Recently I have been made aware of many groups of animal lovers who are screaming for local shelters including ours to to become a no-kill agency. And while I absolutely love the idea of no person ever having to be the one who issues a euthanasia order or carries one out, there is one major point that many of the animal lovers are forgetting...or even maybe a few.
So please hear this...we as a country do not have an ANIMAL CONTROL PROBLEM. Most communities of any size have some type of shelter or program that deals with strays and unwanted animals. But they are not anything more than a control center. Cities are challenged to meet the needs and safety measures for their human residents...and by challenged I mean, they are fighting the downturn of the economy just like the rest of us. So they are asking their employees of each department to do more, with less. They are struggling to maintain a quality of life for the well being of all those who live within their borders.
The problem that our cities have is a human control problem. We all have neighbors who are irresponsible pet owners. They allow their pets to breed but have no intention of homing and caring for the many puppies or kittens their pet creates each year. They simply try to sell them or give them away, without using any type of consideration on where or with whom their pets offspring will reside. They feel that pets have the right to breed as given them by their creator. But please when you use this as an excuse to not spay or neuter your pets you are forgetting one major point about the reproductive life of a cat or dog. Before domestication when animals fought to survive in the wild the chances of a full litter getting to adulthood was much slimmer than the present day critters who live in your shelter, are protected from disease and predators and in general live as well as their owners.
Also if you were to spend a day in any shelter in our country, you would be shocked at the number of well groomed, sometimes full blood and loved animals who are RELEASED by their owners due to a life change. When the push comes to shove of life, hard choices must be made and lets face it a pet is a luxury. They also feel as if they give it to the shelter hopefully someone will come along and give it a home.
I challenge you to just spend one day walking in the shoes of an animal control officer. It's not really a fun or glamorous job. They have to deal with irate irresponsible pet owners who don't understand why it's a problem that their pit bull was out of it's yard yet again...chasing everyone's mail man or the kid riding his bike to school. They have to make the calls on those owners who never seem to remember that a dog needs water, food and shelter at all times, not just when it is convenient.
They have to go and peel the remains of animals off the highways and city streets so that we don't have to see or smell them as we take our afternoon stroll with our cute little puppy on his leash.
I believe we do not have an animal control problem. We have narrow minded pet owners who agree to see the right to have a pet as the only part of responsible pet ownership.
So the next time you get on any soap box on what your city should do, unless you are willing to write the check to make the change, I really encourage you to walk a mile in the shoes of those who have to handle the problem that exists. A problem that has very little to do with the cute puppy or your third litter of kittens this year...it is a human problem.
Do the math...
Pet ownership costs -
pet 0 to $1000
food up to $50 a month
vaccinations $100
Spay or nueter $65
shelter, etc...as much as you choose to spend.
Now you multiply this by the many hundreds of unwanted, abandoned or released animals in a city of 29 thousand people....
If just each person owns one, that is the potential for the city to have to deal with 29 thousand pets....but wait, you have to consider that these pets "have the right to reproduce" and see the next math problem.
How many cats will you have in 9 years...the average life of a sweet little pet kitty?
I know each of the animal control employees in our city. They are good and committed employees. They are governed by the laws and ordinances of YOUR city. They are required to follow the rules that you as citizens have either played a part in creating or ignored because you didn't think it pertained to you. They have compassion, work hard to place as many of the animals as they can. I have even seen some of them tear up because their choices were limited by the resources your tax dollars barely provide. I have volunteered, fostered and participated in events trying to make the situation better...but I haven't seen any of those screaming for a no kill shelter ever when I have been there.
I feel that instead of attacking those who have been doing the job for years, throwing insults at honest and caring humans, or even choosing to feel only for the animals in this situation you should try to be part of the solution. By that I mean work for it. Write the check that covers each animal in need. Build a bigger shelter so that when all the cages are full, we can just add more...oh and do you know how much a state qualified pen costs?
I love my pet, cry when one passes away, wish I could have and be able to care of many more...but I am being responsible and taking care of the ONE that I have, who is nuetered...and always in the yard or on a leash when outside.
No comments:
Post a Comment