At 11:17am on June 1, Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control took a very happy, loving girl - wagging her tail to see them - into a room, then took her life. The only life Lucy will ever have. She had a warm, giving heart, with so much more love to give. But she'll never have that opportunity. Because Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control killed her.
There are many people culpable for Lucy's needless death. It starts with irresponsible owners who continue to dump these innocent souls in shelters like they're trash. Lucy's "owner" brought her to the shelter on May 24th requesting euthanasia, stating they believed she had cancer. Had they sought medical assistance from a vet to obtain a proper diagnosis prior to bringing Lucy to the shelter? No. They did not.
The shelter gave Lucy a deadline of May 30 to leave the shelter. They posted the following request to rescues on Facebook: Lucy is a sweet old girl who needs urgent rescue as her medical needs exceed our capacity for care. For whatever reason, someone at the shelter felt that it wasn’t yet Lucy’s time to go, because they gave her a couple extra days for someone to come and save her. Many people stepped up to pledge money and offered to foster Lucy in an effort to save her life. After days of pleading by animal advocate Nancy Goodman for a rescue to back the foster, it appeared rescue was imminent and sweet Lucy's life would be spared.
But on the morning of June 1, Nancy sent out a desperate plea: THEY ARE KILLING HER ANY SECOND. They just said they are too full. And they think she has cancer.
And shortly after that plea went out, Lucy was removed from her kennel and took the last walk of her life.
How do we stop the killing of sentient beings like Lucy? How do animal advocates continue the uphill fight against people who don't spay/neuter their pets and contribute to pet overpopulation? How do we stop backyard breeders? How do we get people to CARE that homeless pets in the United States are being killed in astronomical numbers? Stories like Lucy's make animal lovers want to just walk away from the indifference and heartlessness, but looking at her beautiful face reminds us that we need to continue to fight and be the voice of the voiceless. We can't let Lucy have died in vain.
