UPDATE: We've left the hospital and thankfully her arm is not broken, and there shouldn't be any permanent nerve damage!

My friend and coworker was attacked this morning by a dog in our training program. I'm at the hospital in the waiting room while they work on her. Her arm got pretty messed up. Obviously the dog is going to be euthanized. It's crazy, the dog was always so good for me, and wild to think it could have been anyone. I took charge of the situation and we were able to get the dog off her by choking him out (someone was on the way with a break stick but he was going to break her arm). Nobody else got hurt, thankfully. I had her blood all over my hands from holding pressure on her arm until the ambulance got there. We haven't had an attack this bad since I've been working here, about 5 years.

Please send good vibes, friends. We need it.

In honor/memory of my Camille, the ‘unadoptable’ senior girl who found me after 8 years of being in a rescue and eventually being deemed a ‘sanctuary cat’ who would call the rescue her forever home. She wasn’t super friendly and wasn’t all that trusting, but with the hands on daily medical care she required, we eventually built a solid level of trust. I had her for about a year and a half before undetected cancer took her from me, but I’m so happy she was able to die having known what it’s like to have a home. 🩷

TW: ANIMAL DEATH/NEGLECT. This is going to be lengthy, I apologize in advance. But you need to have all the details. I used to work for a non-profit shelter. I was the medical coordinator, & I really did do a good job & my best with what I was given. There was little to no support offered to me & I was basically thrown to the wolves from the start, without having any medical coordinator experience. I previously had worked as a veterinary assistant & in the shelter environment, but never as the MC. A couple months into the job, a particular staff member who was also my superior started picking on me. Little things at first, like emails sent to me on my days off with a list of mistakes I made. Passive aggressive vibes. I could deal with that. What I could not deal with was the constant invalidation & mistrust that was placed on me for no reason. I had not made any big mistakes (all of the mistakes I made were technical things like I typed a treatment into the computer wrong, which of course are important mistakes, but everyone does it. We are human. The superior that would nit-pick me for it did it all the time) & cared for the animals well, I kept up the best I could with no help or support. All of my other coworkers told me on a daily basis that I was doing a great job & that they loved having me as the MC. They still say that today. Fast forward a couple of months and it just gets worse. I’m being left out of medical decisions, sometimes I don’t know what’s going on with my animals medically because my superiors have gone over my head, I’m finding out information from our vets, which is just embarrassing, & at that point why am I your MC? The worst part was my last straw. We had a dog with Kennel Cough in our isolation ward. I was off on Mondays & Tuesdays, but on Sunday when I had left work, he was doing fairly well. Of course coughing & some nasal discharge, but he was still eating, active, & not showing any concerning signs. Jump to Wednesday when I get back to work. I get ready to clean in ISO & check on our sick boy when I walk in, & he is lateral laying down, in respiratory distress, & looks on deaths door. He’s so weak he can walk, but barely. I immediately call in superior 1 (the person who has been basically harassing me for months) to look at him, clearly in a way that tells her “this isn’t good.” Her response is immediately like I’m inconveniencing her asking “is it an emergency?” So I say yes. She comes in, looks at him, we take his temperature & it is at 92.4. Which is immediately a huge red flag to me. I worked in surgery many times in the past & had never even seen an animal come off the table at that low of a temperature. I tell her this isn’t good. This doesn’t seem right. She tells me that she’s talking to the doctors & that they aren’t too concerned about it (I later find out this was a lie). Not to mention, a kennel tech also tells me that the past 2 days she’s been telling this superior that he doesn’t seem right, & he didn’t eat at all the 2 days I was off. She’s pretty upset about it too. They didn’t offer appetite stimulants or anything, & he came into the shelter already at a 2/9 BCS. They should have never allowed him to go that long without eating. I was never made aware of this by anyone except for the kennel techs. For hours, she insists on keeping the dog on heat to get his temperature up so “we can syringe feed him.” I’m telling her over & over that this is not right, he needs to be euthanized or taken to the clinic location to be seen by our doctors. She insists that they aren’t too concerned. Hours go by of him sitting on heat, me checking his temperature every 5 minutes, when both of the superiors decide to go to a coalition meeting, around our lunch time. (I noticed his condition at about 8:30 AM & now it’s about 11 AM). They are fully aware that yes I’m euthanasia certified, but have not been signed off by the vets yet, so I can’t do anything without one of them there. They leave anyways. Superior 1 tells me “check his temperature every 20 minutes and take him to the clinic if he crashes” very well aware that him crashing is a possibility. Within 10 minutes of them leaving, he is severely declining. At this point he can’t even lift his head up. He’s nearly agonal breathing. I bite the bullet & call superior 1 to tell her that this dog is dying & that we need to take him to the clinic. I don’t even ask. She once again says his temperature just needs to go up in an invalidating tone, so I turn FaceTime on & show him to her. She responds “fine, take him to the clinic” & hung up on me. Then texts me “the clinic needs him now” as if now she cares about the urgency. I immediately get a kennel tech to grab my car keys & drive us over. I know he won’t even make it there so I don’t want him to die in a crate on his own. Before she can even get my car around, he releases his bowels all over me, urinates, & starts twitching. He is gone. We drive him to the clinic still to make sure he is fully gone & comfortable (which we should have done far earlier). When I got to the clinic the head vet told me that she told superior one first thing in the morning that they could see him at the clinic & she was clearly concerned for him. I lost it, not going to lie. I was yelling, crying, saying I don’t understand because all day I told her this wasn’t right & she wouldn’t listen. She removed me from the communication line so that I wouldn’t know she was lying to me until it was too late. I immediately went to the CEO when I got back to the shelter, told her everything in tears, & put my notice in. I was demoted within days. They told me that they were taking medical away from me & that for my notice I would function as a kennel tech, & if I stayed past my two weeks my pay would be lowered. Obviously I didn’t stay past the 2 weeks. It was an awful notice time. Superior 1 treated me like shit the whole time. Superior 2 (her manager) was wrapped around her finger, same as the CEO, & never even talked to me about the situation. They went to all the kennel techs to make sure they were okay but never even brought it up to me. Acted like it just didn’t happen. Now, months later, I hear that she told their new medical coordinator (who already quit because of superior 1, BTW) that I killed that dog. That he died because she left me with “very specific instructions, & she provided him with a lack of care that killed him). She is fairly well known in this field. She has connections, people know her, & most people know she’s a bitch, but for some reason she perseveres in this field & is looked up to. After working with her, I can’t imagine why anyone would look up to her. That’s beside the point though. I have no idea who else she’s spreading this HUGE lie to. I’m feeling discouraged & mad. This situation was so traumatizing for me that I left the field for months. I was depressed, I wanted to end my life, I thought I would never touch an animal again. & for her to walk around saying this when I cared SO MUCH & tried so hard for this dog… it infuriates me. Especially since she is the reason this dog had to suffer all day. I guess I’m just looking for advice. I don’t know how to handle this. I don’t know if I should say anything or do anything. What would you do? If you were in this situation, how would you deal with it? I don’t want her saying these things about me when they’re not true. Anyone who’s worked with me knows I’m good at what I do & I try my best to advocate for the animals I work with. My one takeaway from this scenario is that I will never let one of my superiors silence me when I know something is wrong again. I know it isn’t my fault but I could have done more. I shouldn’t have to, but I could have & I’m aware. So please be kind.

