☆ The Importance of Neutering/Spaying, Adopting, and more! ☆

I don't usually like sharing graphic photos or stories, you know, being the happy place that ReLove Plan.et is. However, there are some topics that I feel like people ignorantly ignore and in these cases I think these stories and pictures provide a bit of a slap in the face to get their attention. 

The following story, and the reality of it all, is why it angers me to No End when I see people not Spaying or Neutering their animals!

The following story is taken from an anonymous author who works at an Animal Shelter. Please take the time to read. At the end I've provided suggestions and ways that you can change this so that dogs and cats can be happy and not share this heart-breaking fate. 

The Wake Up Call (aka Slap in the Face):

A Letter from a Shelter Manager - anonymous in North Carolina

I think our society needs a huge "Wake-up" call. As a shelter manager, I am going to share a little insight with you all...a view from the inside if you will.

First off, all of you breeders/sellers should be made to work in the "back" of an animal shelter for just one day. Maybe if you saw the life drain from a few sad, lost, confused eyes, you would change your mind about breeding and selling to people you don't even know.

That puppy you just sold will most likely end up in my shelter when it's not a cute little puppy anymore. So how would you feel if you knew that there's about a 90% chance that dog will never walk out of the shelter it is going to be dumped at? Purebred or not! About 50% of all of the dogs that are "owner surrenders" or "strays", that come into my shelter are purebred dogs.

The most common excuses I hear are; "We are moving and we can't take our dog (or cat)." Really? Where are you moving too that doesn't allow pets? Or they say "The dog got bigger than we thought it would". How big did you think a German Shepherd would get? "We don't have time for her". Really? I work a 10-12 hour day and still have time for my 6 dogs! "She's tearing up our yard". How about making her a part of your family? They always tell me "We just don't want to have to stress about finding a place for her we know she'll get adopted, she's a good dog".

Odds are your pet won't get adopted & how stressful do you think being in a shelter is? Well, let me tell you, your pet has 72 hours to find a new family from the moment you drop it off. Sometimes a little longer if the shelter isn't full and your dog manages to stay completely healthy. If it sniffles, it dies. Your pet will be confined to a small run/kennel in a room with about 25 other barking or crying animals. It will have to relieve itself where it eats and sleeps. It will be depressed and it will cry constantly for the family that abandoned it. If your pet is lucky, I will have enough volunteers in that day to take him/her for a walk. If I don't, your pet won't get any attention besides having a bowl of food slid under the kennel door and the waste sprayed out of its pen with a high-powered hose. If your dog is big, black or any of the "Bully" breeds (pit bull, rottie, mastiff, etc) it was pretty much dead when you walked it through the front door.

Those dogs just don't get adopted. It doesn't matter how 'sweet' or 'well behaved' they are.

If your dog doesn't get adopted within its 72 hours and the shelter is full, it will be destroyed. If the shelter isn't full and your dog is good enough, and of a desirable enough breed it may get a stay of execution, but not for long . Most dogs get very kennel protective after about a week and are destroyed for showing aggression. Even the sweetest dogs will turn in this environment. If your pet makes it over all of those hurdles chances are it will get kennel cough or an upper respiratory infection and will be destroyed because shelters just don't have the funds to pay for even a $100 treatment.

Here's a little euthanasia 101 for those of you that have never witnessed a perfectly healthy, scared animal being "put-down".

First, your pet will be taken from its kennel on a leash. They always look like they think they are going for a walk happy, wagging their tails. Until they get to "The Room", every one of them freaks out and puts on the brakes when we get to the door. It must smell like death or they can feel the sad souls that are left in there, it's strange, but it happens with every one of them. Your dog or cat will be restrained, held down by 1 or 2 vet techs depending on the size and how freaked out they are. Then a euthanasia tech or a vet will start the process. They will find a vein in the front leg and inject a lethal dose of the "pink stuff". Hopefully your pet doesn't panic from being restrained and jerk. I've seen the needles tear out of a leg and been covered with the resulting blood and been deafened by the yelps and screams. They all don't just "go to sleep", sometimes they spasm for a while, gasp for air and defecate on themselves.

When it all ends, your pets corpse will be stacked like firewood in a large freezer in the back with all of the other animals that were killed waiting to be picked up like garbage. What happens next? Cremated? Taken to the dump? Rendered into pet food? You'll never know and it probably won't even cross your mind. It was just an animal and you can always buy another one, right?

