How to Save an Animal Life Essay

Cold concrete floors. Metal fences for walls. Fed once, maybe twice, a day. Constant noise. This is the reality of many shelter animals. Scared and alone. Some don’t even get the luxury of a fenced in slab of concrete, some just get wire cages. Shelters are running out of room. We have too many animals, plain and simple. And do you realize what many shelters have to resort to for this population problem? Euthanization. Those “kill shelters” that everyone boycotts, they only exist because we have too many stray animals. There are so many pitbulls, mutts, and mixes, that they outnumber the people that actually want them. Some measures have been put into place to help decrease the number of strays like the spay and neuter projects. But this takes

7.6 million animals enter the shelters and with that 2.7 million animals are euthanized in the shelter. The same amount euthanized gets adopted each year, which is depressing. One would think more would get adopted or simply taken in if lost to avoid the deaths or strays of animals such as the cats that was previously stated. Animals are human companions that show love and guard or are just fun to help people out in therapeutic ways. Humans take animals for granted with how we send them to shelters not caring if it’s going to end up with them dead in a week of being at that

• 6 – 8 million cats and dogs enter shelters each year, of which 3 – 4 million are euthanized (nearly 10,000 per day).

In the United States, about 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters every year. The overpopulation of these animals and the fact that they have no homes leads to about 40% of them being euthanized (ASPCA). This is a global issue, but the root of it can be found within the local community at The Humane Society of the Ohio Valley.

An animal shelter is a place where stray, lost, abandoned, or surrendered animals, mostly dogs and cats and sometimes sick or wounded wildlife, are brought. Animal shelters are essential in the United States because of inattentive pet proprietorship and uncontrolled breeding of animals. People often get pets without a full understanding of the time, money, and space that they require. Regrettably, that recurrently results in pets being abandoned or abused by these owners. Apart from accountable breeders, owners should spay or neuter their pets to stop the serious overpopulation problem, which is happening in the United States. Shelters do not treat or stop the problem of unwanted pets but without them the stray pet population would be astronomical. There would be more problems with disease spread and an increased incidence of stray animal-induced injuries. A shelter should also be a domicile where animals could be benign and feel loved and taken care of; not just a drop off. The shelter in my community tries to do their best with their animals, but I feel that the shelter needs to be able to do their jobs better and for the animals to feel comfortable.

As you look at the text of “A Change of Heart about Animals,” answer and then discuss the following questions:

Some of the shelters in California are amazing, at Sonoma County’s animal shelter has new policies for the crowded conditions and are working to reduce the number of healthy animal’s that are killed. Dog and cat owners who may want to give up their pets have to make an appointment with the shelter staff to discuss alternatives. Healthy animals will be taken in only if the space is available, otherwise the owners must wait. According to one source, “Most public shelters have around 393,000 cats that enter public shelters and it increased to 25,000. About 278,000 cats were killed in shelters in

Finally, many animals that are declined from limited admission shelters are dumped on city streets and in rural areas creating the potential for uncontrolled reproduction and thus creating more homeless animals. Overall, opponents of the no-kill shelter philosophy see it as misleading and possibly harmful to the management and wellbeing of stray animals.

When my families first Portuguese Water Dog, superb Sonoma, passed away, it was one of the most downcast days in my life. Sonoma was hard to replace, she was joyful, trustworthy, obedient, and just about the most wonderful dog you could ever meet. Sonoma lived a peaceful but much too short, ten year old life. Right up until the end of her life she was one of the most healthiest dogs around, so when a tumor burst in her pancreas it took our family by utter surprise. By the time we got to the Animal hospital, which had the unmistakable scent of sterile hallways and stale air, it was unfortunately too late to save our precious Sonoma. Which left our whole family with what felt like massive stone rocks in the pits our stomachs. While our family was melancholy about Sonoma's death it was also bittersweet. It was bitter of course, because you never realize what you have until it's gone. The sweet part of Sonoma's passing was that this end of something, was also the beginning to a new puppy, a new puppies life, and a new friend.

