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Friday, February 18, 2005

Spay or neuter your pet.

On my way to work this morning, I saw a seemingly stray dog wandering around the neighborhood. I hoped it had a home, but where were the owners? It was 30 degrees last night, cold. But today is trash day so maybe it won't go hungry.

This is a sad state of affairs. Every day in the US 70,000 puppies and kittens are born (compared to 10,000 human children). There are not nearly enough homes for all those animals. Consequently, 10-12 million animals are euthanized in shelters every year for lack of available homes. 30% of those are purebreds. Spaying or neutering your pet is one way to help solve the problems of too many animals, not enough homes, animal cruelty, and overburdened shelters. Here's how:

* Learn more about why you should spay or neuter your pet at Human Society of the United States.

* Find a place to spay or neuter your pet. Spay USA is a nationwide network and referral service for affordable spay/neuter services. Call 1-800-248-SPAY (1-800-248-7729) for more information. If your pet is already spayed or neutered or if you don't have a pet, consider making a financial contribution.

* Spay or neuter your rabbit. Learn more at rabbit.org.

* Learn more about what happens to abandoned pets from petrescue.com.

Take care of your pet. Support over burdened pounds, humane societies, and rescue organizations. Get your pet neutered or spayed.

6 comments:

Karama said...

Here's a small, but fast, free, and easy way to help abandoned animals: just visit www.theanimalrescuesite.com and click the big purple button. Click daily to help even more.

Diane said...

A lot of people don't care enough about their pets to do such a thing. As soon as the pet gets on their nerves or bite someone,they throw them away.

It's wrong.

Thanks for posting this.

Always Yours,

Diane

Karama said...

I agree, Dianne. It's wrong. But there's a lot we can do to correct the wrong: 1) educate friends and family about pet care, spaying and neutering. 2) donate to organizations that give free or low-cost spay/neuter services. 3) volunteer at your local humane society. 4) Spread the word (forward this post). 5) click the purple button on the animal rescue site.

Anyone have any more ideas?

Thanks for stopping by, Diane! I hope you'll come again and tell others about 'So what can I do'. Have a good day!

Jen said...

Yeah, as soon I got my dog from the humane society I had her spayed. She was quite pissed at me for the next few days.

And remember, always get your pet from the pound / humane society!

Karama said...

Excellent reminder, Jen. Thanks! Many humane pounds wait only 3-5 days before euthanizing an animal. And the no-kill pounds are often overburdened. Since all sorts of animals end up at the pound (purebreds, mutts, mixed-breeds, dogs, cats, rabbits, my mother even took two pet chickens to a pound once - but that's another story) you're sure to find an animal who you love and who will love (and thank) you.

Karama said...

February 22nd is the 11th annual "Spay Day USA" as declared by the Doris Day Animal Foundation. I learned about it by reading "Mutts" in this morning's paper. You can read it here.