I hope that those of you that have read this are bawling your eyes out and can't get the pictures out of your head I deal with everyday on the way home from work.

I hate my job, I hate that it exists & I hate that it will always be there unless you people make some changes and realize that the lives you are affecting go much farther than the pets you dump at a shelter.

Between 9 and 11 MILLION animals die every year in shelters and only you can stop it. I do my best to save every life I can but rescues are always full, and there are more animals coming in everyday than there are homes.

My point to all of this DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!

Hate me if you want to. The truth hurts and reality is what it is. I just hope I maybe changed one persons mind about breeding their dog, taking their loving pet to a shelter, or buying a dog. I hope that someone will walk into my shelter and say "I saw this and it made me want to adopt". THAT WOULD MAKE IT WORTH IT.

~ UNKNOWN AUTHOR

How to find a true No Kill shelter or rescue group

http://www.examiner.com/dog-rescue-in-national/how-to-find-a-true-no-kill-shelter-or-rescue-group

***

Advocate for Saving Dogs

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Animal Rights

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What You can Do! 

1) Don't buy pets from breeders or pet stores. ADOPT your pet. Always, always ADOPT your pet. 

2) Understand that when you take in a pet, you take on this responsibility FOR THE LIFE OF THAT PET. Not until it gets too big, not until you have to move, not until you don't like it any more. 

3) If you can't adopt - FOSTER, VOLUNTEER, DONATE, CROSS POST 

4) At the very least BE AWARE and encourage others who may be considering buying animals to adopt, or encourage those taking their pet to the shelter "to find a new loving home" to find other alternatives. 

5) and of course SPAY and NEUTER!!!

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☆ What's Going On: Pets; making Responsible Choices! ☆

We all woo and aww over cute puppies and kittens and pets, so much in fact that some of us don't always make the best choices. People impulsively buy from pet stores without thinking about whether or not they are ready for a pet in their home. Others think we love our little furbabies so much that we won't get them neutered or spayed because it seems cruel and, especially with guys,  there is a demasculating complex. But in the big picture it is both necessary and important.

Just a note, I prefer to use any other tern other than "pet owner" I believe this wording contributes to a bad mentality. I don't believe we really "own" pets, they are companions, children, members of the family. They are not possessions. K, on with the blog...

As pet guardians we have a responsibility to prevent unwanted animals from being euthanized. Every single day unwanted pets are left abandonned or left to animal shelters because they become unwanted. It is estimated that 6-8 MILLION animals enter animal shelters each year in the United States alone, roughly 3-4 million (half!!) of those will be euthanized because they will be unable to find a new home. Why? Because there is a huge over-population problem due to people not neutering or spaying their pets and due to people supporting puppy and kitty mills and breeders.  

Because of these numbers, no form of breeding can be concidered as responsible. 

Having a pet entails a certain responsibilty to prevent such circumstances:

★ Choosing a rescue pet from a shelter instead of breeders and stores.

and

★ Getting your pet spayed or neutered. 

There should be no exceptions. 

Adopt a Rescue Pet:

So many animals are in shelters because adoption rates are low. Every time someone buys a pet from a pet store or from breeders, the life of an animal at a shelter is lost.

Most pet stores get their animals from puppy mills or kitty mills where the animals have a lack of proper veterinary care and socialization, and are forced into unsanitary crammed living conditions. They end up with various health issues and can develop intense behavioral problems as a result. An estimated 6-8 millions puppies are killed each month at puppy mills because of food or behavioral problems.

The puppies and kittens are taken away from their mothers at too early an age to be transported in crates to various pet stores where they will spend their time in small spaces without human love or exercise, and where the public is free to tap on their glass windows and harrass them on a daily basis. And even if a pet store claims that they don't purchase their animals from puppy mills, nothing is to say that their supplier doesn't or that the breeder they are purchasing from has healthy ethics or does not inbreed.

At puppy mills, the animals are bred for quantity not quality where genetic defects are common and inbreeding occurs. People will often end up having to pay ridiculous veterinary bills due to the numerous health problems associated with pet-store animals. This is why many pet stores will give you a certain amount of money towards veterinary care when you purchase the animal. 

