Philosophy

I had an interesting discussion yesterday with a volunteer about the animals we are sending west in our transfer program. Tuesday night more than 40 dogs and puppies went to Denver. As our shelter is at capacity right now this was a big help in opening up space in the kennels. Some of those animals had been in foster homes including one litter of 10 and one litter of 5. The next morning the volunteer was disappointed that there weren't more empty kennels since so many of the puppies had been in foster. She felt that somehow the fostered puppies had bumped animals that were in the shelter from making the trip.

I tried to explain that the ones that had gone to foster homes would stay healthy until the trip - that by going into foster we had simply opened the kennels up as we went along rather than all at once. By sending those 44 animals to new homes in another state, our shelter will be able to hold other animals for a longer period of time giving them a better chance at adoption. She didn't agree and seemed to think the shelter had somehow made a "change in philosophy".

After she left I thought about it - and had to agree. I've been here one year now and I would hope we've changed our philosophy. Save the lives of these animals by every means we can possibly think of. Make everyone a part of the solution to our problem - too many unwanted pets. I'm sure it's the right thing to do.