Jude.. a pit mix was born in a rural southern town. He was born looking like his dad, a staffordshire terrier, who visited Jude's mom and courted her. The family who owned momma dog had two young children who loved the pups and played with them daily. Then the family put a sign in the yard for free pit puppies. A nice young lady came and told the family that she wanted to take Jude. Sadly, the nice young lady was just the girlfriend for a gang member who needed a new bait dog. So Jude went to his new home. His ears were chopped off with rusty knife. He cried himself to sleep that night. Still he did not know the terror that awaited him. Such a little boy, he was tied up and duck taped around his mouth and thrown into a ring. Night after night he was tortured by his captors. The big dogs bit at this legs, throat and pulled at his scabbed up ears. When the terror ended each night, Jude would cry himself to sleep. He was so sad and alone. Weeks turned into months and still the terror continued. One night he escaped. He ran free in the streets but he was so scared the bad people would find him. He was no longer being hurt and abused, but now he was hungry. He walked for days. He found garbage cans sitting on curbs and discovered they sometimes contained some food. After a month of living on the streets, some people called animal control and reported that he was getting into their garbage, so a man found him there. The man spoke softly but Jude was so afraid. Life had been so hard for him and he trusted no one, but the man caught him and put him in a truck. The next thing Jude knew, he was locked up in a cage in a high kill shelter full of loud barking dogs. He was fed, which was nice and there was a nice lady who seemed to care. She told him she wanted to take his photo and try to help him find a rescue to save him, but he was sad and scared. Jude with his cut off ears and scars was a sad boy looking down at the floor and not happy or wagging his tail for visitors. So he sat waiting. He grew sadder in the cage. He was a small seven month old pup who had seen more pain than any dog should ever know. He still cried himself to sleep. Day after day, the people at the shelter fed Jude. They spoke to him nicely but still no one came to take him home. He no longer remembered his mom and the fun he had playing with the kids at her home. He only remembered the pain that life had brought him. Then one day two men came to him. The man who put him into the truck and drove him to this cage, said to him "It's ok boy, you will feel no more pain". The man held him in his arms as they put a shot into his leg. Then the world around him faded away and Jude's life came to an end. Jude was a real dog, real pain, real scars and real cuff off ears. The facts may not be all correct, but dogs like Jude find the same fate in shelters in Tennessee ever year. I see too many Judes. If you know anyone whose dog has puppies and they want to give them away. Tell them about Jude. "Hey Jude don't complain take a sad song and make it better and remember to let her into your heart then you can start to make it better. "
Diamond's life did not start out very grand. This beautiful girl was chained up outside her owner's home and had no life at all. Even as a young dog she had a couple of litters of puppies and was never spayed. When she was off the chain, she would visit the car dealer business nearby and may have wished to stay with them. When her owners attempted to burglarize that business, Diamond was the one to alert for help that resulted in her owners getting arrested. While they went to jail, Diamond then found herself in a high kill shelter in West Tennessee with no hope of rescue. She was in a large pen with a lot of other dogs. The dogs often got into dog fights and did not always get along. but Diamond was a good girl and was not interested in fighting. She just wanted to be loved.
We entered Diamond's life after she had been living at the shelter for about six months I think. She was one of our favorites as we networked dogs to get them rescued. Because she was a big dog, she was often over looked. My friends and I promised Diamond we would do everything we could to get her rescued. Diamond was in an outside pen at the shelter. Some of the inside dogs began to get sick with coughing and upper respiratory symptoms. It was then that a great lady stepped up and offered to foster Diamond but Tracy was out of state and needed a rescue. Lucky for Diamond a rescue stepped up and took her in. They were able to provide a temporary foster for Diamond until she was able to get to Tracy. It was after Diamond was rescued, that the dogs with upper respirator infections were discovered to have distemper. Diamond continued to appear to be a healthy dog and now a happy one to have been rescued from the shelter.
Diamond does not know how close she came to being euthanized. She just is happy to no longer have to avoid the dogs that wanted to pick fights. She is happy that she is no longer chained to the front porch. Tracy tells me Diamond is a sweetheart. She loves her life now. She says Diamond has made it her job to make sure all the wild bunnies around her home stay in their burrow. Diamond loves playing and just enjoying life. She is a shelter survivor. Often there are not enough of those.
Special thanks to Tracy for fostering and Paws New England for saving this girls's life!
Diamond is front and center, hanging with her four friends.
The facts: All across America animals are being euthanized in animal shelters at the expense of tax payers. According to the American Humane society, 5 million animals enter US animal shelters annually. 3.5 million nationwide are euthanized annually. Cost to taxpayers to round up, house and euthanize animals (as of 2012) $2 billion!
This is an expensive debt on the already broke nation. Solving the animal control problem is not such an easy matter. The problem seems to be worse in the south, where the weather permits animals to live outside year round.
Walk into any dog shelter in the south and most likely you will find it full of dogs and cats. They stare back at you with sad faces. The dogs often bark to get your attention and the cats cry out. The national euthanasia rate is about 65%. In the south it is more like 80% . Why it is called euthanize I do not know, (it means good death in Greek). There is nothing good about dying in a shelter without belonging, without having a family or a home, without love.
In shelters pets are most often euthanized by intravenous injection , typically using a very high does of pentobarbital or sodium thiopental. Unconsciousness, respiratory then cardiac arrest follow rapidly. The problem with this method, is if you can't hit a vein in small animals it can take them several minutes to die. It is very painful for the animals that are not sedated.
Another common method is to inject the pentobarbital directly into the heart. The heart stick method is banned in many states but still practiced in the south. While it can be very paintful too if done incorrectly, I have been told by some experts as terrible at that sounds, if done without error, it can be the most humane. The trouble is it is more often than not, done incorrectly. Also practiced in many states is euthanasia by gas chamber. Where live animals are packed into a small sealed container which is filled with carbon monoxide or carbon dioxide. Stacked on top of each other, shelter pets die slow and can be heard screaming in the gas chambers.
There are still some under served areas in the south that do not have any animal control. I grew up in rural West Tennessee. No shelter, no animal control. So unwanted pups and animals were just dumped out in the country. Many ended up at my house. My mom would say "none of God's creatures deserve to go hungry", so we always had a lot of animals around. In that rural area of Tennessee today there is still no shelter or place for unwanted animals to go. However, I feel like people knowing they can't take the animals to a pound or shelter, just are a little more conscious of finding their pet a good home. Some just don't care and leave the pet stranded not knowing if their pet will ever see another meal.
So you go from counties with no shelter or animal control, to counties with animal control and 90% or more euthanasia rates. Most animal shelters in Tennessee do not have a veterinarian. Sick animals suffer with their illness or are euthanized. Families of dogs go into the shelters and puppies are euthanized in front of the mom. Or like the shelter employee who was charged with animal cruelty in Memphis animal shelter (charges that were latter dropped) for choking animals till they passed out before he euthanized them.
Now with all these facts about animals dying in shelters, you understand my desire and drive to save as many as possible. I promote adoptions and rescues from West Tennessee shelters with a facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/sosanimalsofwestTN
But as a friend said to me recently. We as a whole can not rescue our way out of this problem. Pet overpopulation is a growing problem in the Nation and in the south. Until we get this huge problem under control we will always be struggling to keep up. Always struggling to do more.
You can help. Just by bringing public awareness. Educate! Support spay and neutering laws and network animals in shelters no matter where you live. It is a HUGE problem. But no problem is hopeless. No problem is too big to be solved.
