# Puppy killed at shelter despite rescue willing and able to save it...



## AkariKuragi (Dec 19, 2011)

Puppy at California animal control killed, despite pleas from rescue to save - National Dogs | Examiner.com

So it is well known within the Orange County rescue community that Devore is a very bad shelter to end up at. I've heard countless horror stories from there, but this one takes the cake.

How they could decide it would be better to kill the puppy themselves than to give it to a rescue which said they would take full financial responsibility for medical bills, where it would have a chance to recover and live a full life is beyond me. That fact that someone who would actively decide to kill a PUPPY over saving its life is in charge of an animal shelter sickens me.

I understand that sometimes in shelters tough decisions have to be made. There is only so much space, so much money, so many bodies to do work. But what would the shelter have lost from this? What possible downside would have come from this? 

Ugh. It makes me so sad that this has happened.


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## mandiah89 (Jan 18, 2013)

Wow I got a tear in my eye! that is horrible! How could they do such a thing. That pup could have lived a full happy life, but instead some egotistical moron decided to just kill it to what end, who knows!? Sad, just very sad


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## AngelaA6 (Jan 20, 2013)

Well that's just stupid. You would think they would want to help animals and give them a second chance. I feel bad for the rescue being turned down.


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## Stevenzachsmom (Mar 3, 2008)

This is why shelters are never a safe place for any dog. Always hearing horror stories of animals being put down, when they are supposed to be held for rescue or accidentally putting to sleep a pet that the owner has notified they will be picking up. Very sad.


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## Shaolin (Jun 16, 2012)

I refuse to donate to the local animal shelter here just for that reason. They are constantly putting down healthy dogs just a few hours after arrival without trying to find an owner or rescue willing to pull the animal. Even our vet has warned us about getting caught by AC for any reason.


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## Capone22 (Sep 16, 2012)

I live five minutes from that shelter. They are awful. I've offered to volunteer my time for photos and training or evaluations and was denied. The dogs have crappy outside shelters and they are known to be a very high kill shelter. I hate it. 

Is there anything we can do to fight this? 


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## Kayos and Havoc (Oct 17, 2002)

How sad. I posted to my FB page too. RIP little Trooper.


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## Msmaria (Mar 2, 2013)

Such a sad story. I just called them and let them know how upsetting this was. I also completed the customer survey on their website. They did not get a good review.


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## TAR HEEL MOM (Mar 22, 2013)

I read this the other day on anothe rsite. Absolutely breaks my heart. But do remember that not all shelters are the same. I'm the executive assistant at an animal shelter and we rigidly follow the law and in North Carolina a stray must be held for 72 hours before they are placed for adoption or euthanized. And I always try really hard to find an owner when it is obvious that a dog is not a stray.

RIP little Trooper. I am so sorry. Sure wish it had been my shelter you landed at


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## readaboutdogs (Jul 8, 2001)

RIP Trooper, lots of loving friends at the bridge with you now.


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## Bridget (Apr 5, 2004)

Makes me sick. The shelter I volunteer at is no kill. All of us work hard to find homes for our animals and you would be surprised how fast they come and go. The hard to place pets are with us till a good home is found. Period. 

I don't see why these sorts of places even exist. And if they shall exist, why don't they call themselves "low-cost euthanasia clinics"?


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## Magwart (Jul 8, 2012)

Capone22 said:


> Is there anything we can do to fight this?


Yep! Convince the County Board of Supervisors it's an issue voters care about. 

Get this issue on the agenda by contacting your representative on the board -- they can make the shelter director show up and answer in a public meeting and grill him, and allow citizen comments. Flood them with letters about it and ask for this!

Then start working on organizing a citizen grass roots group work to transfer the shelter to private, non-profit control -- if you can't locate a non-profit willing to run the shelter, then you'll have to form one. You'll need to pull all the breed and other rescue groups together to form an alliance to accomplish this. 

That's more or less what happened here. The county here (parish, actually) now pays this non-profit to operate now to operate the public shelter that used to be run by animal control. Animal control drops the animals off, then they are in the custody of the non-profit. The same legal rules apply (mandatory holds, spay-neuter, vaccinations, etc.), but it's being done by non-profit employees and volunteers. 

The incentive is the government now pays less as the non-profit makes up the difference with fundraising. The nonprofit can then recruit an army of volunteers to dramatically increase adoptions and rescue partnerships. It is the path to a no-kill future--it takes years to get there, but it has to start with citizens saying "enough" to animal control's "business as usual."

