Pet Talk

By Cathy Davis
    Sometimes you have to climb up 20 flights of stairs, step out onto the balcony, and look out across the countryside to get a different perspective on things. When you are standing on the ground, your immediate view is maybe some grass, a few trees and buildings, and then you climb up the stairs and all of a sudden you can see for 50 miles and maybe there’s a view of a city skyline or a view of Mt. Katahdin or a view of the Washington Monument. From wherever you stand, the perspective is different but it’s broader and more “informed” so to speak.
    Living in beautiful Houlton, Maine gives you a certain perspective. That’s my word of the day. The definition of perspective is: “the facts known to one”.
    If all you have for facts are those that you can see from ground level, you may be missing the bigger picture and this week I climbed the stairs and looked out over the horizon and realized that I like it better from ground level, in some cases.
    I’m talking, of course, about animal welfare. We are so fortunate in Maine and we don’t realize it because we are viewing things from the ground. Maine has an excellent history of animal welfare laws and regulations and people who work hard to protect the animals and enforce the laws.
    The majority of shelters in Maine are what are referred to as “no kill” or “guaranteed adoption” shelters. The mutually accepted definition of “no kill” means that no healthy adoptable animal is euthanized for space. That does not mean that no shelter ever euthanizes any animals. The sad reality is that you might get in a cat that was hit by a car and the poor thing is suffering so badly and can’t be saved that you have to end the suffering quickly and humanely. We are all familiar with how this is done, a painless injection, a gentle touch, a technician with a tear in her eye. The end is more painful to the animal welfare professional than to the pet. But sometimes it has to be done to be humane and God bless those who have to do it because I know how much sleep they lose over every single lost life.
    Outside of Maine, animals are not so lucky. I didn’t like what I saw when I looked outside of Maine. Some states are better than others but I was shocked to discover that there are thousands of shelters that still utilize barbaric and inhumane methods of euthanasia and in massive numbers. Headlines from Georgia show that there are shelters in that state that put litters of puppies in gas chambers and gas them. Information reveals that these shelters are so overrun with animals that they perform this horrible ritual weekly. If you see a puppy that you want to adopt today you’d better take it home with you because it won’t be there tomorrow.
    The animal welfare professional in Georgia is not responsible for the numbers of animals that come in for which there are no homes. We should never villainize those who take on this responsibility. However, there are safe humane alternatives to gassing, and I do take issue with shelters who fail to properly care for their animals, who fail to institute progressive adoption programs and who fail to use humane acceptable procedures for end of life issues.
    I’m one of those critters who would prefer to live with my head in the sand. I don’t watch the news, because if I can’t fix it, I don’t want to know about it. I am sorry that I climbed the tower and saw the way animals are being treated outside of Maine. Now I want to fix it, and I can’t. I can’t drive to this shelter in Georgia and pound on somebody, I have no money to put into their operations, I can’t quit my job and go become the new shelter manager. I’m not sure that having this information makes me a better person for being more informed. It just makes me sad. And it makes me grateful that in Maine, we have wonderful shelters with caring staff and boards.
    Do you want to know why we have pulled over 60 dogs from southern shelters to adopt up here? This is why. Because if we don’t help them, they will be pushed into a room and gassed. Can we save them all? No we can’t. Can we change the world view, or even the operation of one small shelter in some other state? No we can’t. But we can do our part to save just one more. One more today, one more tomorrow, just one more.
    Won’t you help us? We do not use town funding for our outside rescue operation. This outreach program is solely funded by donations, there is a separate account set up for this, as we must pay to bring these dogs in, they have to be properly vetted, transported, quarantined, and this all costs money. If you want to help us save just one more, please send your tax deductible donations to the Houlton Humane Society, PO Box 548, Houlton, Me 04730. Thank you!