There's plenty of shelter volunteers and operators here, so feel free to
add to this list.
 
I volunteer weekends at my county's animal shelter and I have one standing
rule: do not let me work with intake.  The excuses "people" give for
turning in animals are so pathetic they'd make you laugh if they didn't
break your heart.  This quotation from Wednesday's FML gave me the idea
for this: "I do not breed the rescue animals as there is often a good
reason they were unwanted in the first place."
 
I have yet to hear a "good" reason why an animal is unwanted.  The
so-called best seem to be that the animal's quality of life has
deteriorated to a point of no return.  That's when your animal, your pet
needs you the most and when you need to be an adult and do what is right.
Taking a sick animal to a shelter is not only inhumane it is an act of
cowardice.  These are some of the "reasons" we've heard for leaving animals
(including ferrets) at the shelter:
 
"She had [insert any name for offspring] and we're keeping them, not
her..."
 
"We had new carpet installed and his fur doesn't match"
 
"We're having children and have no time..."
 
"We don't understand why she does [insert any natural and predictable
behavior]..."
 
"It was a gift we really don't want"
 
I'm sure there are plenty of other great ones.  I have found that my
concern about the problems of humanity have dissipated greatly since I've
been working with animals.  We, as humans, don't deserve a lot of what we
think we do.
 
If you can, please adopt from shelters.  Often, these animals are so
loving- they just need homes.  You even get an irreplaceable sense of
accomplishment by adopting so-called "special needs" animals.  I love
doing what they say can't be done.  And our house is a citadel of TLC
because of it.
[Posted in FML issue 2698]