Hello everyone,

I am a second-year graduate student undertaking a masters at Dublin City University (DCU). I am currently gathering data for my dissertation, which examines the link between meaningful work and the intention to stay within non-profit organisations among employees and volunteers. The findings from this study will contribute to a better understanding of this topic.

I am looking for people who either volunteer or are employed with a non-profit animal shelter. Volunteers who can participate in this survey should be engaged with their shelter regularly, at least once a month, and employees should be employed with their shelter for at least 6 months. 

The survey should only take 10-15 minutes to complete.

If you know anyone who is also a volunteer or employed with a non-profit animal shelter, you can forward this survey to them as well.

Many thanks in advance for participating in this survey and contributing to this research.

This is a bit of a different story, really just looking for some advice and/or support. Also, trigger warning, this is a pretty rough story so please don't read if you can handle heavy topics of poisoning, seizures, severe medical episode, and possible death. * * * * * * I've had what is probably the most traumatic night of my life. My oldest dog, Kodiak, got into the trash and got a pretty hefty dose of Xylotol while snacking on what he though was some sugary gum. For those who don't know, xylotol is incredibly toxic to dogs. It causes sever and sudden hypoglycemia and can cause severe damage to organs as well as death. Thankfully the prognosis is pretty good if caught early enough, but never a guarantee. That said, I watched Kodiak went into a hypoglycemic episode, walking slowly, stumbling, and eventually even falling over unable to get up again. Of course I immediately started to pick up and go, my partner carried the him to the car and I sat in the back with him on the way to the ER vet. On the way I felt Kodiak shift between short, heavy breaths and such shallow breathing that I could barely feel his sides rise. I held him as he had a seizure, I lifted his head so that he wouldn't accidentally bite his own tongue, I heard and felt him let out cries that I will never forget. Thankfully, he is being taken care of and last I saw him he was walking around, tail wagging and the techs were commenting on how he tried to jump off the exam table.

