Dear Editor:

I am writing this letter in great hope that it will shift the consciousness of anyone that is considering dumping their pet at an animal shelter that euthanizes animals.

I know that you are probably thinking that someone will adopt your pet, or that some fantastic rescue group will step in and save your dog just in the nick of time. How I wish it were true that every single animal that sits in a kill shelter would be saved from taking their final breath waiting for a forever home that never materialized.

If you truly love your animal and can’t keep them for whatever reason, I ask that you do everything in your power to find them a loving forever home. As a volunteer at an animal shelter, I can tell you that the most beautiful, loving, trustworthy, friendly animals in our communities are losing their lives there; don’t fool yourself into believing that they only euthanize feeble old animals. Everyone is fair game, and everyone needs to be moved along to make room for the new batch of animals that are constantly coming through the shelter doors.

The shelters will tell you what can we do? We have no choice but to euthanize, this is a problem created by society, we’re cleaning up their mess by destroying these animals. Shelters will continue doing business this way. It’s up to us as citizens to step up to the plate and take care of our animals until they are old. There isn’t a day that goes by that they don’t give us every ounce of love that is inside of them -- they run to the door to happily greet us when we get home from work, they cheer us up on our saddest days, and they are happy to share every minute of their lives with us.

Don’t turn your back on your animal and betray them by dumping them at a shelter that kills animals.

Patty Jackson
Downey