[On a recent Facebook post, Paws and Hooves Rescue Foundation of Stilwell, Oklahoma wrote a heart-wrenching truth about the rescue work they perform.
Working alongside an animal hospital, the rescue organization is expected by the public to perform miraculous tasks saving sick, injured and abandoned animals. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case.
Just last week, a plastic container was left at their door. It was duct-taped shut and one of the Registered Veterinary Technicians (RVT) for the organization videotaped as she opened it. Inside was a litter of 10 puppies, barely fitting as they sat cramped, wet, and hot in the plastic container.
You can see the video here.
But this isn’t a rare occurrence for the organization or others like it. On their Facebook page, the RVT shares her frustration with irresponsible people who dump animals. She hopes to bring to light the ways people can combat the problems they are facing.
With so many options for free or low-cost spay and neuter, there is no excuse to have unwanted litters again and again. Paws and Hooves receives adults and young animals regularly.
People who don’t understand the pet population problem may assume that rescues and shelters have the funds to support an entire community’s worth of unwanted pets – but they don’t. This is why many organizations have to resort to humanely euthanizing animals; they don’t have space or funding to help them all.
Paws and Hooves writes:
We get calls ALL DAY LONG, chewed out daily, and told how heartless we are for turning pets away. Why am I the bad guy when your dog/cat has had its 5th litter of babies and you don’t have the money for them? There are MANY programs out there to get discounted spays/neuters.
So their solution? Dump their problem on us. They feel as though they’ve “saved” the animals?!? I come to work and find animals in feed sacks, taped up in boxes, plastic tubs, wired up in make shift pens […]
They are dumped in all weather extremes. I’ve had to dispose of kittens/puppies frozen to death, drowned in their own filth and rainwater in the containers they were dumped in. I’ve had to fish through litters of pups/kittens and pull out the ones still alive curled up with their dead litter mates. There are animals dumped with severe flea and tick infestations, emaciated and on the brink of death, others left with broken limbs and thrown in front of our door.
We can only hope that with awareness, the public learns to take responsibility for the animals that they bring into this world and those that they take home with them. We hope that they can learn to seek proper and necessary veterinary care rather than dump unwanted pets on anyone.
It is our responsibility to make sure the animals we have are cared for in a way that’s best for them. If anyone is unable to take care of their pets, there are many solutions besides dumping them at a rescue that is unable to keep up with the demands.
We pet lovers would never think to do such a thing as dump innocent animals anywhere. Together, we can spread awareness and hope that with education and resources, animals will no longer be abandoned.
If you’d like to help the Paws and Hooves Rescue Foundation support abandoned animals like the puppies in this post, visit their GoFundMe page.
Toledo, United States.