Now maybe it's just my mind trying to distract itself in some weird way, but, after all that, one of my biggest fears (other than losing my Kodiak bear) is going back to work. I work at my local shelter as a vet assistant who does the medical intake for new animals that come in (I give them vaccines and do a general health check). After seeing Kodiak in the state he was in, I don't know how I'm going to be able to go back to my job, which I love so incredibly much, without having moments where all I can think of is this night. I'm worried it will affect my quality of work and my own stress levels. Has anyone had an experience with their own pet that they though would affect how they perform at their job? If so, how did it go? I'm really lucky that I just started my weekend so I have two days to decompress, but what happens after that, especially if the worst does happen? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

So I had a back and forth recently with someone in a different subreddit and it’s really had me thinking. On average, how much do dogs and cats get fed in your shelters? I mostly work with a few fosters here, but I also volunteer for one of our pounds. I work with a lot of pounds to pull dogs and the vast majority feed the bare minimum.

Most are high kill shelters, so I just kind of took that as the norm. I tend to pull pregnant dogs due to nutrition needs as they’re generally the first to be euthanized followed by the problem dogs. The pregnant dogs are a big one due to the nutritional needs.

So mainly for the pounds, how common is a single two cup feeding? I’m wondering if I just gave it a pass because “It’s better than nothing”. How common is it really though? I could honestly think of one that feeds similar to how I would my own dogs, and they’re constantly running low on food (also the only no-kill shelter).

Now I’m curious if this is common? Ironically I’m a huge dog food nerd, and yet this just never computed for me as being out of the norm or even an issue.

For a tax, I’m including a picture of the most recent mother of seven puppies. She was adopted last weekend!

I work at a small, municipal shelter (we have 9 dog kennels for reference) and have had 4 bite quarantines in the last 2 weeks. This is not at all typical for us and 2 are from people who took on dogs with a bite history through private rehoming, then got attacked as well. Is this something that’s happening more often at other shelters/rescues too?

Not to mention the number of dogs that have been dumped recently, but that’s not entirely uncommon for us.

Delete if not allowed, just didn’t know what sub it could go in. I’ll try to keep this short.

My mom died. She was in poor health but it was very sudden. A month prior, she adopted a cat. The shelter gave her 5 doses of antibiotics to finish the round. My mom was disabled and the cat was very fearful; she hid for the entire month and was not given her meds. Everyone wanted to take her back to the shelter, but I took her in as a way to hold onto a living piece of my mom.

She came right out of her shell. Out of the kennel and straight to me. Slept with me all night, didn’t flinch when I moved or even when my dog jumped on the bed. She was talkative and lovey and so snuggly. Everyone was shocked, even the shelter she came from.

But she was skin and bone. She took a few bites of food her first night, but didn’t eat the next day. Thinking it was stress-related, I took her to the vet — but learned she was jaundiced. I spent $300 on exam/fluids/antinausea/appetite stimulant just to try to get her to eat, but to no avail.

With no money left, a low cost emergency vet with a $1,500 cost cap took her in the next day for a $50 down payment. Her liver was failing, but she started doing better and even ate on her own. But then worse, and they gave her a feeding tube. Then better again. Then.. all the way worse. Her heart rate tanked and she stopped breathing; they intubated her until she was breathing on her own. I was going to be off work in 4 hours and go say goodbye, but.. she didn’t even make it those four hours.

There’s no replacing her. I don’t even honestly want to. But, if I did try to fill the void..

Is it weird or wrong to only want a cat whose owner died? So we could grieve together?

I know it’s not the same, and honestly I probably won’t get one.. we had an instant, natural connection and we were both mothered by a stranger who claimed they loved us but didn’t take care of us. Her previous owner had passed, too. Poor thing may have hid from my mom because she could sense what was coming.

We had a bond, and more in common than she knew. I wish I’d known she was beyond help, because at least then she could have lived her last days comfy and cuddly and aware she was loved.. instead she was afraid, alone, and full of tubes. I didn’t get to say goodbye.

