Animal shelters are perceived as a place where lost and abandoned dogs and cats are brought to have shelter, food, water and medical care. Some of these animals are adopted into loving homes but we rarely hear about the millions of dogs and cats left behind each year that need to be euthanized. According to Peta, there are 3 main reasons to why there is such a large volume of animals in these shelters (http://goo.gl/2dpl5b):
>People choose not to spay or neuter their dogs and cats, resulting in them reproducing unintentionally creating a multiplier effect. (Female dogs can have litters of sizes anywhere from 1-14 puppies).
People choose to buy from pet stores (supplied by puppy mills) instead of adopting, which allows puppy mills to continue to over breed.
>People acquire dogs and cats without considering the commitment and responsibility that comes with owning them. If these pets become too much work or an inconvenience they could be abandoned or left at animal shelters.
A big factor in domestic animals not being able to find a home is the new cultural preference for purebred animals. This leaves pet seekers buying cats or dogs from breeders thinking they are getting an animal that is 100% purebred. However, what most people do not know is that, 25% of the dogs who enter animal shelters are purebred according to the Humane Society. Animals adopted from a shelter can provide many advantages for a pet buyer. For starters, animal shelters will perform veterinary procedures, spaying, neutering, vaccinations and deworming at no cost for the pet buyer.
Jim Spiewak of NBC News said that in Lee County, FL in 2013, 25,000 healthy animals were euthanized costing taxpayers over 20 million dollars and its only getting worse (http://goo.gl/yvrxO0). What is eye opening is that this was only for one county in the state of Florida. Imagine what the dollar figure is for the whole United States! This is a nation with economic concerns and citizens struggling to pay their healthcare bills. Information and statistics such as these need to be brought into the public eye so that change can occur.
References
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/pet_overpopulation/facts/pet_ownership_statistics.html
http://www.peta.org/issues/companion-animal-issues/overpopulation/
WHY ANIMAL RIGHTS? 