It's a disturbingly common scenario: Officials had to rescue about 120 animals from deplorable conditions at a New Mexico "sanctuary" recently. Many dogs were confined to dilapidated pens with little to no protection from the elements. Cats were locked in a basement with filthy litterboxes. There were dead mice in water containers. Animals were injured, neglected and in need of veterinary care. But we'd heard it all before.
Not a week goes by without reports of animals found in criminally cruel conditions at self-professed "rescues" and "sanctuaries" that claim to "save" animals from euthanasia. Their names, like "Life for God's Stray Animals," "Angel's Gate" and "Heaven on Earth Farm," belie the hellish conditions in which the animals have been kept.
This February, for example, authorities seized 100 animals, including four dead cats, from a "rescuer" in Kentucky. An animal control official testified to finding dogs crammed into filthy crates; feces and urine throughout the "rescuer's" home; a lack of adequate food and water; and animals who were underweight, missing fur and suffering from skin conditions, open sores and flea infestations. The animal control officer, who had been on the job for 32 years, said, "(I)t was the worst home I had ever been in during my career."
That same month, authorities rescued 165 dogs, cats, rabbits, tortoises and other animals from a boarding kennel in Arizona that had "morphed into a rescue." Many animals were emaciated, ill and forced to sleep on concrete floors with no bedding. Kennels were reportedly covered with feces, and many animals suffered from open wounds, sores and lacerations.
The long-term neglect uncovered at these places is horrifying by any standard. Yet some groups that claim to be "no-kill advocates" are silent when such chilling cruelty is exposed at "no-kill" facilities. Meanwhile, they rail loudly against open-admission shelters that make the responsible and humane decision to euthanize some animals _ often those with irremediable health or behavioral issues _ in order to accommodate an endless flow of homeless and unwanted cats and dogs. Some "no-kill advocates" even harass and threaten shelter workers who have the heartbreaking task of euthanizing the unadoptable animals who come through their doors.
So why do these groups keep mum when horrific suffering is revealed at "rescues"? Is it because they cling to a "life at all costs" mentality, believing that anything is preferable to a painless, peaceful end? Would they rather just not think about the fact that animals are being doomed to spending their lives warehoused in cages and slowly wasting away without love, respect, attention, care or anything else that makes life worth living? Perhaps they stay silent because they bear responsibility for countless animals who end up in these deplorable situations to begin with.
People who demand an end to euthanasia are driving a growing number of animal shelters to dispense with common sense safeguards, such as basic screenings of potential adopters to prevent animals from ending up in a basement cage; landlord, veterinary and background checks; and reasonable adoption fees. Many shelters are now handing out animals for free to anyone who will take them, including hoarders who call themselves "rescues."
"No-kill" proponents are also hard at work pressuring shelters to employ other dangerous tactics in order to avoid euthanasia, including charging people to surrender animals, maintaining months-long waiting lists and turning away animals because there isn't enough space or because it may be difficult to find them a home.
These policies put animals in danger of being dumped on the streets, where they may be killed by vehicles or succumb to parasites or starvation, and of being killed by bludgeoning, drowning or other cruel methods by people who are desperate to "get rid" of them. We read about those tragedies in the media as well.
Consider Spirit's story. The little dog suffered from advanced full-body scabies, which caused severe pain and open, bleeding sores all over her body. Yet a municipal animal shelter handed her over to a "rescue" group, which then moved her to a small pen at a sham "rescue" called Sanctuary Animal Refuge (SAR). There, she languished in isolation for three years before finally dying. SAR was later raided by authorities, who called what they found there "one of the worst cases of animal cruelty and hoarding ever seen." Spirit suffered there just so that an animal shelter could add one more statistic to its "save rate."
Shelters fail animals like Spirit when they send them anywhere just to avoid euthanasia. While euthanasia may be sad, at least it's humane. Simply crossing our fingers and handing over vulnerable animals to anyone who claims to be a "rescue" dooms them to a fate that is often far worse than a peaceful death in caring arms.
