One Rescued Dog Or Cat At A Time

 

Eleven million cats and dogs are euthanized in the United States each and every year due to over population. They are healthy, loving animals who are killed simply because there is no one willing or able to adopt them and provide them with a happy loving home.

If you allow yourself to feel the magnitude of so many lives lost, you will be filled with sadness and despair. These are not pleasant emotions but perhaps necessary for more of us to feel in order to get upset enough to make a significant enough impact on the problem.

Back yard breeders and irresponsible pet owners who don't sterilize their pets and allow them to roam free are the problem. When we carelessly allow our domestic cats and dogs to breed it adds to an already overwhelmingly sad state of affairs. What does it say about us as a country of citizens when we go numb or complacent to 11 million precious, innocent lives unnecessarily being extinguished each and every year due to our carelessness?

A nation of people can be judged by their values which are reflected by their laws, actions, policies and procedures. Millions of dogs and cats being killed may seem just like a number but when you consider that those numbers reflect the life of a sentient being and another and another it becomes real. If we are resigned and indifferent about the lives of our cats and dogs then how compassionate are we going to be about people in our society who are homeless, hungry and living in poverty? What does it say about us as a nation when we allow that to happen? It is heartbreaking and disturbing.

How do we solve this dilemma? What do we do to reduce these numbers to zero unnecessary deaths of healthy dogs and cats? The solution is simple. Spay and neuter your pets. Also, if you find strays try to capture them and get them sterilized and prepared for adoption. Be safe with animals you don't know. Don't risk your well-being to catch an animal you don't know. Instead, contact the local animal control authorities in your area. They are professionally trained to handle such cases.

In addition to spaying and neutering your pets and encouraging family, friends and neighbors to do the same, adopt and rescue animals from local shelters and rescues instead of supporting puppy and kitten mills that sell their often sick animals to pet stores. Adopting and rescuing pets helps reduce the numbers of animals in shelters that are at risk for being euthanized.

Another solution is to volunteer at your local Humane Society, animal rescue organization of choice or animal control facility. When you spend time seeing the individual lives of so many cats and dogs living in kennels just waiting and hoping to find a loving home, you can't deny the problem. It is real and right in front of you. You see it and feel it.

Lastly, educate and inform people you know about the problem of overpopulation and the solution of spaying and neutering pets. Save a life, spread the word. Be an advocate for the helpless. If we each help just a little it adds up to a lot of difference. Overpopulation is getting worse not better. More people need to get involved so that we can reduce the unnecessary killing of so many sweet and precious lives. Please get involved. Do something whether it be adopting or rescuing a pet or two of your own, sterilizing your current pets or educating people on this serious problem. Overpopulation will continue unless we do more to stop it. Spay, neuter and adopt your pets and tell a friend to do the same.