Reply #11: I doubt it. [View All]

[Hansel]

Shelters are overcrowded right now due to the housing crisis and people having to give up their animals. That means that both dogs and cats are more likely to be euthanized than maybe just a couple of years ago.

The dogs and cats are evaluated when they come into the shelter and being old is nearly always a death sentence for a dog once the waiting period is over and the dog has not been claimed. In this environment, it is even more likely to be.

In the best of circumstances shelter employees don't make that much of an effort to find owners, especially when the animals do not have tags. That's because it is mostly an exercise in futility. It is rare to ever find an owner of untagged animals. So they just don't really try. That is why microchipping is so important. Nearly all shelters do scan for microchips.

Having spent about a decade working in shelters and with animal rescue groups I would say that there is not surprising about the dog being euthanized.