Many people make the exception because they want a "purebred" dog or cat, but the problem with this is, not only are you leaving an animal to die at a shelter, but there are also other problems associated with so-called "purebred" animals. The vast majority of purebred dogs and cats face inbreeding and therefor result in severe health problems as a result.  Whether the purebred animal is from a local breeder or a petstore, the standards are low for breeding and condition requirements and most are unmonitored at that.  An estimated 25% of dogs that end up in shelters are pure-breeds. And even if you are sure that the breeder is a good one, choosing that animal still leaves another to die in a shelter. 

Pet stores are also the biggest place for that impulsive buy because people are either sucked in by cuteness or think that they are doing the animal a favour by removing them from their small space and giving them a loving home. People often have not thought through the responsibilies of having a pet in their homes or the long-term commitment and are among the highest to end up giving their pet away, usually ending up in a shelter or abandonned on the streets. Buying from a pet store is also showing your support for them and means that they will stay in existence, breeding and contributing to the over-population problem. Remember, your dollars are your voice. Don't get your pet from a pet store. Without these stores, the incentive for puppy mills disappears as well. If you want to end the suffering of these animals at the hands of breeders and puppy mills then don't buy from a pet store. 

We'd also like to think that all shelters are humane and run by loving caring people, but this is not always the case. Euthanization is often humane, done by a needle in a dog's arm or a cat's stomach, but this is not always the case either. Though humane, it is an expensive method and when shelters can't afford to euthanize they turn to gas-chambers instead where it can take up to twenty minutes for the animal to die, crammed in a chamber together for the last frightened moments of their life to suffer. 

The best thing you can do is to prevent this population problem so that animals don't end up in shelters to begin with. 

Spaying or Neutering your Pet:

Spaying and neutering is the surgical sterilization of an animal so that they no longer can reproduce. 

The spaying or neutering of your pet can be the single most important thing you can do to save these animals from suffering and neglect and the over-population problem. 

A single unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67, 000 puppies in just six years. A single female cat and her offspring can produce 420, 000 kittens in just seven years!

You may think there's no harm when your pet has a litter and you are able to find homes for them all, but that is too far from the truth. Each of those pets takes a potential home away from a shelter animal waiting behind bars. You are taking away their chance to live. And you also can never be certain that the home you have given that litter to will be permanent or if they will end up being part of that large percentage of pets that end up in a shelter or abandonned on the streets. You also don't know that they won't neuter or spay the animal and then also go on to contribute to more and more unneeded offspring. 

Benefits of Sterilizing your Pet:

On a health stand-point, sterilized animals also live longer, happier lives. Spaying eliminates the stress that females endure during heat periods, eliminates the risk of uterine cancer, and greatly reduces the risk of mammary cancer. Neutering reduces the likelihood of males roaming and fighting, prevents testicular cancer, and reduces the risk of prostate cancer. Sterilized animals are also less likely to contract deadly and contagious diseases. 

Some people justify their decision to not get their pet sterilized because they are an indoor pet. But who's to say that the animal won't accidentally get out one day? Also, not sterilizing your pet and then keeping them away from the opposite sex is essentially mean. Pets have destructive and restless behaviours sometimes because they are trying to get out to seek out a mate. Getting your pet spayed or neutered, especially in males, eliminates sexual frustration, discomfort, and distress, making them happier and more content. It also eliminates their need to get out and roam, so your pet is less likely to run away. 

And if you are worried about your pet's personality changing then I am happy to tell you that you have nothing to worry about. The only changes that may occur are in the habits that you don't want your pet to have in the first place, such as urine-marking, fighting, roaming, and aggression. They are also more likely to be more affectionate and pay more attention to you because they will be less interested in finding a mate. 

There is no excuse for letting your pet reproduce. It is unnecessary and it is selfish. If you truly love animals then you will get your pet spayed or neutered. Period. 

So make the right Choice! 

Most people say they don't want to visit animal shelters because they are too depressing. It doesn't make them not exist. It doesn't take away the fact that those animals suffer. It doesn't take away the fact that half of those animals will be euthanized because you won't give them a home. Give them a chance. Get your new companion from a shelter, and get them spayed or neutered.

Before you get a pet also consider whether you are ready for it, whether you can afford it, whether you are able to keep that pet for the next 7-14 years of your life, whether you are ready to commit to it. Treat them like a member of your family, don't just give them away, make it work. Love them. Treat them with love and respect. Always. 

As long as people treat animals as toys, possessions, or commodities rather than as individuals with feelings, families, and friendships, widespread neglect and abuse is inevitable. 

Be a Responsible Pet-Carer. Make the right choices!

Peace & Love,

xo

~Bianca  

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