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It is widely accepted that 9.6 million animals are euthanized each year at animal shelters. This is a big number but down from the 70's. In a perfect world all pet owners would be responsibe, spay or neuter, etc. Being this is not the case, is euthanasia a neccesary means to control the unwanted dog and cat population? If euthanasia for non medical reasons was outlawed could we house all these animals? Is shelter euthanasia any more or less justifiable than thinning herds of deer who's population far exceeds their food source?
Discuss.
Last edited by Reads2MUCH; 08-04-2009 at 01:22 PM..
Reason: spell check, dear to "deer"
I don't like seeing so many animals killed when so many of them would make good pets, while more are being breeded unnecessarily, but I think they are unfortunately a necessary evil at this time.
Biologists have named over 1,200,000 species of animals, most of which are insects. 60,000 are vertebrates---birds and fish, etc.
Taken in the overall context of life on earth, the problem the OP is describing seems pretty trivial. In fact, those 9.6 million are the lucky few. Most others die either being torn apart alive by jaws, or dissolved alive in the stomach acids of something higher up the food chain.
It is widely accepted that 9.6 million animals are euthanized each year at animal shelters. This is a big number but down from the 70's. In a perfect world all pet owners would be responsibe, spay or neuter, etc. Being this is not the case, is euthanasia a neccesary means to control the unwanted dog and cat population? If euthanasia for non medical reasons was outlawed could we house all these animals? Is shelter euthanasia any more or less justifiable than thinning herds of deer who's population far exceeds their food source?
Discuss.
Our last two dogs were rescues so I do understand your concern, unfortunately there isn't nearly enough demand adoptable pets nor potential owners with the skill and experience in dealing with many troubled animals that come from shelters.
So what are the alternatives, particularly in the case of dogs? How would you house 50-100 dogs in a situation other than kennel cages? I can't imagine the amount of land that would be needed to allow the formation of independent packs that would have enough personal territory for the dogs to peacefully co-exist.
It would be impossible for the few remaining people that are responsible to see that all of the animals are taken care of. Right now I am in the worst city I have ever seen for abuse and neglect and it is more or less accepted. The local animal group asked to build a new shelter for the City for free and the City has disagreed with every location they have come up with for about 8 years and the current facility is awful and every time it floods they put all the dogs to sleep and now they want a cat leash law ordinance - and as you might guess I have a lot of other thoughts about these people.....
Location: Visitation between Wal-Mart & Home Depot
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ovcatto
Our last two dogs were rescues so I do understand your concern, unfortunately there isn't nearly enough demand adoptable pets nor potential owners with the skill and experience in dealing with many troubled animals that come from shelters.
So what are the alternatives, particularly in the case of dogs? How would you house 50-100 dogs in a situation other than kennel cages? I can't imagine the amount of land that would be needed to allow the formation of independent packs that would have enough personal territory for the dogs to peacefully co-exist.
Not to mention funding. Keeping 9.6 million animals reasonably well fed, covered and happy for a single year would easily exceed $1,000,000,000. A more workable budget would mean that the animals were essentially being sent to concentration camps to starve.
Outlawing euthanasia for non-medical reasons would be a tragedy for homeless animals.
Lowering the thresholds for euthanization should actually be of greater benefit to a greater number of animals than eliminating euthanization.
It is not an either/or proposition, however, many municipalities and people treat it as such.
Few are willing to take the time, or expend the resources to educate people on their responsibilities as pet owners. Puppy mills are allowed to exist unabated. In far too many communities, animals are regarded as 'chattel' to be thrown away or disposed of at will.
There will always be companion animals that have to be euthanized either for age or for temperament, however, the wholesale killing that takes place now is totally unwarranted and is done more for convenience than for any other reason.
There are model shelters all over the country that have found ways to reduce their kill rate and yet too often the response from those shelters that still kill most of their intake animals insist that those solutions will not work and dismiss any/all suggestions for change out of hand.
They simply refuse to listen, convinced that the status quo is the only option - sounds familiar doesn't it?
I believe that some day saner voices will prevail:
In thi9s day and age ;i really doubt anyone needs to be educated in responsiblity as a pet owner, Face it many peoplem are pretty bad and chain and starve many animals they own.loo at just the horses taken evry year from owners. I hace a dog recue and 5 cats. All fixed and with thier hsotsd etc. But I realise that many suffering animals need to be out to death and than many can be come a danger to toer animals as well as humans for disesasase and runng in packs.At teh same time I alos doante t my local shelter for those that can be placed.in rural arteas dumped dogs van be quite a p[roblem as they adapt to try to survive .
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