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.
Comments
7 responses to “Take a new one and discard the old?”
That’s a very cruel thing.. Why some people are like this? God only knows the answer..
Oh dear, she may even just abandon the doggie anywhere
Oh no! 99% chances are that lady might already have abandoned the pregnant dog somewhere out there. I pray for the dog’s safety.
Some people disgust me. The reason why that dog is pregnant is because SHE never bothered to get it spayed!! None of this would have happened if she had done the responsible thing and spay the dog.
Sadly I hear of stories like these all the time.. people want to give away their old dogs who are not healthy and energetic like they used to be.. only to replace them with cute little puppies.
hope that poor dog..is safe
I like the analogy … what if your husband took in a new wife and discard you? Couldn’t help but burst out laughing. (sorry!) I will definitely USE this when cats are surrendered to the shelter. 🙂
And I pray and hope that the dog was not abandoned elsewhere. 🙁
What a sick lady, I am sure she would abadon the poor dog being with her for so long and she can do this type of thing. I dont know what next. (sigh..)