Pet Overpopulation Research Paper

The myth of pet overpopulation is a huge campaign that’s considered truth nationwide. The National Animal Interest Alliance (NAIA) explains this myth and why it’s used. Activists use the myth to put all blame of animal shelter death on breeders. Radical groups perpetuate this myth by making breeding restrictions. This myth is the biggest cause of euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals. Per year, about 3.1 million dogs are adopted while 2.1 million are euthanized. However, this number for euthanized dogs is not broken down by reasoning for euthanization. Overpopulation propagandists often claims this number reaches over 6 million each year. While shelters heavily euthanize adoptable dogs and breeders increasingly use puppy mills, each area across

Pet owner’s need to be aware of the responsibility it is to be a proper pet owner. Domestic animal do not only need their love and attention they require regular visit to the veterinarians where they can take proper precautions for unwanted pregnancies. Every day there are 70,000 puppies and cats that are born there is not enough homes for all these pets.(Harvey,Alyssa) Animal shelters have endorsed sterilization ensuring pet owners that sterilizing a pet is less expensive than the cost of a litter of puppies or kittens. In Hidalgo County I found a clinic that has received a $90,000 grant from PetSmart Charities to spay/neuter to help reduce pet overpopulation. The program offers

Attention Getter: We all see them, those sad little faces that look up at us with their sad eyes. They need homes and families that love them, they are stray animals.

A quote once said by Frederick the Great states; “A dog is a man’s best friend.” There are millions of dog lovers across the world, I’m speaking to many in this class right now, so dog lovers, have you ever thought about this? Imagine walking into a pet store and looking around at all the different kinds of animals, and then your eyes are set on the dogs. You just can’t decide what one you want. One of the main key facts about choosing the right dog is considering where it is raised and many dog owners don’t. Some of the dogs could have been raised in a puppy mill. Puppy mills are a problem in the U.S today. And the problem with puppy mills is the effect they have on the dog itself and even the owner.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) describes puppy mills situation to be overcrowded, unsanitary, without adequate food, water, and veterinary health care. Female dogs are even bred at every opportunity without a rest to maximize profit (“Puppy Mills”). Dogs are kept locked up in wired cages, stacked on top one another and sometimes their excrements are not properly monitored. Thus, this leads to unknown genetic disorders and poor genetic quality which makes it difficult for the dogs to live for a long time. In the end, it will cause a lot of stress and problems for the family down the road due to the dogs’ health. Many people who are unaware of these living conditions often tend to overlook their puppies neglect and suffering. When purchasing a new pet from a pet store, many people do not wonder where their pet may have come from, instead, they are more engulf in their excitement to bring home a new family

Later, most will end up "Testing Out" a different type of pet. The vast majority of people, who adopt a puppy or kitten, do not keep the animal for life. If this were to turn around and most people were to actually keep their pets through the good times and the bad, as they do their own children, the demand for these animals would go down. With less of a demand, breeders would not breed as many litters. Breeders are only breeding as many litters as they do, because people are buying them. The demand for a cute little puppy or kitten is great, because people do not keep the animal for life. Animals are recycled. If a breeder had a litter and could not sell the puppies, they would not keep having litter after litter. People are buying them, so breeders are breeding them. In a perfect world, breeders would breed less and force people to adopt from an animal rescue, but this is not a perfect world. The solution lies with the general public educating themselves, supply and demand, that's the solution. Lessen the demand and the supply will, on its own, lessen. The power lies within each and every one of us. Scripted by Kim Sturla (of the San Mateo ordinance fame) and her continual cross-country junketing preaching her message: "The problem is simple: we have too many dogs and cats. Too many for too few homes."

In the United States, 2,000 to 3,000 puppies and kittens are born every hour, yet only one out of ten of these animals will find a permanent home. The remaining animals will be left to fend for themselves on the streets, abandoned and lonely, with only about one year to live. Even with the rate of animals who will not find a home already, people are still determined to run puppy mills which increases that number, even if it is breaking the law. Puppy mills are bad because they keep the puppies under bad conditions, many of the dogs they breed get diseases and defects, and it can lead to animal abandonment and neglect.

This article presents the effort to shut down all puppy mills. So far 88 cities small and large have shut down in effect to this. These puppy mills include cats, rabbits, and other small breeds as well. Phoenix is known to be the first city to have a pet store challenge to put a ban on puppy mills. Other cities such as New York City and Salt Lake City have taken a stand against puppy mills as well. As more consumers learn more about the puppy mills, they as well are wanting nothing to do with them. Although many changes are being made some of the local laws still allow small breeds and animals from the animal shelter to be sold. Pet stores now have the option to change to a ‘humane business model’ which allows them to work with shelters and

There are an estimated 10,000 puppy mills in the United States alone (HSUS), and a single puppy mill can house anywhere from ten to one thousand breeding dogs (ASPCA). Puppy mills are unethical by design - they are designed to produce puppies as fast as possible without concern for either the pups or the mother. The conditions in puppy mills are often deplorable. In the case of the puppy mill that was raided, pups were separated from their mothers at incredibly young ages, the rooms were filthy, and the breeding dogs and pups alike suffered from diseases and malformations (Solotaroff). As stated in both Solotaroff and the ASPCA’s articles, in many puppy mills, dogs are housed in tiny, cheap cages, are unable to interact with anyone, and are generally neglected. Female dogs can be bred indefinitely,

