Every year over 60,000 companion animals are put to death in Maricopa County, Arizona! This is a chilling number, and becomes even more overwhelming when you consider that Maricopa County is only one of 3143 counties, parishes or independent cities, in only one of the fifty United States.
Why am I telling you this? I work in the animal rescue community and today I was copied on yet another request to help find a home for “…a very sweet and loving cat who has been in my family for many years and, with great sadness, we cannot keep her anymore…” Blah, blah, blah…I hear it all the time.
People, at what point does your “sweet and loving pet” become excess baggage? At what point do you pack your clothes, knickknacks, family photos, and appliances, and move away without your animal? Some people try to find homes for these living beings who have become a burden, some just dump them on the street in the hope that some kind person will pick them up, some take them to shelters, where they are usually euthanized due to over crowding, and some just leave them in their empty home and hope for the best. A percentage (that is so small it’s not visible on any chart) of these discarded souls find new homes and wonder what they did to be passed off to someone else. The rest die slow deaths on the street or in the home where they were left behind; if they’re fortunate, they are humanely euthanized.
But think about the numbers! Maricopa County is an extremely large county, so let’s just reduce the numbers to be fair. That means that 8 million pets are killed each year because there are not enough homes for them all.
Realtors and landlords routinely enter vacant homes to find animals left behind who are emaciated or near death. One Animal Planet Animal Cops episode featured the animal control agents entering a home to find a dog, so thin, that it could barely stand. On the wall was a list of things the former tenants were to take along to the new house…the dog was not on the list.
Some issues that send people searching for a new home for their pet are behavior related. Others are because there was little or no thought to the temperament of the breed, and how it will fit into the family dynamic, before they chose their pet, and still others are simply because the kitten or puppy has now grown into an adult that is no longer cute. It’s sort of like dumping your husband when he gets a beer belly. To some of you, that may sound like an idea to ponder, but at least HE will be able to care for himself without you!
Seriously, there are way too many animals and not enough homes. Know this:
• You don’t need a dog just because you have a back yard
• Learn about the breed, or the animal’s temperament, before choosing
• SPAY AND NEUTER
• Make a lifetime commitment
