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Considering a Pet? Consider Adoption First!
Five to seven MILLION cats and dogs are euthanized in United States shelters every year.
Fifty percent of dogs and seventy percent of cats in shelters are euthanized just because no one will adopt them. Many animals have to die as a result of overpopulation when they would have made wonderful pets. Animal overpopulation invariably leads to animal abuse and abandonment
As far as dogs, with the boom of the so-called “designer breeds” this problem has become more noticeable. Puppy stores and pet stores know how to catch the consumer’s eye with “too cute for words” puppies. These puppies tend to be over-priced and are often sick and suffering from the results of inbreeding.
The reality is that the majority of pet store puppies come from puppy mills:
Puppy mills are inhumane breeding factories whose only purpose is to produce puppies for profit.
Dogs are kept their entire lives in dirty, wire cages, stacked on top of each other.
Urine and feces drip down from one cage to the other.
The animals are not treated with love, are poorly fed, do not get any exercise or activity and do not receive even the most basic veterinary care.
The conditions in which these animals live promote infection and genetic/birth defects that are passed on through inbreeding.
The female dogs are continuously bred from the time they get their first heat cycle, until they can no longer produce any more puppies.
We often hear pet owners say that they “saved” a puppy from a pet store. However, for every puppy that comes from a puppy mill and bought at a store, thousands more are left behind and both the store and the puppy mill still make their profit. It seems that it only serves to preserve the existence of puppy mills.
The simplest way for all of us to help with the pet overpopulation problem is to start by spaying and neutering our own pets. And to go even further, adopt and save your next pet from a rescue group
Nydia Melissa Perez, DVM and Orlando Diaz-Figueroa, DVM, MS, Dipl. ABVP (Avian Specialty)