On Jun 9, 1:26 am, "MaryL" <stanco...@yahoo.comTAKE-OUT-THE-LITTER>
wrote:

You're right; public relations are *everything* to a shelter. That's
how this thing ballooned. First, it
was one or two, and they bent the rules because these were children
*of* dedicated volunteers and
were honestly a great help. Then it just mushroomed in the last week
since school let out and I don't
think any of the board members had any idea that 8-10 kids were being
dumped out to "volunteer" by their parents.
Believe me, I worry about liability issues constantly. I think the
"parents too" with under-16 yr. old kids
is an excellent idea. And even the 16 year olds need to be "scheduled"
for certain days, not just when they
feel like coming. I need to work on a letter to send home with them.

Sherry

The problem is, once the shelter permits a minor to be left in their care,
they have accepted a considerable level of responsibility.  They can't
simply require that child to leave, unaccompanied by an adult -- both legal
and ethical responsibilities enter the picture.

MaryL

This isn't a shelter like the ASPCA, or shelters in larger
communities. We get zero dollars
from the governnment, it is completely run on private donations,
grants.
It is a completely private shelter, built in 1999 and I was there from
the beginning. That's why I
have a tremendous emotional investment in the place, and I don't take
criticism very well. I
have to work on that all the time, because there are always people in
the community who
want to tell you what you're doing wrong without lifting a finger to
help.
In 1999, nine people raised $250,000 to start the building. Two ladies
(one was me) were the
original staff until it could get off the ground. In those days, we
thought we were crowded if
we had 12 dogs and 6 cats. We made so many mistakes, I just cringe
when I think about it
but we did have a lot of zeal. I'll never forget the day the other
lady looked at me said, "I don't
know anything about dogs. I thought you did." In those days, it took
$30,000 a year to run the place,
bare bones. That was for water, electricity, food, insurance premiums,
food, vet bills. Oh my things
have changed.
You kind of have to understand the mentality of a rural community
toward pets.  There was *no*
shelter in the entire county. The city pound did not serve the people
in the country, and so their
solution was to dump unwanted pets.  Even for the city people, the
"dogcatcher" only held animals
72 hours, no exceptions, and they were euthanized.
The original low goal was to give the lost or abandoned animals at
least enough time to find their
owner, or be adopted. We thought, even if had to euthanize some, it
was better than them starving
dumped on a county road.  The city agreed to do our euthanasia in the
beginning. The other lady
got certified to euthanize, but I never could bear to do that.
Eventually people got on board who were knowledgeable in grant-
writing, and the community was
fairly generaous with their money if not their time. For such an
humble beginning, it really is amazing
how many people/animals that place has helped. I think I am most proud
of the free spay/neuter
program that is funded by grants. I'm also proud of the free boarding
they do for elderly folks
in the hospital and women in crisis.
It is so easy for me to run that shelter "on paper". I can come up
with so many ideas about how it
should be run. Unfortunately, it takes manpower to do everything.
There is never enough. There
is a constant stream of people bringing animals in, looking for lost
dogs, the phone rings constantly, and there's drama
of some kind going on.
You know, it never was the animals. The animals never bothered me. I
never minded doing or
putting up with *anything* regarding the animals. It's the PEOPLE that
make me crazy. Just
recently a guy hauled his neighbor's goat to the shelter because it
was eating his rosebushes. He
got so irate because we wouldn't take the goat I thought he was going
to come back with a gun
and kill us all.  See? It's just a house of insanity, 8 hours a day, 6
days a week.
There are 47 kennels, and two cat rooms with outdoor enclosures. It's
*full*, full past capacity. All the
time. That's a tremendous amount of work just in cleaning alone. The
grounds have to taken care of.
Someone has to work the desk and answer the phone, do the Petfinder
listings and other desk work
. Someone else has to transport animals to the vet.
And I read all the wonderful suggestions here, but it is so
frustrating because there's a brick wall I
bang my head against on a regular basis. Animal handling classes.
Who's going to do it? Who's
going to take charge of that? Someone has to. The manpower situation
is stretched to the absolute
limit already. It takes everyone there to supervise the community
service, the work-release, the
WEP mothers---and the cleaning can't get done without them.
Someone has to *play* with the animals--that's not an option, that is
a *must*. They have to be kept
socialized.
The shelter simply cannot afford to hire enough people. If we did,
we'd be belly-up within a year. That's why
they *depend* on some rather undesirable manpower. You cannot depend
on volunteers. Volunteers are
great, we love them, but I've learned, even if they're scheduled, only
the dedicated ones you can depend on.

Bah. I have burnout. It's like a bad train that's going so fast I
can't see how it can be turned around. All my
"control freak" genes are working overtime. I turned in my resignation
to the board, but she just patted me on the shoulder
and said, "Oh, now you take that back, you don't want to do that." I
can't even get off the frigging board.

Rant is over.

Sherry