That happened in my city in the Deep South, which is as backwards as anywhere in the country on animal issues (and far poorer than Southern California in terms of the tax base--I came here after years in Los Angeles!). OC is not exactly "progressive" politically, but you can pitch it to California Republicans (fiscally conservative with a libertarian streak) as a way to make government smaller through a public-private partnership. 

We cut our kill rate from 80% when Animal Control ran it to under 50% in about a year and a half. In the last year, a friend and I (TWO volunteers!) cut the kill rate for GSDs down to under 10% (over 90% saved) -- with NO breed rescue locally to help us, no fundraising, just by advertising the dogs, networking them, and recruiting as many great fosters as we can find (including a great one from this forum!). The only ones we lose now are the ones who have temperament problems or extreme sickness.

You CAN change this shelter. It takes a lot of like-minded citizens. If we could accomplish this in a deep-red state, I know you can do it in Orange County!


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## Cheyanna (Aug 18, 2012)

Magwart said:


> Yep! Convince the County Board of Supervisors it's an issue voters care about.
> 
> 
> You CAN change this shelter. It takes a lot of like-minded citizens. If we could accomplish this in a deep-red state, I know you can do it in Orange County!


The rescue group is in Orange County, but the killers er I mean shelter is San Bernardino county.


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## LARHAGE (Jul 24, 2006)

This shelter in Devore is a Cesspool, they were cited for hosing kennel runs with cold water in the dead of winter and dogs literally froze to the ground, I HATE this shelter, I rescued a Cairn terrier there a few weeks ago and the conditions were deplorable, I was sad I couldn't help more.


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## Liesje (Mar 4, 2007)

The spectrum of good vs. bad shelters is just like breeders. Around me we have shelters that do amazing work with the pitiful funds they have and have great relationships with rescue. There is one shelter with NO money, small dogs and puppies crammed in rabbit hutches, no vet on staff (I once pulled a dog that the shelter manager treated herself and probably saved the dog's life), they don't do any adoption screening and don't spay/neuter pets so someone can walk in and say they are buying a dog to breed it (has happened). Luckily the shelter manager here is rescue friendly and will let us pull dogs for free, even call us up if a really shady person wants to adopt a dog to breed or chain out in front of his house. Then there are shelters that refuse to work with us at all. One area shelter had an adolescent working line GSD in a kennel for like 4 months because they insisted they knew better than us (the BREED rescue) and would get him adopted out. Another shelter also refused our help, put a dog in foster care where he ended up with several physical ailments, then adopted him out to a clueless person who has no business owning GSDs especially a working line with baggage. Of course he was returned promptly and they begged the rescue for help after refusing to answer our offers originally. My friend runs the breed rescue and has been bringing in dogs from California kill shelters, sometimes six per WEEK. Somehow it's easier to pull half a dozen dogs, vet them, and transport them cross country than deal with shelters within an hour radius.


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## TAR HEEL MOM (Mar 22, 2013)

Bridget said:


> Makes me sick. The shelter I volunteer at is no kill. All of us work hard to find homes for our animals and you would be surprised how fast they come and go. The hard to place pets are with us till a good home is found. Period.
> 
> I don't see why these sorts of places even exist. And if they shall exist, why don't they call themselves "low-cost euthanasia clinics"?


Bridget..is the shelter where you volunteer required to accept all strays that come in the door or do they get to select the animals they take in? My shelter functions as a county shelter (although we receive no money from the county- all private donations and fund raising) and our board of directors has set our mission statement to mandate that we accept into our kennels ALL strays that come through the door. In this situation it is impossible to be a true no kill shelter. One day this week we took in one of the most vicious dogs I have ever seen. It could not be touched by anyone, was attacking the rabies pole with a force I have never seen, and was foaming at the mouth. It was truly a danger to everyone (including the other dogs and cats) in the shelter. We had no choice but to immediately and humanely euthanize this dog.

I'm sorry you feel like shelters who perform euthenasia should not exist. If that were the case, then the hundreds of dogs that we place into loving homes each year would probably still be on the street somewhere, hungry and hurting. Shelters who are required to accept all strays can never be true no kill shelters. We never euthanize a dog for a time limit or for space. Only for overt aggression and for medical issues that make euthenasia the more humane choice. And trust me, if you had seen the condition of some animals that I have seen, you would understand what I mean.

Also, something to think about - around here there are some shelters who represent themselves as no-kill, but their solution to over crowding is simply to ship a truckload of dogs to some "partner shelter" in another state, usually somewhere up north. I'd venture to say that a lot of those dogs eventually end up euthanized, so just because you move them out of your shelter, does that truly make you a no-kill shelter? Not in my mind.

Congratulations on your success rate with your animals. I pray for the day when there are no strays.


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