Critical Thinking: Animal Shelters

Think deeply! Think and keep thinking. Still, not everyone who thinks or thinks deeply is actually critical thinking. You can be highly intelligent or have vast knowledge but that doesn’t mean that you can think critically. Using intelligence and knowledge to reach one’s rationale viewpoint and objective in what a critical thinker does. The opinions and beliefs of a critical thinker stand on firmer ground. Better decisions and problems solving are more credible and supported by reasons and facts instead of false information and statements.

Many animals throughout the world that go homeless, yet many more die in animal shelters because these facilities become overwhelmed. Humans buy animals from animal shelters and then return them within a matter of time, because they no longer want to take on the responsibility of taking care of them. Most animal shelters have a policy that if the workers can not find a home for the animals within 72 hours from the time they are brought in, they have to euthanize them, or “put them down” (Akita Rescue Mid Atlantic Coast 26-27). Unless the shelters have enough space, or the animal is a breed that a lot of people desire, the end result is to usually put down the animal. Every year, a total of nearly 7.6

There is a Pedigree dog commercial I see on television which catches my eye and my heart. It tells us to not pity a shelter animal. When I decided to become a Veterinary Technician, I anticipated working in a veterinarian office. Approximately one year ago, I began volunteering for the Denver Dumb Friends League at the Buddy Center in Castle Rock. This experience has led me to consider working in a shelter instead of a vet office. A shelter is not necessarily the easiest place to work, and I have certain criteria I will look for in a career. I enjoy a variety of responsibilities as opposed to doing the same thing every day. In addition to working with animals, I enjoy interacting with people, especially kids. One of the main reasons I want

The sound is so deafening that the shelter provides earplugs for you before you walk into the kennel room. You walk in knowing that some of these dogs have been here for a while and you feel guilty because you can only take home one. Some of them just look so defeated with sad eyes, ears down, and barely looking up, while others throw themselves against their kennel door excitedly, barking and tails wagging, almost yelling, “Pick me! Pick me!” You fill out some paperwork agreeing to certain care terms, pay the fee and leave with your new family member. Compare this with what you encounter at PetLand. At PetLand you walk in to a brightly lit store where the staff is willing to help you find the right puppy for you. The squeals from the

Ever since I was little, I had wanted a dog. For my parents, however the idea of having a dog was sort of a nightmare. They didn’t believe I was ready for this massive responsibility, and expected they’d be the ones taking care of the dog. This went on for years and I always received the same answer, that a dog was too great of a responsibility. However, this all changed a little over a year ago when my Uncle Bill was looking to breed his yellow lab Cloe, thus I put him in contact with my cousin Chris who has an excellent black lab stud. Both Brady and Cloe have developed into fantastic gun dogs, and knowing the puppies were coming from their genetic background made this the perfect opportunity to finally buy a dog, making it now or never. It was fairly simple getting my dad to climb on board with the idea of buying a puppy, my mom was another story. Finally, she caved in and made it vastly clear that she would have no part in taking care of the dog. (Just for a quick side note, she now happens to love that dog and spoils him every chance she can.) Approximately ten months ago I can happily say that I was able to bring home a black lab puppy that I named Trigger. Being a first time dog owner, I hadn’t the slightest idea how to raise a puppy, nor how much work they truly were. I was clueless on everything from potty training to obedience training. Becoming a dog owner has changed me, since it given me the sense responsibility. For example, before owning a dog my studies

When my parents brought him home they said “he may not be the best dog but he’s ours”. The reason they said this was because he was the runt of the litter and had a big head with a small body All I wanted was a dog who could run and jump and play. He was very weak and so he just laid on the couch for the first months of his life, But one day when I came home from school I saw him walking I immediately I shouted “he’s walking” we took him to the vet for the first time when he was two and the vet said that he was still very weak and he still

My daughter wanted to adopt a dog, and started visiting shelters. She would send me pics of her and dogs while at the shelter. One day a few months after she started, I was at work... a thought came to me to call my daughter and tell her to meet me at the Animal Shelter of Queens, we were going to adopt a dog. Without hesitation, that's what I did, and we adopted my Cheech, that was in 2006.

