No Kill Shelters

Begging your pardon, but there are times that animals should be euthanized.

Problems can arise with any animal, making it no longer fit as a pet.

• Illness, especially an incurable illness
• Grouchy, unpleasant animals. These animals are frequently sick. They become grouchy when they don’t feel good
• Mean animals that bite are a danger to people, and especially children

Not all pets turn out to be suitable as pets. These unfit animals should be euthanized, especially if they are sick.

This is what is wrong with
No Kill Animal Shelters

Can’t read the description? Here it is:

"Lil' Marcia was turned loose outside, and she developed an ear problem. Left untreated, it developed into a severe case of head tilt before she was rescued. It was difficult for her to hold herself upright at all, but she got state-of-the-art care from Dr. Linda Stern of Camp Hill Animal Hospital, including veterinary orthopedic manipulation and laser therapy. Although she still has a twisted neck, her flexibility and balance have improved dramatically. Her left eye will always be parallel with the ground, so she has to rest on towels in her cage - litter could possibly scratch her eye. Likewise, you have to limit the amount of hay in her cage. She needs shallow water and food bowls. Her foster mom says she needs a little extra work because of her condition, but her sweet personality more than makes up for it."

What PetFinder doesn’t tell you:

• They don’t say why the rabbit was abandoned in the first place - probably because it was sick and irritable, no longer a ‘pet’ in any sense of the word

• They don’t tell you the likelihood of the rabbit being ‘cured’ is nil. No kill shelters keep sick animals in circulation.

• They don’t tell you what caused the ‘head tilt,’ or wry neck which is the common term, in the first place.

  "This condition, involving continual twisting of the head, is usually caused by a Pasteurella multocida infection in the middle ear. This infection affects the equilibrium of the rabbit...Treatment is not effective, so rabbits with this condition should be culled [euthanized]" (Rabbit Production, 6th Ed, Cheeke et al., page 218).

• They don’t tell you whether or not this rabbit is on antibiotics as pictured, or whether or not the rabbit was ever treated with antibiotics. (But it did get a chiropractic adjustment and laser treatment, which changed nothing...)

  

• They don’t tell you that this rabbit will most likely require antibiotics on and off for as long as it lives. By keeping sick animals available for sale, no kill shelters sentence unsuspecting families to a monthly monetary sink-hole.

• They don’t tell you that antibiotic treatment only temporarily improves the rabbit’s condition, but doesn’t eliminate the germs.

• They don’t tell you that the strongest germs are the ones that don’t die, and that repeated antibiotic treatment results in a population of pasteurella super-germs which will eventually kill the rabbit

• They don’t tell you this condition is extremely contagious -- you should not accept this rabbit if you have other rabbits at home

• They don’t tell you that the chiropractic treatments don’t address infections. They do tell you, in a roundabout fashion, that the ‘state-of-the-art’ treatments haven’t improved the wry neck (or head tilt, as they put it)

• They don’t tell you that just as soon as you become attached to this rabbit because of ‘her sweet personality,’ it will become critically ill, and your 6-year-old kid will find it dead in its cage and become scarred for life.

This rabbit should not be offered for sale, not by PetFinder, and not by a no kill shelter.

But if it is, the offering should come with a FULL DISCLOSURE of this nature ... including all that will be entailed with its care, including the likely vet-dollars you’ll end up spending on this rabbit per month.

Any lack of FULL disclosure is flat-out...

CRIMINAL.

Sure, purchase this animal. But go into it with your eyes OPEN...and you’d best not allow yourself to get too attached to the animal emotionally.

Here are some other links you may enjoy:

• Carnivore Digestive System

• World of Raising Rabbits

• Pet Safe Plants

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