Another important part of the problem are the businesses that contribute to the population of pets, the dog breeders, sometimes called puppy mills. The Oxford Dictionaries defines a puppy mill as “an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on an intensive basis and in conditions regarded as inhumane” (“Puppy Mill,” 2015). The Friends of Animals (2013) Web site, gives some definitions of what a puppy mill is from an animal lover’s point of view. The housing for dogs is small pens and in which they may never have the chance to touch the grass in their lifetime. Veterinary care for the breeding dogs is a minimum to increase the profit from the sale of the puppies. Most of the puppy mills are located in central states, where Adams (1991) explains that the large factory chicken farms have taken over the local farmer’s cash crop of chickens resulting in the farmer breeding dogs for their cash

The effects of pet ownership have been shown to be beneficial for humans as well as animals in need of a home. People purchase pets for a variety of reasons, spanning from a need to get more exercise, a desire for companionship, to a desire for unconditional love. Other people simply just love animals and their lives feel complete without a furry friend. However, not all of the causes of pet ownership are positive. Some people purchase a pet because they think the animal looks cute but abandon the pet after they discover the hard work it requires to train it and keep it healthy. Other people do so out of ego, such as purchasing a large, vicious pet they hope will intimidate others and later find they cannot control. The motivational causes of owning a pet will determine the eventual effects of ownership.

In fact, the behavioral issues in puppy mill dogs may not “emerge for months or even years after adoption” (“Model Laws” sec. commentary). Because of these deceiving tendencies, puppy mill dogs appear to be a better deal at first glance. However, ironically, animals that are initially adopted from puppy mills have a high probability of being given to an animal shelter due to their behavioral problems, which make up 10% of all animals brought into shelters (Pet Statistics sec. 2). This means that not only are puppy mills taking up the opportunities for life that shelter puppies should have first dibs at, but they are also taking up a significant amount of the limited space in shelters. As a result of the constant supply that puppy mills churn out, 2.7 million animals that cannot be adopted from shelters in a timely manner are euthanized (Pet Statistics sec. 1). 2.7 million animals will enter a shelter one day, and never be able to leave cradled in the loving arms of a new family. Instead, they meet their end by the prick of a needle, lying on a sterile metal tabletop in the dark back room of a shelter. In perspective, 2.7 million animals a year boils down to more than 5 animals per minute. In the time taken to read this paper, more than 50 unwanted animals across America will be euthanized, regardless of their state of health. This

This suggest that emphasizing the benefits to the community should be used by Welfare League of QLD when promoting campaigns that are involved with problem of pet overpopulation, like the puppy mills. According to Animals Australia (2014), 90% of Australians desexed their pets and all the animals in shelters undergo sterilization but the animals in pet shops which are supplied by puppy factories are usually intact. Therefore, this new emphasize in marketing could raise public awareness about the pet overpopulation and, therefore, urges to construct a nationally consistent Pet Shop and Breeder Permit system with the aid of governmental

Pets can fill a void in an owner’s life, by allowing them to nurture something and receive a sense of satisfaction. Socially pets have become so much a part of our daily lives that they are often treated as if they were children, some lucky pets even attend daily play sessions, and are treated to extreme indulgence; all to make their owner feel as if they were an infant or a child. Blind owners rely on their seeing eye dogs to guide them around wherever they go; they are trained to guide them past and around obstacles. The National Institute of Health states, “More than half of all U.S. households have a companion animal. Pets are more common in households with children, yet there are more pets than children in American households. There are more than 51 million dogs, 56 million cats, 45 million birds, 75 million small mammals and reptiles, and uncounted millions of aquarium fish” (np). Many movie stars and rich and famous people have begun using pets as a status symbol. Millions of dollars are spent finding the perfect and most valuable pet even to the extent that the original breed of animal has become unrecognizable or even extinct. This need for high status and perfection has resulted in safety risks to both pets and the people they live with. Inbreeding and tampering with cross genes in animals often result in an animal of inferior security and emotional stability, thus resulting in an aggressive and violent temperament. In an attempt to

In my opinion, this is a terrible issue. These animals are dying because of this with no fault of their own. If the overpopulation in shelters continues we will not have a place to put all of these animals except for in the ground. A shelter is supposed to be used as a safe place for lost, homeless pets, but it is being abused and turned into a trashcan due to the overpopulation. Some may argue that there are “no kill” shelters, and although that is true to some extent, it is not entirely true. The sad truth is that “in most cases even when a shelter calls themselves a ‘no-kill’ shelter it simply means they give the dogs they don't want to a shelter that IS a kill shelter” (Maguire). Overpopulation is costing animals their lives. Do you know what else overpopulation is costing? Us. It costs the United States taxpayers $2 billion a year “to impound, shelter, euthanize, and dispose of homeless animals” (“Animal Overpopulation”). These statistics are hard to take in, but they are very real and this is why I think something needs to change.