Tales & Tails of New York

As a "New Hope" partner of the Center for Animal Care and Control, I receive in my emails each day, a list, complete with pictures of all the dogs and cats slated to be euthanized the following morning in our city shelters.

If we are lucky to have any space, we have the option to call a designated number before 7AM in order to "pull" (rescue) one or more of the animals.

The good news in this is that many more animals are saved through the various rescue groups on the animals' "11th hour," so to speak.  The bad news is that most are not.

For a long time I only looked at the faces and descriptions when I had room to take an animal or two.  But, now I look at it every day in order to find and point out any mistakes made in proper identification of breeds.  This is part of the working relationship I enjoy with those who run our animal shelters, but it is also one of the most painful parts.

Usually there are from 30 to 50 animals on the "list."  Most of the cats are young adults, usually on the list because they have developed a cold in the shelter or simply ran out of time.  Most of the dogs are young, medium sized mixed breeds, usually dumped because the owners ran into some kind of puppy training problems and there aren't enough homes to take them in.

Each face, to me, represents failure.

Failure of society, failure of past owners, failure of humanity, failure of myself.

What is wrong that so often in our culture, our "solution" to human ignorance or irresponsibility or even cruelty or neglect towards animals is to punish the victims by inducing premature death?

So much hype about becoming "no kill," but ultimately it is comparable to the "Mission Accomplished" sign hung high on the ship during Bush's speech in 2002. "Victory" is a long way away in Iraq.  And "no kill" is a long way away in New York City's animal shelters.

What to do with all the cats dumped when their people "move" or "have a baby?"  What to do with all the lactating Pit Bulls dumped after they're produced their last litter of puppies and are no longer "useful?"

I don't know.  I don't have all the answers.  I can only feel good about those few animals we are able to "pull" and somehow turn their lives around.

For the others, we can only say, "So sorry, that we could not find something better for you in this life."

Not enough homes,not enough foster, not enough resources, not enough heart.

And ultimately, without those, " hope" alone was and is not enough.

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