Nothing makes my blood boil quicker than hearing the term “No Kill” shelter.
How can people be so naïve to honestly believe that there can be such a thing as no kill; it just means somebody else is doing the deed.
This is true in Harlingen and I’m sure it goes for every city and town throughout the state of Texas and elsewhere.
When you hear about a “No Kill” facility somewhere in the area rest assured that down the street there’s a shelter that has to put more animals down for space.
The Humane Society of Harlingen is one of those open intake shelters that does not refuse animals so unfortunately we have to do the dirty work; euthanizing animals for lack of space.
We don’t get much credit for the fact that we ask these “No Kill” rescues to pull animals from our facility all the time.
By the way they cherry pick and take mostly the cute adoptable ones.
They are portrayed as the heroes and of course we are the villains.
If you only knew the extreme extent that my Executive Director, staff, and Board of Directors go through to save animals everyday; you would surely see things differently.
I go to sleep dreaming of winning the lottery in hopes that I can to build a huge shelter so that we can stop euthanizing for space.
A shelter large enough to accommodate the thousands of animals we receive each year. So we could have a Veterinarian on staff, allowing us to treat all the Heartworm positive dogs.
So we could have real quarantine facility for sick animals not just for bite cases.
Along with 24-hour-a day intake so people can’t just dump their unwanted pets in the outside kennels, leaving us no information; not even the pets’ name.
With a new shelter and money, there are so many things that we could do to cut down on the euthanasia rate; but again there is no such thing as a “No Kill” Shelter.
Pat Turman-White President Humane Society of Harlingen
