Oh, Betty, at least you tried. You may very well be the only one who shed tears when she died. 9 years of life and love wasted for no reason.

So many of them don't have anyone to mourn for them... I have the memory of Faith to remind me about them, and I say a prayer to St. Francis every night for the lost ones....

The Seniors are the ones that kill me Kelly, I sear you can see the hurt in their eyes.

They kill me too, Betty. There was a 12 year old GSD once that had less than a day at the shelter. He wasn't sick or anything, they just thought he was too old and didn't want to waste the food on him.

They've lived their lives with a family and suddenly end up in a cage. Not fair, not fair at all.

 Quote: Kelly

 Quote: Lori Jacobs

 Quote: Betty Waldron

dogs thrown out like yesterdays garbage.

How do we change this mentality by the owners?

It's heartbreaking if you dwell on it too much.

It sure is.

I fill my pockets with hot dogs and go to our local shelter every Saturday. Not a big deal but hopefully it makes a little bit of a difference.

Lori, to those dogs, it IS a big deal. Bless you for doing it.

Lori, I agree with Kelly. You make those dogs' day when you do that.

Thank you but its the doggies that make my day!

Kelly bless u for all you do for rescue! I am lucky to work in a no kill shelter, the hard part is the owner surrenders. We had a lady come in yesterday to surrender her cat b/c they were going away in 2 days for 6wks and no one could come stay at her house to care for the cat b/c the alarm system was acting touchy and costing them money, and she had stayed at a kennel before and was stressed.....well lady better stressed for 6wks then her whole life, we told her to call a kennel or vet to board the cat and so she said she would.

Another couple had to get rid of their dog b/c they were having a baby and the mother in law according to her religion insisted white dogs were bad luck and would bring bad luck to the baby.

Another lady kept her 1yr old dog its whole life in a rabbit cage, never once let it out. There were scratch marks on the inside of it

The excuses are endless, moving, baby, agressive blah blah blah the fact is most people dont try hard enough! End of story! Its a living creature and they abandon it without looking back, or cry crocidile tears and tell themselves its best for the dog, so they can sleep at night. What would be best for the dog is if they had thought ahead and not gotten it all! or put a little more effort into making it work. I can recall only 2 ligitamite reasons for owner surrender....the rest could all have been avoided with foreplanning and effort. Its the dog that pays, always!

The fact is life happens to all of us, there are 2 kinds of people, the kind where giving up their animal is an option and the other kind where giving up their pet just simply isn't an option or something to even be considered or would ever cross their minds.

Sorry to rant but this is epedemic, shelters, petstores, kijiji, craigslist....when will we stop the cruelty that is abandoning your pet, your bestest friend? What kind of people are we that we do this?....it truly keeps me up at night. I will never understand it....maybe I dont want too.....

Quite honestly, our wonderful government and their many rules for transporting animals between states is part of the "problem". It's perfectly understood that sick and/or injured animals shouldn't be transported around. But then too it prevents any type of national volunteer network from forming to transport animals where they are wanted. Animals would stay long enough in a shelter to be evaluated for transport, and await the word for where they are going.

A volunteer picks them up and transports them to the next volunteer etc. Until they arrive at their destination. Some people say it would be a logistical nightmare, but I know what computers are capable of these days.

Selecting volunteers from a database within a determined route from point to point and coordinating pickup/drop off times would be well within the capabilities of a well written website/database system. Could even use the shelters as drop off and pickup points. It's that whole transporting across state lines thing that gets in the way.

Sorry, I'm fantasizing again that every pet finds a good home.

Cat, while I understand where you are coming from, I completely disagree with there being 2 types of people. I will never, ever keep a dog that poses a real threat to my children, regardless of whether I could keep it contained while the kids are home. Things are not black and white. There are legitamate reasons to rehome a dog and yes, sometimes it is for the better of the animal.