Skip to main content

Not Mine!

You wouldn't think it is that difficult for people to know if they own an animal or not. But in our world it isn't so cut and dry. Yesterday a young lady came in to surrender two cats that "were not hers". Her friend had found them as young kittens and took them in to her home. Raised them and then this young lady decided to take two of them in and keep them. For one reason or another she could no longer keep them. So when we asked her to sign them over to us, as their owner, her sentiment was "they are not mine" they are strays. Well to give you some idea they are now almost a year old so they are definitely not strays. When a stray animal comes into any animal shelter we are required to hold them for a time period to allow them time to be found by their owner. These cats were beyond being looked for by an owner and were more than likely not being looked for by anyone. But she still could not understand why she was the owner. She didn't want to take any responsibility for the two cats she cared for these past number of months and she just wanted to dump them on us.

When someone makes the choice to take in an animal and begin to make decisions about their care, provide them with food and a home, the city of Lynchburg considers them owners of that pet after a very short period of time. I do believe this also applies to cats/dogs that you begin feeding and caring for but don't bring them into your home but allow them to stay on your property.

If you do not want to be responsible for the cat/dog then please contact your local animal shelter, report them as being found. Try and locate the owner by posting fliers or you can take them to the animal shelter as a stray at the time you find them. But it is a mini "button" of ours that someone has had the "stray" for 4 months but they don't want to be responsible for them. You made the choice to take them in and we are here to help you with your choice but please don't dump them like you don't care. You cared enough to take them in, please care enough to see them on to their next home.

At this time we are asking owners to allow us some time to bring in their pets when we have space to ensure we are not having to euthanize pets due to space. This gives their pet and the other animals, that don't have an owner advocating for them, a chance to find a new home and not be ask risk of being put down because we don't have a cage. I think it is a tiny price to pay, to hold on to a pet a little longer or to take responsibility for the "stray" animal you have had for a while, in order to save a life.

So enough of my mini rant. I want to say that more times than not people understand and work with us because they know it is what is best for the animal. It is only once in a blue moon that people don't. It warms my heart when people spend their money during these economic times to get those stray cats they are feeding fixed. One woman in particular has been helping these stray cats for a while now and has probably helped save many many cats just by taking responsibility.

Comments

  1. Yeah, what Makena said!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. It makes me ill. I know a family who take in dog, after poor dog, or puppy, keep them for a few months, decide they are tired of them, or are too lazy to train and care for them, and like it isnt anything, they just dump these poor babies at the shelter. 3 now that I know of. These people are on medicaid, welfare, you name it, every government program you could name, and they still take in animals that they know that dont want and cannot care for. Should be a law against stupidity.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IS LHS UNDER ATTACK?

In 2013 the Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS) ended the year with a 92% save rate for the animals in our care, the highest year end figure since we began down the path to No Kill.   We were able to reduce the number of cats we took in by 294, compared to 2012, due primarily, we believe, to our spay/neuter efforts.   YOU made this possible.    We believe the Lynchburg Humane Society is about to be embroiled in a controversial attack by another humane organization because of all the great work we are doing.   We want our community and our supporters to know why and to be informed about this controversy because without you we could not do what we are doing.   You all are partners in our efforts.     This is long so please hang in there and read it in its entirety because there is important information throughout that you probably don’t know.    In April PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent us a letter asking us to change some of our life saving programs i

They know what they know so don’t give them the facts.

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more

When the tables turn

It is not unknown for people to be scared of dogs. Animal shelters throughout history were built on that fear. Dog catchers were employed to capture packs of nuisance dogs that were roaming and pestering communities. Pounds were built on the edge of towns near the dump to remove stray dogs from towns and in most cases, destroy them to prevent public endangerment.   Fast forward to now and shelters are referred to as centers, instead of strays we say adoptable, we don’t say animals we say pets, and dogs are family members. Getting a dog without a home into a family is a community effort and #adoptdontshop is a movement.  So how strange it is that the COVID-19 pandemic has made us fear being too close to people and has increased our desire for pets?  People want to foster or adopt pets, now more than ever! At the Lynchburg Humane Society’s Center for Pets there has been an increase of 85% more pets in foster care than at this time last year. The Lynchburg Humane Society alrea