Domesticated pets have a physical and emotional need to connect with a family. Their wild natures have been bred out of them to the point where they not only depend on their human counterparts for food and shelter, but for social interaction, love, warmth, comfort, communications, and upbringing as well. As a human race, we have changed the very nature of the creatures we have called our "pets" and morphed them from animal into child. And now, we ask ourselves: Is a shelter a better place to deposit a stray animal who was once a loving member of a family? How absurd can we be? Think about it: is a stray child better off placed with a loving family or into an orphanage? What do you think?
Dogs, especially, are social creatues. They are pack animals. And their family is their pack. When they are unfortunate enough to lose contact with their home and loved ones, they are truly a lost breed. Their very soul becomes invaded by not only a sense of loss, but an overwhelming depression that can only be offset by the tender understanding and love that a one-on-one foster family can help to heal while they await introduction into a forever home. There they, hopefully, can re-establish a loving relationship and interaction with a new pack and obtain a new lease on life.
A shelter can provide only the basics of food and give them a warm place to stay. Often, sheltes are overcrowded and far from being sanitary. In large cities, these facilities are generally run like any other bureaucracy ... and precious little time, and little to no love, is spared on any of the unfortunate occupants. Animals are locked in dirty, smelly cages with perhaps a blanket and a donated toy if they are lucky. Noisy at the very least, these environments are little more than a caged piece of hell where an animal cannot possibly be expected to feel comforted or comfortable. The caged animals are lined up in rows and often left to bark and cry,or cower, in their little piece of hell until a worker has the time (or inclination) to speak to them kindly, take them for a walk, or to play with them. If their pain is eased at all, it can only come in small doses of love and care from already overworked employees. There is no time, no money, and no proper facilities to give any particular occupant the love and care it deserves.
In the case of a foster home, however, a pet can transition lovingly from its previous home to its forever home without the loss of dignity that a shelter brings. The animal can be afforded a loving touch, kind words, walk time, play time, human interaction time as it would (and had previously been given) in a real home without being put on a worker's schedule and without having to share "care time" with dozens of other hopeful animals, hanging at their cage doors barking for attention - just to get noticed.
ALL pets deserve a proper home. Any animal that we, as a society, have changed to become a part of a family, DESERVES that right to remain with a loving family for the rest of its life. THAT is our responsbility because that is the life we taught them and it is the ONLY life that domesticated pets can physically, emotionally, and psychologically handle because it has now become the ONLY life they have ever known. To put a stray into a shelter - especially a kill shelter - is a mark on society that does not speak well of humanity in general and our willingness to hide what we have created behind walls of isolation so that we don't have to face the pain we rought about by loving and leaving those who have learned to trust us with their very lives.