Last night, my favourite little foster boy "Fillmore" was adopted:
Ok! Done!
I just had a very interesting phone call as I am typing this blog post. A woman contacted me about a kitten that she had found in her live trap (for raccoons). She said that she had called Animal Services to pick up the little guy (not knowing that this was a high kill shelter). When the Animal Services Officer arrived, she opened the trap and let the kitten out! As the kitten ran away, the officer said, "We'll just kill it in 3 days, he'll have a better chance out here than in the shelter."
What a terribly sad, sad statement. Since when does a kitten have a "better chance" outside, with raccoons, cars and disease than in a shelter? Something is VERY VERY wrong here that a shelter can't be a safe haven for animals in need. It's incredibly sad that this Animal Services Officer felt that being hit by a car, or eaten alive by a wild animal is a BETTER choice than being at the shelter.
...and what happens when this kitten becomes sexually mature?
Anyway. She's going to try to trap the kitten again and call me.
So with this sad story, comes a story of hope when a staff member at this "high kill shelter" took home a kitten that was brought into the shelter with burned feet and singed fur. She nursed the poor baby back to health and contacted us to help the kitten along the rest of the way:
It's too early to feel so burned out with kitten season. I'm really fighting it.
4 comments:
It can be so hard when you keep banging up against the same wall. BUT....remember that someone stepped up to help that baby. And Fillmore has a great new family!! Hang on to the victories.
Here's a little vocabulary lesson for the Animal Services officer... the word "shelter" means protection or refuge and the word "service" (part of his title) means a helpful activity. How sad that he knew neither definition! Fingers crossed that the woman who was trying to do the right thing is able to catch the kitten again.
PS - Kindle is adorable :-)
They say that change has to come from within, so maybe (based on the animal control officer's comments) the High Kill Shelter will make that change. Did anyone attend the High Kill Shelter city meetings a few months ago regarding the animal bylaws? I'm curious if anyone brought up TNR and what council said... Kudos to you Beth for bottle feeding this weekend!
All I can say is thank you for giving a crap, and of yourself. We're dealing right now here in Oregon with a big shelter trying to regulate little rescues, charge them fees, etc. The shelter director who wrote the bill makes six figures, if you can believe that. How dare they. Takes ego and nerve and a stone cold nature. Anyhow, rant of my own. I call county shelters Holocaust Centers.
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