Take A New One And Discard The Old?

This was related to me a few days ago by an officer from a shelter. This lady had brought in a 7-year old pregnant dog to be surrendered at the shelter.

As per shelter policy, the officer explained that they could not take in pregnant dogs because the infants, if born in a shelter, would have a very high mortality rate as shelter conditions may not be very hygienic and sometimes there is outbreak of disease. Most of the time, infant animals die at the shelter.

Moreover, this dog was already 7 years old and the shelter also does not take in dogs above 5 years old as it would be extremely difficult to rehome them.

The lady then scolded the officer for being “cruel” and insisted that they must take in her pregnant dog as she did not want the dog anymore. She also did not want the (unborn) puppies either because she had just acquired a new and younger dog. She said she only wanted one dog.

The officer then suggested that she surrendered the younger dog since the chances of rehoming it would be better. Then, let this pregnant dog give birth and she may surrender the puppies later when they were older. And keep the older dog as she would not have a good chance of being rehomed. And in any case, the shelter cannot take a dog above 5 years old.

The lady insisted she wanted to surrender her older pregnant dog and continued scolding the officer for being cruel.

The officer then asked her how she would feel if her husband brought back a younger wife and threw her out if she was pregnant.

I guess that knocked some sense into her.

She took the 7-year old pregnant dog home.

Of course, we HOPE she took the poor dog home.

Sigh…

So, we talk about responsible pet ownership.

We need education, but more than that, we need empathy.

Empathy means putting ourselves in the place of the other. And that was precisely what the officer did.

Source: http://myanimalcare.org/2012/04/06/take-a-new-one-and-discard-the-old/

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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