A severe storm caused a major flooding and significant damage to the city of Coastalview and other surrounding cities. The storm left many animals homeless and they were all sent to a small privately owned animal shelter called Inland Animal Shelter managed by Mike O’day. IAS was overwhelmed with the number of incoming animals from the storm. They didn’t have the time to time to scan the chips of all animals so they can be found by their animals, they didn’t have the right readers to scan the chips, they didn’t have enough food, medicine, and space to provide for all the animals. For those reasons Mike decides to place animals without owner identification collars at other shelters around the U.S. that will accept animals for adoption. Mike

Animals are beloved creatures among the human race, and are deeply cared for. As caretakers of pets, those caretakers have a responsibility to these animals. One of those responsibilities includes making sure all animals are properly taken care of and are placed in a loving home. Many of these poor animals, mostly cats and dogs, are cast unwanted onto the streets to fend for themselves. Once they are cast out, where are they to end up? The ones that survive being discarded by neglectful owners are usually found and taken to a nearby animal shelter. These shelters are set up and designed for stray animals to be taken care of until a new owner can be found. Shelters also graciously accept pets from owners who choose to surrender their

Many animals come to the shelter frightened. It is a hard adjustment for all the animals, but the dog room is very noisy. Many dogs are very frightened in their cages as the other dogs bark and bark. My heart aches for these frightened animals, and I always have to give them some extra love. I get in the cage with them and comfort them. Some new dogs don’t understand the door in the middle of their cage that provides them with both sides of the kennel. Most dogs use both sides, one side to use the bathroom and the other to sleep. I hate to see the animals sleeping where they just went to the bathroom, so I show them how to climb through the door or coax them through. Other dogs come in and they are in desperate need of a bath before they are adopted. I bathe many animals in the standing bathtub. I pick them up and hook their collars to the tub so they can’t jump out. The animals look so much better after this, and they smell better too. I also enjoy taking the dogs out for walks or runs in the dog run. They all know when it’s time, and they patiently wait by their doors with sad faces trying to will me into picking them first. I can’t resist any of them, and I end up taking them all out. They enjoy their time out of their kennels playing and running, and I enjoy being able to make this happen. I love to brighten their days because they brighten

When you’re ready to add another pet to the family, what is your first question? The first thing you should think about is whether you should adopt a pet from a shelter or whether you should buy one from a breeder. There are pros and cons for each one, but you really need to consider both thoughts. I’m sure you are worried about adopting from a shelter, because you don’t know where they came from, how they were treated, or how mean they are but little do you know, there are also cons with buying from a breeder. They could be bred wrong, they could be abused, or they could also be mean. Not all breeders know what they are doing and there’s always a chance of getting a pet you don’t want, but you need to pay attention to all the abused animals in the shelters to help them out, rather than helping out the breeders just so they can “raise money”. It's not just the right thing to do, it is a reward.

Have you ever wondered what drives the thinking and decision making process? Critical thinking is an intellectually disciplined six step process that allows a person to think more rationally by gathering and using evidence. Being able to think critically helps a person from making blind decisions and also allows them to recognize and see through nonsense. Critical thinking is useful in everything including reading, writing, speaking, and listening. It gives people the power to question everything they see, hear, and read. The six steps in critical thinking are remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating, and creating. Remembering is the lowest step of the process. It involves recognizing or recalling things that occurred in the past. The

By adopting a pet you help reduce the number of pets killed by euthanasia to zero. Animal shelters have happy, healthy, and affectionate animals waiting for someone to take them home. If you make a good choice you will be

I have had pets, specially cats, since the day I was born. Some of these cats my family bought from a family with a litter of kittens they needed to get rid of. Others we got from humane societies. Over the years, I have had 6 different pet cats, not all at once of course. The most memorable were the ones that were rescued from a shelter because we saved them from the lonely, tiny cages that they were forced to live in day in and day out. As we were looking for the most recent additions, I grew tired of looking in shelters, not because it was time consuming finding the right one, but because of all the sad faces that stared back at me from the cages. Adopting and rescuing is the better option when it comes to adding a pet to the family.

Ever since I can remember dogs have been a part of my family, the day I decided to move out of my parents-house I left behind my furry friends. I lived a couple months that way until I realized there was just something missing to make my house feel like home. Sure-enough the next day I was on my way to the animal shelter, and although I came across a few to many of the most stinking adorable faces! I knew none were ‘the one’. Now I’m the type of person that carry’s a “adopt don’t shop” sticker in the back of her car, but when I tell you I saw what seemed to me like the most sweet, winsome, twee, square-headed pup I have ever seen in my life scrolling through Facebook, I did not care one bit who he came from, where he came from, or how much they were for asking for him because I wanted him. After exchanging a couple messages with the young women who was selling the pup, we decided to meet up and that same afternoon I came