This is another example of how some people surrender their cats and obviously it isn't the best way. Sometimes people surreptitiously arrive at the doors of an animal shelter and leave two or three cats in a cardboard box outside to be collected the next morning which is dangerous for the cat if it's in the middle of winter.
Other times they give up their cats in cruel ways but on this occasion the Brother Wolf Animal Rescue center in Asheville, North Carolina, United States Of America, reported that, "Somebody tossed two cat in our lobby. They opened the door, tossed a box in, sliding it across the floor, then ran out to a car waiting in the road that sped away."
Guilt?
How does that look to you as an outside observer? I'll tell you how it looks to me. It looks like they feel very guilty about what they're doing and they don't want to confront the shelter staff and explain to them why they are surrendering their cats.
But this is stupid behaviour. No one is going to judge them. No one is going to criticise them. Shelter staff will, I am sure, accept cats surrendered even if the reasons are poor. That's because their primary objective is to care for unwanted cats and find a new home with them.
So it is very stupid to abandon cats in this way. Far better to face up to it and admit that you can no longer care for your cats and hand them over. You don't even have to explain why you are surrendering the cats. You just surrender them. You don't have to justify it.
It does indicate a cowardice on behalf of the people who tossed this box into the shelter lobby but I don't want to be too critical because we are all human and we are all, in some way, vulnerable and have our own weaknesses.
Still high numbers of cats given up
The cats' names are Juniper and Theodore. They were written on the box. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reports that annually in America, 6.3 million pets are surrendered which equates to 17,260 per day. Obviously, I'm sure that 99% of them are super surrendered across the counter in the animal shelter and not in the way described.
Stressful experience
We all need to be reminded sometimes that animal shelters are stressful places for cats and dogs to be rehomed. They are strange places. They are noisy places with strange people and strange goings-on. They are confined to cages and it's very difficult for them to behave normally and in an attractive way to do their best to find an adopter.
One caption on the video of the above-mentioned surrender said, "We always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Not make quick judgments. Check our biases. Not to shame them for needing help. Some days, it is really hard to do that. Today is one of those days."
The video is on Instagram from the above-mentioned shelter. Sometimes these embedded videos stop working so if it has stopped I apologise but I don't control it.
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