Wednesday, November 21, 2007 , terribly early in the morning

Deep thoughts (unfortunately)

There’s a blog written by someone who works in animal rescue, and while I used to enjoy reading it, I had to stop a couple of years ago because it just became too much.  The woman who wrote it was always inflammatory and angry.  She would never listen to anyone else’s experiences or opinions.  She was sure she was right about everything, and she make statements like, “Landlords should be forced to allow renters to have pets!”, and then she’d tear your throat out if you disagreed with her.  Not only did she hurt my feelings more than once, I started to figure she was mentally ill, and it wasn’t doing me any good to stay and be abused by her.  I removed her from my blogroll and haven’t been back in two years.  One of her favourite subjects to lecture about was her claim that euthanasia technicians are the people who carry a lot of blame for the animal deaths in this country.  If those people would just refuse to do their jobs, then the country would get together and figure out a new solution to the overpopulation problem (her solution would include banning all breeding).  She never, ever look at the tech as “good guys”—she figured they were all animal haters.

I know there must be a handful of techs who chose their line of work to get their jollies.  They are few and far between, however, and obviously in short supply because if you look at the “jobs available” list on the HSUS website, there are euthanasia tech jobs available all over the country.  I’ve read that on average, a tech works for two years and then can’t take it anymore.  I’ve also read that many of the people who take the job are animal lovers, who want to ensure the animals a comfortable and safe passing. 

All the above came to mind today when I stumbled across this article from the Alabama Press Register.  It’s about euthanasia, why it’s needed, and how the people responsible for doing it deal with the emotional side of things.  It’s really sad, but I think it’s good to be reminded that these good people are out there every day, facing a job neither you nor I could probably do.  And I don’t think the pet overpopulation problem would disappear if they walked off the job, either.  I’d last one day on the job, and I’d forever be able to tell you the name and description of every single animal I helped depart.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 11/21 at 05:42 AM
The Litterbox • (5) Comments • Permalink
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