by Jesse Dragonheart

Created on: September 18, 2008   Last Updated: September 12, 2010

Yesterday I was hired to work at a local city animal shelter. I start on Monday. During my interview, I was warned that although it wouldn't be a regular duty for me, I would be required to assist with euthanasia in the absence of the employee who usually assists. I had to pray about that before I even applied for the job. I made my decision by looking at the alternatives:

Life for the dog as a stray, wandering hungry and most probably diseased, until such time as it is run over, shot, or killed in a fight with another dog. It could also die of plain sickness or starvation, or,

Leaving the dogs to run loose, with dog bites averaging 4.7 million a year, every year. Eight hundred thousand of the people bitten seek medical attention; half of those are children. Emergency treatment is necessary for 386,000 victims, and about a dozen die (http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/biteprevention.htm). I am sure not all dogs that bite are strays, but I am also sure that hungry dogs and frightened dogs bite. Strays have plenty of reasons to be both.

I told my boss I could do it. I expect it to really hurt. The shelter gives the animals three days and then puts them down. It isn't run by hateful people; it's run by people without enough space or enough money to make a different choice. And if the poor dog has to die cold in the gutter or under my loving hands, I'll do it and ask God to help me. I am 100 percent against killing a perfectly healthy, beautiful animal. But I accept that without care, that healthy, beautiful animal won't stay that way for long.

Instead of ranting impotently against euthanasia, we should be willing to offer an alternative; otherwise it's nothing but tantrum-throwing. The resolution to the problem isn't to demand that euthanasia be banned; it is to do, on an individual basis, the things that will render euthanasia unnecessary.

If there were no market for dogs, people wouldn't be so bent on profit that they are willing to do anything to produce dogs in bulk. The demand for puppies is the direct and only cause of puppy mills.

Every day, thousands of mixed and pure breed puppies are born - some of their owners find homes for them, some dump them by the roadside or on the steps of the pound, and some even consider drowning to be an acceptable method of puppy disposal. All those owners are lazy and irresponsible. Even the ones who find homes for their puppies are condemning just that many shelter and rescue dogs to death. Spaying and neutering are not that

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