# Ignorant Shelter Workers



## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Every weekend, petsmart has one of the local shelters bring animals in for adoption; I always go by and look because I'm a sucker lol. Today when I walked into the area where the dogs were caged, I overheard a worker telling a family that all the dogs were nice except for the one at the end; he was apparently very mean (like they would even have him there if that was the case). This piqued my curiosity so I went to the cage at the end and it was a very forlorn looking english bulldog mix, I mean he had the saddest face I've ever seen. Being me, I immediately stuck my hand through the bars, completely disregarding what I had heard about this little guy. He immediately laid his head against my hand and closed his eyes as if it was something he hadn't experienced in a long time. I rubbed around his ears and under his chin and he just ate it up. When it was time for me to leave and I turned my back to him, he actually started whining and it just about broke my heart. If I didn't already have 2 dogs, too many rats and a full-time job, I would have taken him home with me right then. I witnessed another of the workers talking about the dog as I was walking out and she was saying he's mean as well. I just don't understand how anyone could say that about that dog or why you'd say that about any dog that you're trying to find an adopter for unless it was the absolute truth which they wouldn't even have him there if it was.


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## moonkissed (Dec 26, 2011)

It might be just that he wasn't good with kids (which they should have said instead). 

I volunteer at my local shelter and we had one cat that was just not very friendly. You could pet him all day long but if you tried picking her up...you were in for it. We had to beg and plead with the animal officers to let us keep him at all and then finally they allowed us to put him up at petco, with a warning. He did get adopted!

Perhaps the volunteers were new or just ignorant/bad. But he could have had issues that they were trying to get across. It is always best to be upfront about pets. If not someone could get injured or just return him. 

But I would suggest contacting the shelter and telling them what the people said and suggest they find a better way of discussing the dogs.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Yeah, it just bothered me because it obviously came across as "this is a horribly vicious dog" to the people they were talking to and they didn't bother explaining since the family didn't ask questions. There were just so many better ways of going about telling someone that a dog has problems. His card did say that he's bad with other animals, but the worker made it seem like he just hated everything and everyone


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## GijitsMom (Jun 11, 2015)

Sometimes it is just a matter of training staff how to communicate information in a truthful, but tactful way. 

Often there is a great deal of employee turnover. People working for a shelter or animal welfare agency do it for the love of animals, not to get rich. Even the best facilities have trouble keeping staff and volunteers properly trained in animal health and behavior, let alone in how to talk with potential adopters.

I am not making excuses for their poor behavior, just trying to help explain one possibility. Our volunteers and staff tend to project just the opposite views and may understate problems to help encourage adopters. I do agree with Moonkissed, talk to shelter manager about your concerns and observations. Perhaps he/she can coach these staff members on how to better represent the animals while maintaining the truth.


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