Shelters with Problems

[TexasRanger]

I volunteer at the only shelter in a 20 mile radius of my town. The shelter is a no-kill shelter that is almost totally dependent on donations. I have worked at shelters before so I know what to expect, but not: dog runs with no water bowls in them , animal food dishes in the same sink as used litter boxes with only HAND SOAP to clean them with:yikes:, telling people the dogs and runs are wet because of the rain (it sprinkled) after I watch someone walk in to the DRY run with a hose, no management of any form, no cats allowed to be adopted because they all have a "cold" even though they appear healthy and there are no precautions set up to protect the office cats and people taking it home to their cats. (Oh yeah and with the litter boxes, they just spray them out with no soap and use them with different cats) Anyone else have stories?

 

[lizzybeth727]

I went to a similar shelter recently. They had a very nice building, but only cats and puppies were housed there; the adult/large dogs were housed a few blocks away in another building. The building had about 10 runs (standard, shelter-size runs, not particularly big), and about 50 dogs. The highly DA dogs got their own runs/crates, but there were still a lot of aggressive behaviors in the runs with 4 or 5 dogs in them. Most of the dogs looked sick, and I asked for hand sanitizer after touching one dog (standard shelter procedure!) and the workers had to dig around to find some. I couldn't take dogs out to their play yard (which was actually pretty nice) because the gate was locked and they didn't have the key (which made me wonder how often dog the dogs get to go outside if the workers don't have keys to the yard!). I took a few dogs out of their runs anyway, but they were so extremely kennel-stressed that they were too terrified to leave the building. *shudder* I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.

IME, oddly enough, it seems that the no-kill shelters are usually a little "scarier" than the kill shelters. *shrugs*

 

[filarotten]

That is terrible! I hope you will be able to make a change for the better.

 

[bubbatd]

I used to go to a shelter years ago just to brush and love on the dogs . Broke my heart !

 

[FluffyZooCrew]

I've helped out some at a certain no-kill shelter here, and it wasn't pretty. The dogs were okay, they were all in seperate runs and kennels, but the place was overrun with cats. Hundreds. And they were all sick, sniffling, sneezing, and crammed 7 and 8, or more, to one small kennel with one litter box. It was filthy. And sad.

 

[Fran101]

The shelter i volunteer at (public high kill) does not spay, neuter, vaccinate, treat, or ANYTHING any dog until they are adopted. and then everyone acts so surprised when there is an outbreak of something or when a female goes into heat and the males are all acting crazy
every single dog has kennel cough, every single one.
They are doing the best they can. but of course the dogs dont get out enough.

They do do a great job of keeping everything clean tho, i give them that. They have antibacterial stations every where, kennels have staff as well as volunteers, and everything is cleaned super well. its not as pretty as the humane society, but its clean and its atleast something.


The cats are spoiled.. some old lady died and left a bunch of money for the cats. they have kitty condos, toys, nice airconditioned room ect.. but only a few select cats/kittens make it into the adoption room. only the friendliest and the prettiest and cutest