All across the United States, animal shelters are full to bursting. In the case of publicly funded shelters, they are often required to take in every animal that comes their way. While all shelters are required to hold animals for at least 72 hours in case owners come to reclaim them, many are so overcrowded that they will begin euthanizing soon after that.
So when Sidney, a 3-month-old female German shepherd, was heartlessly abandoned at the Carson Animal Shelter in Gardena, California, rescuers knew that she didn’t have much time. While it’s sad when all animals, regardless of age, are put down, to see a puppy that had just come into the world facing being put to sleep, it was just too sad.
What made things even worse is that the family who abandoned Sidney in April 2017 had no real reason to do so other than that they couldn’t be bothered to take care of her anymore. After being bought and taken into a family, then suddenly dumped, Sidney was incredibly sad.
The organization’s followers quickly got online to find people in the Southern California area who could take her in. Some people even wrote in from as far as Australia offering their homes to make sure Sidney got a second chance to live. As commenter Sheila Paul wrote: “Please open your heart and home to Sidney. Please save her she [doesn’t] have much time. Please don’t wait until it’s to[o] late. Please give her a loving home now.”
There was outrage too at the owners for getting the dog and then leaving it the moment they actually had to take care of it. As commenter Rae Bernadette Sawyer wrote, “It just isn’t right or acceptable for any pet owner to turn their back on their young pets, which results in hundreds of babies being killed, which is totally inhumane.”
Seeing this beautiful baby dog with such big ears and a beautiful coat in so much distress got people talking, and Sidney not only had an adoptive family lined up but five backup families on a list just in case the first one didn’t work out. Thanks to the attention that the post got, she was saved just five days after being surrendered at the shelter.
Unfortunately, the city defines “no kill” as a 90 percent survival rate at its shelters, so this still means thousands of perfectly healthy animals who are just waiting for a good home are being put down every year.
By supporting organizations like Saving Carson Shelter Animals, we can all make sure that every animal that needs a home finds one!
