Here is the situation! You are driving a car and you see a lonely dog on the side of the road. So, what is recommended to do in this situation? If you don’t have a heart to leave this animal alone, you have two options – to take it home or to the animal shelter. If you are not certain whether to help or keep an animal or not, think about what you would like the finders of your own pet to do if they happened to find him/her injured without a collar. Do not conclude that an animal must have been abandoned or neglected, because accidents can happen to anyone.
If you decide to take an animal to animal shelter or animal care and control agency, you should keep in mind that they might not be in situation to provide some expensive surgeries and medical treatments. In case of a bad injury, they might euthanize the animal to relieve it from the suffering. In general, all these animal care facilities have severe space or budgetary limitations and they always must make some really painful decisions about how to allocate those inadequate resources in a best possible way. Luckily, there are always some nice people and companies and, for example, Pet Food Retailer donates 3,000 pounds of dog food to local South Florida Shelters.
It is recommended to take an animal to a veterinarian, but be reasonable about how much money you can spend to help that animal if his/her owner does not show up. Finally, if you are considering taking a stray pet home, you should answer these questions honestly: Are you ready and willing to ad this animal to your household? Are you willing to return this pet to his original home if his/her owner turns up? If your answer is “yes”, you should take an animal home, but in case your answer is “no”, you should probably take that animal directly to an animal shelter.