Animal welfare is my life but it's also making me lose my mind.

Tag: Animal Control

  • Do it all again?

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    I recently attended an all staff meeting at the shelter I now work for. It has been a while since I’ve been part of a group like that. When I left my animal welfare job behind last year and moved to a new state, I wasn’t sure I would ever be part of that world…

  • Winter

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    Suddenly I realize my hands are getting numb and release the grip on the steering wheel just a little. Breathe. A car swerves in front of me, and I tap the brakes a few times slowing down as I can feel the tires slide slightly. Not only is this careless idiot squeezing himself into the…

  • The Myth About No-Kill Shelters

    The Myth About No-Kill Shelters

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    You find a lost dog in your neighborhood and ask friends for advice on what to do next. One person tells you to bring it to the animal shelter, another tells you absolutely not, they ‘will just kill it’. You contact a local rescue that is known to take dogs and are told they are…

  • When Change Changes You.

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    Change: verb change (verb) · changes (third person present) · changed (past tense) · changed (past participle) · changing (present participle) We all experience change. Some change is good. Some change is bad. Some change changes you. When I started working in the animal welfare field, I was a kennel attendant in the shelter building. The old shelter building we still worked in, while…

  • The Welfare Issue.

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    Case in point – the happy Golden Retriever mix. We received multiple calls on a dog kept in a kennel all day, every day. I made contact with the family and concluded that the dog has always been an outside dog for them. I went over some basics with them regarding proper shelter in Michigan…

  • Living in Color

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    I’m walking up to a house where a complaint was made regarding an aggressive dog from this address seen loose often. I carry my catch pole in one hand and my notepad in the other as I make my way up to the front door. The house appears to be in disrepair. The driveway is…

  • Overload

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. This post is the result of the many stresses that currently reside inside my brain, traveling into my neck and shoulders and making my muscles ache. The post will not be pretty, or grammatically correct. It is just a purge of thoughts and emotions that will hopefully still…

  • A Special Hell: Part 2

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    The scalpel cuts deep into the stomach lining making a perfectly straight line and splitting the organ wide open. Her gloved hands pry apart the stomach allowing us to peer inside. Rocks, leaves and undigested dirt make up the hollow cavern. It is Tuesday morning and I find myself kneeling on the floor of the…

  • A Special Hell: Part 1

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    *Disclaimer: this post will have some graphic stories and photos. I encourage you to read on anyway. It may not be what the general public sees on a daily basis, but it is my reality. My job. The most frustrating part of my profession is that people assume there is a black and white. An…

  • Not the usual suspects

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    Jessica Kooistra
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    “What is the most unusual animal you’ve had to deal with” is a question I’ve heard many times over the years. While most of my calls involve dogs and cats, you can imagine I’ve seen my share of random other animals in the past 15 years of doing this job. Responding to a rogue pet…