Special Needs Shouldn't be a Death Sentence for Pets

Recently, I made an appeal for financial help for four of our pets (now five) that are needing extra medical care before adoption. One person wrote me that we were wasting our funds instead of using the money to save more animals that are healthier. To me, that's incredibly insensitive and ignorant.

First off, we don't know the needs of a pet until we get them. Would it make a difference if in their holding cells at animal control they held up a sign that said "I'm going to cost you $2,000 in vet care"? No, and it shouldn't. An animal should not be given a death sentence because of ignorance or cruelty of their previous caretakers. How can I look at Hope who had already had extensive medical care and needs more to treat her heartworms and tell her that, although she survived several years of intense neglect that she costs us too much to continue living? I can't, just like we fight as hard as we can for the puppies we take that turn out to have parvovirus but may not always make it.

We are rescuers. We're compassionate and sometimes our hearts overrule our heads. My job is to make sure we don't go too far in debt so that we can keep up with the care of the pets already in our programs. But I also see these special needs pets as educational tools to the public. Several times I walked Hope at PetSmart or the vet and had people ask what happened to her neck, why did she have a lot of skin exposed. When I tell her story, you can see the shock in their faces. If nothing else, it makes me feel like they will remember her story and maybe be more considerate of pets in similar situations and take action rather than let them suffer.