sirdarksol
- #1
So I just heard a statistic that I found appalling.
For every domesticated animal in America to be properly cared for, each person would have to care for 46 animals. I'm guessing that this counts rodents, but I'm not sure if the statistic counts fish.
Even though we have more animals in the country than we can care for, there are hundreds of dog and cat breeders out there, producing ever more cats and dogs. Then we've got families who choose not to spay or neuter their pets. I've talked to a person who had multiple cats of both genders, none of whom were spayed/neutered, all of whom were allowed to wander the neighborhood, and this person actually said "I just figure none of the cats will get pregnant." Surprise surprise, one of the family's cats (a kitten no more than 9 months old) was wandering around pregnant a couple of weeks ago.
In a perfect world, breeders would only produce as many animals as could be sold, wouldn't murder any "undesirable" animals, people would be sure that they could care for an animal before adopting it, and all families who weren't going to purposefully breed their animals would have them fixed as soon as it was safe to do so.
This is not a perfect world. Breeders produce far too many animals, some of them murder the ones that have undesirable traits (straight ears in a Scottish Fold breed, for example), others dump them on the steps of the local pound. People adopt animals on a whI'm then get rid of them when they decide they don't want to care for them anymore (there were thousands upon thousands of dalmations in shelters across America shortly after "101 Dalmations" came out). Families don't fix their pets, and often toss the kittens/pups out on the street the moment they can be weaned from their mother. (This is how I got all three of my cats. One was part of a litter of a neighbor's cat, all of the cats that weren't bought within one week of being weaned were kicked out. Some girls brought the cat over and asked if we could adopt it. We saw his brother a few months later, but he had already started going feral. Another had been abandoned on the step of our vet's office, which is also the local pound. The last is from a litter of kittens produced by the cats of the above-mentioned family who just thinks their cats won't get pregnant).
Currently, Petfinder has over 250,000 animals listed that are waiting for adoption. There are many times that number of stray and feral animals in America, and yet more animals in shelters that aren't listed on Petfinder.
We're never going to make this system perfect. There are always going to be people who want a pure-bred whatever with papers and a guarantee of health (I'm amused at this concept. Human children don't come with such a guarantee, why should animals?). But every person who adopts rather than supporting a breeder, and every person who spays/neuters their pet, will make a dent in this problem.
For every domesticated animal in America to be properly cared for, each person would have to care for 46 animals. I'm guessing that this counts rodents, but I'm not sure if the statistic counts fish.
Even though we have more animals in the country than we can care for, there are hundreds of dog and cat breeders out there, producing ever more cats and dogs. Then we've got families who choose not to spay or neuter their pets. I've talked to a person who had multiple cats of both genders, none of whom were spayed/neutered, all of whom were allowed to wander the neighborhood, and this person actually said "I just figure none of the cats will get pregnant." Surprise surprise, one of the family's cats (a kitten no more than 9 months old) was wandering around pregnant a couple of weeks ago.
In a perfect world, breeders would only produce as many animals as could be sold, wouldn't murder any "undesirable" animals, people would be sure that they could care for an animal before adopting it, and all families who weren't going to purposefully breed their animals would have them fixed as soon as it was safe to do so.
This is not a perfect world. Breeders produce far too many animals, some of them murder the ones that have undesirable traits (straight ears in a Scottish Fold breed, for example), others dump them on the steps of the local pound. People adopt animals on a whI'm then get rid of them when they decide they don't want to care for them anymore (there were thousands upon thousands of dalmations in shelters across America shortly after "101 Dalmations" came out). Families don't fix their pets, and often toss the kittens/pups out on the street the moment they can be weaned from their mother. (This is how I got all three of my cats. One was part of a litter of a neighbor's cat, all of the cats that weren't bought within one week of being weaned were kicked out. Some girls brought the cat over and asked if we could adopt it. We saw his brother a few months later, but he had already started going feral. Another had been abandoned on the step of our vet's office, which is also the local pound. The last is from a litter of kittens produced by the cats of the above-mentioned family who just thinks their cats won't get pregnant).
Currently, Petfinder has over 250,000 animals listed that are waiting for adoption. There are many times that number of stray and feral animals in America, and yet more animals in shelters that aren't listed on Petfinder.
We're never going to make this system perfect. There are always going to be people who want a pure-bred whatever with papers and a guarantee of health (I'm amused at this concept. Human children don't come with such a guarantee, why should animals?). But every person who adopts rather than supporting a breeder, and every person who spays/neuters their pet, will make a dent in this problem.
