"It was euthanasia day, and next up on the list was a wiggly four-month-old puppy named Honey. "I went into that kennel, and that dog was just so happy to see me, jumping all over me," Wright recalled. She looked at Honey and thought, I am not going to kill this dog. Instead, she went next door to tender her resignation to the police chief."
"Kristi Wright was hired as the animal-control officer in Pecos, Texas, in 2017. The town's shelter, a windowless cinder-block building behind the police station, had twelve bare-bones kennels and few resources. "People thought of it, like, That's where animals go to die," Wright told me. "And it wasn't untrue." In Pecos, a West Texas oil-field town dotted with man camps, equipment yards, and the occasional roofless adobe structure melting into the scrub, packs of stray dogs congregated by the gas stations and the elementary schools."
"Municipal animal shelters like the one in Pecos typically have to take in any animal within their community boundaries. They are often underfunded and overcrowded and have higher euthanasia rates than privately run organizations. Rescue groups, of which there are nearly ten thousand in the U.S.-twice the number of shelters-attempt to ease the burden by removing and finding homes for adoptable dogs."
Euthanasia in an under-equipped shelter used to be the fate of many dogs in Texas. Kristi Wright was hired as the animal-control officer in Pecos, Texas, in 2017. The town's shelter, a windowless cinder-block building behind the police station, had twelve bare-bones kennels and few resources, with a budget for euthanasia drugs and food but not vaccinations. A wiggly four-month-old puppy named Honey prompted Wright to refuse routine euthanasia and to pursue other options, including cold e-mails to rescue groups. Municipal shelters must take in local animals, are often underfunded and overcrowded, and rely on tens of thousands of rescue groups to remove and rehome adoptable dogs.
Read at The New Yorker
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