Greetings. My name is Tyler. Our organization is on a mission to save the lives of thousands, if not tens of thousands of dogs each year……. And we are hoping you will join us on our mission.
How will we accomplish our mission?
By preventing these dogs from ever being surrendered to an animal shelter in the first place. Once surrendered to a shelter, the vast majority of dogs never make it out alive.
Just how large is the problem?
5 million renters owning large dogs move each year and find it extremely difficult, if not impossible to locate the millions of rentals that will gladly accept them.
Homeless animals outnumber homeless people 5 to 1.
3.3 million Dogs are surrendered to animal shelters each year. To put this in perspective this means every 9.6 seconds a dog is surrendered to an animal shelter.
Appallingly, 670,000 dogs are euthanized in animal shelters each year which translates into a dog being euthanized in a shelter every 47 seconds. 80% of the dogs that are euthanized are healthy and could have been adopted into new homes, if given enough time.
According to the Humane Society of the United States one of the top reasons a dog owner surrenders their dog to an animal shelter is because the dog owner cannot find a rental that will accept their dog. This problem is so common and pervasive that 500,000 dogs are surrendered each year to animal shelters for this reason alone. The majority of the dogs surrendered weigh more than 25 pounds.
The harsh reality is…… most renters have dogs weighing over 25 pounds. The tragedy for these renters with dogs weighing more than 25 pounds, is that there is no way for the renter to easily locate the millions of rentals that will actually accept their dog. Why? The only way you can currently search for rentals that accept any type of pet is to search for “Pet friendly rentals”. In the current rental search industry, the term “pet friendly” means if your dog weighs less than 25 pounds it will most likely be accepted. In the event your dog weighs more than 25 pounds the “pet friendly” listing might accept your dog or maybe it won’t. The rentals that will accept just about any weight of dog are lumped together with the rentals that will only accept dogs weighing 25 pounds or less…. all under the same classification. “Pet friendly”. This leaves the renter with no choice other than to sift through meaningless pet friendly rental after pet friendly rental only to be denied over and over again because of their dog’s weight or breed. Almost nine out of every 10 pet friendly listings a renter searches through will not accept their large dog. This search and be denied process is so exasperating and time consuming it’s no wonder that it is one of the top reasons people surrender their dog to a shelter.
I know firsthand all too well, how difficult it is to locate rentals that will accept large dogs. You see, I unexpectedly and suddenly ended up with my mother’s German shepherd and her black Labrador when she died, both weighing approximately 65 pounds. If I didn’t take them, the family was going to surrender them to a shelter. I was under intense pressure to move right away in order to settle my mom’s Estate. I spent countless frustrating hours searching and searching for a rental that would accept my newly inherited dogs, to no avail. I thought… if this is happening to me, it must be happening to everyone and I began to research it. This is how I discovered how large of a problem this really is. I knew I had to do something about it instead of talk about it. I committed to myself to create a comprehensive solution to this nationwide epidemic and created an organization called Large Dog Friendly Rentals Corporation…….We are a non-profit 501 (c)(3) approved organization that has created a proprietary “patent pending” search technology that specializes in helping renters with large dogs effortlessly locate the millions of rentals that will gladly accept them.
Which brings us to what really happens in the event a dog is surrendered to an animal shelter.
What you are about to listen to was written by the manager of a local shelter. It is quite graphic and not intended for children, but please bear with me, because there is a solution to all of this, and the solution is to prevent thousands, if not tens of thousands of dogs each year from ever being surrendered to a shelter in the first place.
The shelter manager who wrote this wishes to remain anonymous and entitled it:
A Dose of Reality: What really happens to Dogs in animal shelters?
As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all - a view from the inside, if you will. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, perhaps you would change your mind about surrendering your dog to an animal shelter. How would you feel if you knew that there’s about a 90% probability that your dog will never walk out of the shelter that you surrendered it to.
The most common excuses I hear from dog owners for surrendering their dog are…. We are moving and we can’t take our dog. The dog got bigger than we thought it would. We don’t have time for her. She’s tearing up our yard. They always tell me, “We just don’t want to have to stress about finding a place for her. We know she’ll get adopted - she’s a good dog”. Odds are your dog won’t get adopted, and how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Your dog has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off in an open admissions shelter, sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn’t full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. Those last few days can be some of the most stressful, confusing and sad days of a dog's life. Your dog will be confined to a small kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your dog is lucky, we will have enough volunteers that day to take your dog for a walk. If not, your dog won’t get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the “bully” breeds (pit bull, Rottweiler, mastiff, etc.) it was destined for almost immediate euthanasia when you walked it through the front door. Those dogs just don’t get adopted. If your dog doesn’t get adopted in an open admissions shelter within its 72 hours, and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn’t full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed, it may get a stay of execution, though not for long. Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn aggressive in this environment.
Here’s a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being “put-down”. First, your dog will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk - happy, wagging their tails. That is, until they get to “The Room”, when every one of them freaks out and puts on the breaks when we get to the door. It must smell like death, or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there.
It’s strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs (depending on their size and how freaked out they are).
A euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the “pink stuff”. Hopefully your dog doesn’t panic from being restrained and jerk its leg. I’ve seen the needles tear out of a leg and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don’t just “go to sleep” - sometimes they spasm for a while and gasp for air.
When it all ends, your dogs’ corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back, with all of the other animals that were killed, waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You’ll never know.
Hate me if you want to, but I hope just maybe I changed one person’s mind about surrendering their dog to a shelter.
The end. A shelter manager that wishes to remain anonymous.
Rather sickening and heartbreaking…. I know…. But the harsh reality is that in the time it took for you to listen to this recording 57 dogs were surrendered to shelters and 11 dogs were euthanized in shelters.
Once again. Please, please help us. We cannot do this without you. Together we can get this done and make a huge difference. If we were only able to help 1% of the dogs that are surrendered for this reason alone, we would be saving the lives of 5,000 dogs a year. I know that with your help we can do much better! We need to immediately raise $125,000 in donations to create the technology for the Website and mobile app.
You have the facts. The choice is yours.
You know…. When you stop… and think about it, at the end of our lives, when it’s all said and done. It’s not going to be about who had the nicer house, the nicer car, the better looking partner, or the most money in the bank. What will really matter is how much of a difference we made while we were here. You can help make a huge difference! Right here. Right now. Please take action. Every second counts. Every 47 seconds another dog is euthanized.
Copyright © 2018 largedogfriendlyrentals.org