Animal shelters provide protection and care to animals in need, but sadly have to kill animals from time to time. Ending an animal’s life with minimal pain is called animal euthanasia. No animal shelters practice euthanasia by choice, but most consider it a necessary system. Some reasons for euthanasia are lack of resources and funding in shelters, but the biggest contributor to why euthanasia exists is overcrowding. This problem can be traced to owners allowing their pets to have multiple litters of kittens or puppies without taking the responsibility to properly give them a home. This carelessness creates a huge domestic overpopulation problem. The consequences of overpopulation results in large numbers of animals being sent to humane societies. Animals are then euthanized to avoid overcrowding. Euthanasia is unethical and cruel; it should be banned from shelters.

First of all, they limit how much time an animal has to get adopted. According to an article, “To clarify, there are some shelters that will let an animal stay for two weeks before euthanizing it. Others give only 3 days. According to research, some shelters may give an animal 3 days, then an additional 7, should the owner come looking for the animal. Meanwhile, other shelters may give the animals a few months, a few weeks, a few days, or even just an hour.” This shows how these shelters don’t care about finding homes for these homeless animals. Furthermore, kill shelters use excuses for murdering the innocent little animals. An article said they use excuses like “We don’t have enough room, we don’t have enough money to keep them alive, or they aren’t young or ‘cute’ enough and nobody will want to adopt them.” Every year, approximately 2.7 million dogs and cats are euthanized because there isn’t enough room. As you can see, these shelters don’t even think these animals are worthy of being alive. Lastly, research told how kill shelters send out little to no notice of advertisement for the animals. The only advertisement that some kill shelters send out is a “death row” which tells adopters that they are about to kill some animals, so they need to come adopt one before it’s too late. In other words, kill shelters don’t give much effort in encouraging people to adopt an animal. Kill shelters are the most harsh shelters of them

Countless lives locked away in cages and forgotten about have overwhelmed our society, it has left blood stains on our history as a species and if history has taught us anything, it’s that we have a choice to change our ways of adjusting to situations. A war which was fought in pursuit of ending such criminal means, yet we as human beings do little to nothing to end the horrific crimes of animal deaths in shelters. It is no secret that this world has become infused with problems that have extended from one side of the globe to the other. Amongst these problems lies a terrible truth: nearly every year, sums of almost eight million cats and dogs have been placed in shelters around the world. Out of these vast numbers, half will be

Unfortunately, this is the harsh reality of animal overpopulation. Overcrowded shelters have no other choice but to euthanize these dogs and cats in large numbers. In fact, more animals leave these shelters dead than they do alive. Reducing the amount of unwanted pets in the nation is something that I am strongly passionate about. This issue is highly preventable through a variety of ways. Spay and neuter surgery is a main contributor for animal population control. Support from animal care facilities is necessary for these procedures to take place and stop the ongoing issue. Along

Many may ask, why waste a valuable life? Why kill when you can just save them and adopt? Animals deserve the chance to live just like any person in this world does. Over the past 20 years, animal shelter communities in the United States has been grappling with the overpopulation problem of domestic animals (Rowan). Nationally, around four million animals are killed in animal shelters each year. Of the animals killed, roughly 95% of the shelters animals and treatable and healthy (Winograd). Each year between two to four million animals are euthanized (Winograd). Normally these animals are domestic such as dogs, cats, horses, and so on. Most people like to believe that the animals are being put down because an incurable disease but that is far from the truth. You have to take in account those who are euthanized because there are not enough homes or space to

Why is it that we as a society condemn the actions of a man against a man but very rarely a man against an animal? I think this question must be understood if we are ever to change the rights animals have. As of yet I don't believe animals have any actual rights. Rather humans have rights that involve animals. If we are to truly allow animals to have rights the same or similar to humans then we must first define what it is that makes us feel as if they are entitled to rights.