I have friends who worked at shelters. I've worked at a few dog/cat exclusive places and a zoo. The zoo often had pets from drug dealer's homes that had been confiscated in raids or escaped exotic pets whose owners didn't claim them. A lot of our animals were very sweet wild animals whose owners thought they were great pets as babies but when they grew up... well XD babies often get the best of people, i guess. Seeing so many friendly and sweet animals getting dumped makes you protective of them, though too many people get crazy about it.
Our local shelters used to adopt dogs out to college age kids and now they are wary of them. Why? because ignorant college kids would come up for the school year, adopt a "fun, sweet, friendly" cat and then dump it on the streets when they went home. Or lock it in their apartment over the break and neighbors would complain...
I found my rommate's rescued desert kingsnake in our backyard. Stray, escapee and abandoned animals are everywhere here. I have not worked in any shelters in this area, but just walking around town can be depressing. Shelter people can be insane, but at least some of them start out as pretty normal folks... Having to help care for desperate animals, seeing people give up 'the perfect' dog because they are having a baby, or seeing the same pet come back over and over, OR worse, the people whose dogs or cats get loose, the owner who picks up the phone and can't be bothered to pick up their 'beloved' pet and seeing that animal get put down. It's harsh and depressing. I don't volunteer anymore for other reasons, but that was always really tough.
I'd adopt BP's to you guys though! I think "breeder" becomes synonamous (sp) with "deadbeat jerk trying to make a quick buck off an animal that they can barely afford to feed, much less breed" who dumps all their leftover offspring back into the shelter system. I say we can try to reach out and educate people not to just breed their animals JUST because they have them and shelter workers may become less nuts.... :)