Animal Chatter

I don’t normally watch Oprah, shes on the same time here as Ellen, so I miss a lot of her shows. Yesterday, I caught a great show with Lisa Ling going undercover exposing puppy mills and the pet stores that sell them. While we have all seen pictures of puppy mills, the one thing most of us haven’t seen, is the actualy euthanizing of dogs.  The Fort Worth Animal Shelter takes you on a behind the scenes look at how they select which dogs will live or die that day, usually, as many as 40 are killed everyday. Its extremely disturbing. Though I have witnessed and had to participate in may animal euthanasias in my line of work, none were perfectly healthy animals wanting nothing more then a loving home. What can we do to help. First off, spay and neuter your own pets. Get the word out there. With so many unwanted pets and not enough homes for them, if you do not spay or neuter your pet, you are just adding to the pet population. Also, don’t buy from pet stores. Some of them are legit, but, unless you can trace where that puppy came from, don’t buy it. There are good breeders, and those breeders will insist on returning any dog that is not wanted back to them, and they usually insist on that pet being altered. Also, visit Oprahs site. She has some really good resources listed to help fight puppy mills. Seeing those dog is heartbreaking. The breeder dogs are just an object to those horrible back yard breeders. Some can’t even walk because they have never been out of their pint sized chicken coops, other then to give birth, over and over and over. Adopt a pet. Even if you are looking for a purebred, the rescues are full of them,  there are even breed specific rescues where you can find pets of all ages.  I personally get so angry that our government lets these puppy mills exist with the lack of laws and proper inspections. Speak up, contact your local legislators and insist that your state laws prohibit this kind of thing to exist. Animals give so much to us, we need to give a little back.