. You wouldn't have animals languishing in their feces, never walked or socialized. They would be out the door in less than a month (something my shelter still struggles with, unfortunately) and the animals wouldn't have to deal with long term stress. Euthanization of healthy, adoptable animals is deplorable. If the public sees the shelter as a friendly, inviting place where you can find your new best friend, adoptions will increase. Have programs in place to prevent owner surrenders. It's all possible.

I think we are failing our homeless animals in our shelters. Reform the shelters, and you fix the problem. I mean, I know a shelter in my area (who refuses to work with us because we basically make them look bad--we have volunteers that go over there to walk dogs because they don't get walked otherwise and they don't tell the shelter director they work for my shelter or they would get booted) that is awful with adoptions. Someone goes in and says they want to adopt a pet, and the next day it is euthanized. Ridiculous. We need to make sure the shelters aren't awful places. Once you do that, adoptions will increase and the animals won't need to suffer while they wait for their new homes.

 

[cwazy cat lady]

From my experience working and volunteering with shelters over the past six years, I would have to say that there is an infinite number of changes that can be made to improve your live release rate. What one shelter calls 'unhealthy/unadoptable' (and consequently euthanizes) is perfectly adoptable in a more progressive shelter. What it takes is motivation, determination, creativity and patience. And you must involve the outside world and invite the community in to help you. I have seen kill rates decrease over a very short period of time. The information on how to turn things around is out there and the network of shelters/rescues is very wide and generous, but you will need strong leadership and at least some staff/environment open to change...

Oh man, I have seen lots of interesting things. Just don't let people tell you it cannot be done or that the community won't support and help you achieve progressive change--it's just not true.

I applaud those that are willing to go into the most backwards of shelters and help them evolve. It's extremely taxing--emotionally, physically, mentally. But it can be very rewarding... I am now spoiled. We are above 94% live release finally and probably can't get too much higher because we take in a lot of elderly, sick, injured or behaviorally challenged animals. I can't imagine going back to a place where I see unnecessary euthanasia, but who knows... perhaps after four years of being away I'll have the guts to get back in there... 🙄

 

[168135]

I apologize for not being more clear.

That incident happened ~5 years ago and it took me a while to remember what happened.

The cats were in a playroom with a dozen or so others. They'd be out and socializing when you were just outside the room, but as soon as you entered the room, they'd be gone. The staff at that shelter is very caring and it surprises me that they couldn't turn them around. I tried talking to them when I cleaned the room and tried to get them to sniff my hand, but they wouldn't even face you. Poor guys.

This was before I had started volunteering at the vet clinic, and it didn't bother me too much.

It's almost as if I've been slowly weened onto euthanasias... shelter animals being there one day and not there the next... then kind of seeing a highly aggressive cat be put to sleep... then helping with an extremely sick dog... then being with a barn cat that lost the use of its back end... then a cat in heart failure pass away... then seeing a blocked male cat in kidney failure be put to sleep because surgery was high risk... then my friend's dog, my cat (which I wasn't there for), and two animals on the VIDA trip. All of the euths were performed for good reasons. I donno... I guess I subconsciously realize that, and as a result, I tend to remain more neutral instead of getting emotional.

My friend's dog and my cat were pretty difficult... it was a hundred times more painful to go those situations than the others.

Some people are really upset by it at first... others not so much... just was curious to see who else had similar experiences to mine.

 

[LetItSnow]

Naw, naw. Just clarifying on what I meant by 'feeling something.'

Gotcha. My bad, I misunderstood!

I'm not a human psych person (that was an undergrad class my first time 'round in college that I really didn't enjoy), but it'd be interesting to know more about people's responses to euthanasia.

All I know is that in the clinical setting (either small animal or wildlife rehab) my experience has been that euthanasia doesn't 'unseat' me. Maybe part of that is my age? It is what it is, most of the time it's in the animal's best interest, and you do it compassionately - to both the owner and animal - and be done with it.

On the other hand, I can be prone to falling apart in a movie with an injured/lost/unwanted/etc animal... or when it comes to making those decisions about my own animals.

Beats me why the mind can work that way.