So everyone - can we just say No More? No more puppy mills, no more back yard breeders, no more buying animals on a whim & dumping them when they get too big/inconvenient/not so cute anymore? No more buying from pets from shops. No more purposely breeding & buying mutts when there are already thousands dying in shelters around North America.
Adopt from a shelter or a rescue or buy from a reputable breeder.
How to recognize a reputable breeder?
(hint - they don't advertise in the classifieds, they may have wait lists, their breeding program has specific goals - not just put cute poopsie together with cute mopsy because their offspring will be so... cute!)
One of the funniest (not really) things I heard recently was a woman in a vet's office proudly telling the receptionist that she got her dog from a breeder who only breeds her bitch twice a year; and she keeps the dogs in a really nice warm barn! The receptionist fortunately did not keep her mouth shut & replied "Dogs only go into heat twice a year so she's breeding that dog on every cycle. That's way too much." That, my friends, is your common garden variety BYB, raking in thousands of dollars of tax free money a year off gullible fools.
The pet over population problem is so multi faceted & there are so many things to tackle and ways to help. Fostering, donations to shelters/rescues is one way. But another way to help is to just increase awareness, to not silently nod when people announce they got their puppy from the store or some BYB who advertised in the classifieds.
Christie Keith of Petconnection suggests another thing: Stop Calling it Euthanasia
using “euthanasia” when you mean “killing” is a lie. Just stop.Shelters - including some in the Lower Mainland - kill some of their animals, sometimes simply because the shelter is full & the animal's 'time' is up. For more remote areas of BC it's even tougher - if there's even a shelter, which there isn't in many places.There are only so many homes available, and when someone fills their home with a pet from a shop or a backyard breeder, a shelter animal suffers & many will ultimately pay the hardest price. It's tough for dogs but it's even tougher for cats (I don't know how cat rescuers stay remotely sane dealing with what they face), and the small furries like rats, hamsters and bunnies. Horses are suffering as well.
I think we can get to a No Kill Nation, one step at a time, and that one step begins with each and every one of us. We can volunteer, donate, and adopt, but we also need to talk - talk about what happens to animals, how many homeless animals there are, & the responsible choices that each of us can make to help reduce the pet overpopulation problem. They need us to speak for them.
Let's do it - so one year, animals will not be dreaming of having a home for Christmas, they will BE home.
4 comments:
People don't seem to realize that if they stop buying from pet stores, back yard breeders, etc, those people will stop producing litters because they are only in it to make money. If they can't sell the pups, they won't produce more. Sure, the litter that's already on the ground may be added to the shelter population if it can't be sold, but then the idiots probably won't breed another one, because they certainly don't want to risk losing more money.
Driving to White Rock on Sunday, I passed two scrawled signs in front of houses, advertising puppies for sale. You don't see many signs like that in these days of on-line advertising. One was for pitbull pups, and I have nothing against pitbulls in the right hands, but I just shuddered at the thought of whose hands those puppies are going to end up in.
The other was for 'Xmas puppies' which were advertised as a Shih Tzu/Bichon cross.
More dogs pumping out more puppies for someone to make a quick buck.
And I just felt so sad.....
I'll admit it right up front. I'm not a big fan of dogs.
But I am a huge fan of the passion you have for them. Being a cat person, I did my part (back in MI, have yet to link up with a similar group here) by participating in TNR work - trap, neuter, release - with several stray cat shelters.
Because feral cats are so plentiful in our old city, I would put out a humane trap and some tuna. When I caught a stray/feral cat (instead of opossums, raccoons and squirrels), I'd take it to the county animal hospital - very carefully using several layers of leather gloves and lots of plastic bags in my vehicle.
For a previously agreed upon smaller than normal fee, the vets would tag the cages "feral" for everyone's safety and neuter the animal that morning and tip their ear to show that they had been spayed/neutered. By evening, the cats were awake again and ready to go home.
After a few days of observation in our anti-freeze and other known toxins-free detached garage (with lots of food, water, blankets and a clean litter box), we would release the cat back into the neighborhood.
It might not be ideal, but it did have an impact on the number of stray and feral cats having litter after little after little of feral kittens in our neighborhood. We heard far fewer cat fights in our neighborhood too, after the Toms were neutered.
I should tell you about Italy sometime. We are enjoying our dogs from the local shelter...and feeling good that there are two more dogs that won't be breeding more unwanted puppies...
You know, it is so heartening that there are people who DO 'get it' and who help in so many ways, big & small.
cheers everyone!
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