‘The bestest boy.’ SC woman makes desperate plea to stop dogs’ deaths as shelters overcrowd

An Easley woman cried and cried the other day when she heard, yet again, of more dogs being put down because the local animal shelter was overcrowded. So she turned to Facebook.

“Handsome Coolio died at the animal shelter today,” wrote Julie Horton. “I heard that he was the bestest boy.” She added, “So sorry we failed you, Coolio.” She added his photo.

She listed Sabrina, Leno, Stryker, Titus and Pawley Shore. All euthanized this week.

”They leave in plastic bags,” she wrote. She added more photos.

The response was swift from people who know all too well the problems of animals being surrendered to shelters and from others who had no idea why this was happening. Others shared the post.

By Friday morning, Horton had over 100 comments and 170 shares.

Horton said she doesn’t blame the shelters or the people working there or those who work so hard to find foster homes for the animals.

But there is something fundamentally wrong.

Shelters all over the state are experiencing overcrowding, and the reasons are many.

Jennifer Land runs Spartanburg-based Monroe’s Mighty Mission, named for a dog she rescued. The organization provides pet food, money for veterinary care, pet deposits, anything that will help a family keep a pet.

She said the most important way to ease overcrowding in shelters is for people to spay or neuter pets. Many organizations offer low-cost spay and neuter services, but many pet owners do not take advantage of those services, she said.

Also, some people don’t take pets for medical care when they are sick. It’s easier to just let them go.

“That is the culture here in the South,” Land said.

Lauren Hill, who runs a Facebook page that matches dogs with foster families called Upstate Foster Link, said one problem is mindset. Many people consider animals property and can dispose of them without guilt. Some don’t bother to take them to a shelter but just dump them on a rural road to become someone else’s problem, she said.

“People breed and breed and breed on purpose to sell….or to fight…..or whatever. And people like puppies better, so when dogs grow up and get ‘old,’ they get dumped,” Horton said on Facebook.

She believes state cruelty laws are lax and have an exception for hunting dogs.

“They can be abandoned with no penalties,” she said. “Irresponsible hunters don’t even name dogs — they just spray paint numbers on their sides and abandon them if not productive or at the end of the season.”

Licensing or spay/neuter is not required as it is in other states, she said.

Horton said she wasn’t trying to make people mad or to insult anyone.

“I wish to God that the public would walk through the kennels there and look at the pleading eyes of hundreds of animals who have been let down by humans,” she wrote on Facebook. “It is really hard for me to stomach seeing people continue to bring new dogs in the world when I know so many are dying for no good reason.”

Hill posted about a dog named Chalmers who was due to be euthanized at 9 a.m. Friday. She said this story may have a good ending. Someone expressed interest in meeting him Friday.

This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 11:44 AM.