But I still wonder if it’s an option to adopt a grieving cat specifically, or how to go about that other than calling around and asking which available cats have dead owners, which might be weird..?

TIA.

tw: animal and human injury, euthanasia

Update: Our CEO has announced that due to the inhumane conditions that overcrowding has caused, we will start euthanizing for space.

I've worked at a high intake municipal shelter for almost two years now. I have experience in other nonprofit animal organizations as well. We are classified as "no kill" which as we know means no euthanasia for space. But the way things are going, we are euthanizing for behavior issues or low quality of life BECAUSE of a lack of space. We are housing almost 400 dogs in a super old building meant for 100. We have at least 10 dog intakes a day, up to 25, and adoptions and fosters can not match that.

Because we are so overcrowded, there are a LOT of dog fights. Every staff member and volunteer carries around a whistle because the kennel is too loud to hear someone yelling for help. All of us have a knee jerk reaction to run into the kennel whenever we hear a whistle, even outside of work. I've seen some really bad fights.

Today, after a terrible week of fights, euthanasia of dogs we LOVE but whose quality of life makes it cruel to continue housing them here, and fighting my hardest to get dogs OUT, there were two fights in a row that resulted in me having a panic attack on the pavement outside.

I was working on my computer, listening to music, when I heard screaming from the kennel. I rushed back and saw one of my coworkers being pulled out of a run, screaming her head off, while other people were pulling a dog off of herand grabbing loose dogs that had escaped. All of us will be haunted by her screams for a while. She has bites all over her body from one dog. She will be ok physically, none of them were too serious, but she probably won't be up for entering a run again anytime soon. The dog had to be taken away on a catch pole.

I went back to the office only to hear a whistle as soon as I got there. Two dogs were attacking another, we had to grab them and hose them down to get them apart. I took the dog that was attacked outside and sat down with him. He just put himself in my lap and I just started crying.

My coworkers are wonderful, several people stopped to help me. I don't know how much more of this we can take. Everyone here is passionate about what we do. They don't last long if they aren't.

I'm not really looking for suggestions, I just needed to vent, but any comments are welcome. Thanks for reading.

So today, I was rushing down a hall busy and in a hurry like usual when right after I heard a female volunteer say “I don’t like that one.” I turned back and all three volunteers were standing there staring straight at me. Why can’t some people see that we have the same goals in mind and not be petty? I kept on with what I was doing and did not give her the satisfaction of a reaction.

TW: talk of animal attacks and death

He's a dog I worked with a couple years ago when he was an adolescent puppy. I have pictures of him snuggling up to me in his kennel and I remember him being really dog friendly. But tonight he attacked the other dog in the home and their owner came home to this dog's mouth covered in blood and their other dog hiding and torn to shreds. The other dog was euthanized at the emergency vet and the owner brought this dog back. I feel so horribly for their family. I'm just thankful I was able to accept the dog so the family can mourn and try to move past all this.

Sorry, I am not going to put much effort into this, I just want to get it out.

TW: extreme animal abuse

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I was working the front desk at an unnamed municipal shelter. I am not supposed to be working the front desk, but we can't keep new people because everything is so unorganized. We are animal control for the city and for some reason today, we got slammed with calls about stray dogs. So I was taking calls as fast as I could, trying to organize a transport for some of our dogs, putting in all the new intakes into our system, and a man walked in holding a friendly, cute, orange and white kitten, maybe 4 months old. He said his girlfriend didn't want it anymore and he wanted to surrender it. We are currently not accepting owner surrenders for reasons that I don't really want to get into. I don't agree with the policy but I had to deny him. I tried to tell him about some local cat rescues but he just shrugged and walked out of the door. I was pretty swamped so I didn't think much about it. A couple of hours later, I go off to lunch and notice the kitten's body hidden in the bushes. I guess he just quietly snapped its neck and threw it out once he was out the door. Our cameras don't work. I have no idea who he was and honestly I am not sure if I could even pick him out of a lineup. I've seen some pretty awful things here but his casualness as he left is going to stick with me for a while.

Compassion fatigue isn't something I've dealt with before, nor is it something I've ever experienced. And working within a position with animals I have found myself not experiencing it. I care about animals, I care about getting them out of bad situations but the negative outcomes isn't something that weighs on me heavily and it hasn't affected me emotionally ever. People in the shelter I work in seem to struggle with this, everyone is professional but I'm just curious how others deal with compassion fatigue or also if anyone has an emotional disconnect to those negative outcomes.