Paw pets put down in crisis

[chickchickchicken]

there is an article in my local paper today saying that the local animal shelter is going to shut their waiting list and cannot accept any more dogs.

the manager says "every day i have got a waiting list of 40 dogs. It is frightening. If there is no room at shelters there is only one option, to put them down. It is a hard situation. We really need to neuter more animals and I think we should stop breeding for about 10 years because there is no-one to take them."

a co-ordinator at a separate local cats rescue states "We are bogged down, we just cannot move at the moment. I have been doing this for 13 years and this is the worst I have ever known it"

this just makes me so sad. if we as a society love animals why is anyone buying dogs when there are dogs being pts every single day through lack of a home.

meant to add "Paw pets put down in crisis" is the title of the article in paper. will try and find a link

It's heartbreaking isn't it! Wish I had the room and money to take more dogs on :(

I've never seen so many unneutered male dogs as I've seen in the UK, tbh. Some people still seem so stuck in the dark ages with regards to myths surrounding spaying and neutering, such as that it stunts the growth of kittens or pups if it's done early, that it's healthy for a cat to have a litter before spaying, that it's emasculating, etc.

And the ones who pay the price for all this ignorance are the unwanted animals .

Very well said.

This is the situation we are faced with daily when trying to find rescue spaces for pound dogs before their 7 days are up and they face the vet's needle. So many rescues - the one I help at included - just haven't any room at all.

And yet still bloody stupid owners who no longer want their pets think they can just swan up to the gates of a rescue and have us take the animal off their hands there and then.

As the saying goes, "Why breed and buy while pound dogs die?"

I couldn't do your job DBF.

Was at the rescue with Archie the other day, and was getting so depressed when there was a bloke there giving his (bought from a breeder a week before) puppy up to be rehomed. Why the hell buy it if he can't look after it?! And why give it to a rescue when they are already overcrowded and need their space for dogs who are being mistreated.

Neutering and spaying needs to be much more accessible, cheaper and there needs to be a move towards making it nigh on compulsory, IMO.

lachesis - interesting point about neutering. do you think the UK is worse on this issue then than other countries? please expand if you could. i would like to know more

DBF - Why breed and buy while pound dogs die so true

empusa - wish i could help rehome more dogs too

lachesis - cross posts

there are schemes in the UK whereby those on low incomes can have dogs neutered for £20. not compulsory though.

In parts of the US and Canada, vet surgeries are attached to shops like Pets at Home. They offer weekend and evening service. Vet schools go out into communities in mobile surgeries, offering free neutering and spaying (carried out by students who are supervised by their instructors). Animals cannot be taken home from shelters without having first been neutered or spayed. It is compulsory to neuter/spay unless you are a registered breeder and easier to enforce as dogs can only be off-lead in public in designated off-lead parks (You can also be fined for cats wondering off your property. The charge is 'cat at large', and yes, I do know someone who was charged and fined with this after her irresponsible petsitter let her Persian cat out and it wound up in the pound).

Things like that.

You see it a lot of shows like, 'It's Me or the Dog', these owners who don't want to neuter the dog because it's 'emasculating' it, when in reality it goes a long way towards extending the animal's life and preventing the deaths of unwanted puppies.

I don't think it is about speying and neutering, it is about irresponsible twats who breed and irresponsible twats who buy from them.

It is about attitude and responsibility, it is about truly caring for your animal.

In a lot of western Europe spey/neuter are actually much less common practices than they are here, yet they have a far smaller problem of unwanted animals than we do here and in the US where the highest rates of spey/neuter actually occur.

In Sweden it is actually illegal and considered an act of animal cruelty.

There is now huge and overwhelming evidence that speying and neutering is often detrimental to a dogs heath. Yes, not all dogs will be unlucky but neither will smokers, it's still a big gamble.

Though really that is by the by, my main point being, it's not the intactness of dogs genitallia that is causing the problem, it is the astonishing ignorance, lack of care and general bastardness of some (far too many) people.

And I don't know what the answer to that is.

"it is about irresponsible twats who breed and irresponsible twats who buy from them"

true as well