Companion Animals: Doing What's Best for Them
In a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest: raising their young, enjoying their native environments, and following their natural instincts. However, domesticated dogs and cats cannot survive "free" in our concrete jungles, so we must take as good care of them as possible. People with the time, money, love, and patience to make a lifetime commitment to an animal can make an enormous difference by adopting from shelters or rescuing animals from a perilous life on the street. But it is also important to stop manufacturing "pets," thereby perpetuating a class of animals forced to rely on humans to survive.
The sad truth is, not everyone loves animals. Ask any animal control officer about the animals found bruised, bloodied, and emaciated; the litters of puppies and kittens rescued from taped-up boxes alongside highways, or from sealed plastic garbage bags thrown into lakes and rivers; the animals abandoned because they "bark too much," or because they are aging, or because the family is moving.
Even people who care about animals are often unable to recognize or meet animals' many needs. Domesticated animals are in a catch-22 situation--they can no longer survive on their own, yet they retain many of their basic instincts and drives. Usually, they are isolated from their natural packs. Their bodies and souls yearn to roam--but, for safety's sake, they are confined to a house or yard, always dependent on their guardians, even for a drink of water, food to eat, or social contact.
As long as people treat animals as toys, possessions, and commodities, rather than as individuals with feelings, families, and friendships, widespread neglect and abuse is destined to continue.
Breeding's Sad Legacy
Approximately 2,500 kittens and puppies are born each hour in the U.S.--70,000 each day. One unspayed dog can lead to 28,244 puppies in nine years. One unspayed cat can lead to 14 million kittens in nine years!
Because the number of animals far exceeds the demand for them, millions of homeless cats and dogs suffer from abandonment, abuse, starvation, disease, freezing, highway death, or procurement for laboratories.
More than 70 percent of people who acquire animals end up giving them away, abandoning them, or taking them to shelters(1), which receive about 27 million animals annually. More than half-- about 17 million--must be destroyed for lack of homes.(2) Most are under 18 months of age, and 90 percent are healthy and adoptable.
In light of these tragic statistics, no breeding can be considered "responsible." Those who breed animals for profit and individuals who let their dog or cat have "just one litter," however well-intentioned they may be, contribute to the severe dog and cat overpopulation crisis. Every newborn puppy or kitten means one less home for a dog or cat desperately waiting in a shelter or roaming the streets.
Problems With Purebreds
Purebred breeding (breeding animals to have certain appearances or traits) has caused a wide range of health defects in animals. For example, "flat-faced" dogs, like bulldogs or Boston terriers, experience respiratory difficulties due to shorter breathing passages; bloodhounds and Shar Peis are prone to skin infections from excessively wrinkled skin(3); other dogs suffer from epileptic seizures, hip dysplasia, painful back problems--the list goes on--as a result of human manipulation.(4)
Sadly, while breeders "custom-design" millions of dogs and cats each year, millions of equally deserving dogs and cats languish in shelters. About 25 percent of animals euthanized by shelters are purebreds.(5)
Certain dogs bred originally for fighting, like the "pit bull" breeds, can have additional problems. Pit bull terriers were originally bred to fight chained bulls and bears. Today, they are frequently used by drug dealers to guard drugs and money, and in inner-city fighting rings where they often die very violent deaths.
Few good homes are open to dogs perceived as overly aggressive. Breed-specific legislation (with a "grandfather clause" for those dogs already in existence) can be an important tool in ending the tragic exploitation of these breeds.
What You Can Do
-Spay or neuter dogs and cats.
-Adopt from shelters--and don't forget adult animals, who are often overlooked by people looking for a puppy or kitten.
-Take strays to humanely run shelters.
-Work within your community to legislate mandatory spaying and neutering.
-Speak up if someone is planning to breed an animal. Urge people who desire the companionship of animals to adopt from animal shelters.
-Point out neglect---talk to the animal's guardian, send an anonymous letter, or contact the humane society. Be persistent!
-Walk and play daily with your companion animals.
-If possible, adopt two animals. Animals need both human and animal companionship. Having an animal friend can help alleviate the boredom and loneliness of long hours spent waiting for you to come home.
-Read You CanSave the Animals! 251 Easy Things You Can Do to End Needless Suffering, by Ingrid Newkirk, for more tips on how you can help animals.
References
Whitemore, Hank, "Pet Owners: Do the Right Thing," Parade Magazine, Feb. 19, 1995.
Moulton, Carol, "Animal Shelters: Changing Roles," The Animals' Agenda, May 1988, p. 14-15.
"Breeder's Integrity a Factor in Health," Washington Times, March 23, 1995.
Shook, Larry, "Bad Dogs," New York Times, Aug. 8, 1992.
Associated Press, "Breeding Industry Swells Glut of Dogs," The Morning Call, Aug. 1, 1993.
