December 21st is a Deadly Day for Dogs

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Some county pounds and local animal controls are closed Monday and Tuesday for Christmas, so this friday, December 21st becomes a very deadly day. Often, shelters euthanize at the end of the week. Anticipating that the shelter will not be open for adoption for a good part of the week after the holiday, and there will probably be an influx of dogs and cats that are "unwanted christmas gifts" that are dumped right after Christmas, often the decision is made to euthanize as usual or "clean out the shelter." What can you do? 1) Please, if you are considering adding a dog or cat to the family, do not buy from a pet store or a breeder, check your local pounds for a new best friend. 2) If someone mentions they lost their dog, encourage them to check for them at the pound 3) If you are a responsible pet owner with an extra spot on the sofa, but aren't sure you are ready for another dog, contact your local rescues as well as rescues for the type of breed of dogs you are accustomed to/are experienced with and offer to open your home as a foster home. They may wish to check your references and you may not be able to foster right then, but if they know they have fosters in waiting they might be encouraged to save just one more. 4) Contact local rescues who sometimes pull dogs from the pounds and offer your services of picking up a dog they have selected or driving a "leg" on their longer journey to a rescue. It is very rewarding and only takes between 45 minutes and 3 hours to contribute to saving a life. I think petfinder has a function where you can offer yourself as a volunteer, check volunteermatch.org and look in the paper for rescues that have adoption events, etc locally and see if you can help them out. Sometimes just having a volunteer available to drive sometimes is a matter of a dog getting out of the pound and into a rescue, etc. and saving its life.