Some Sobering Statistics YOU Need to Know...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I thought about posting this on the Rescued Doodles group, but it is something every member of DK needs to be aware of.
While browsing some of my favorite rescue websites this morning, I came across the following statistic:
Every day in the U.S., 10,000 babies are born
Every day in the U.S., 70,000 puppies & kittens are born.

If you do the math, this comes to more than 25-and-a-half BILLION cats and dogs per year in the United States alone.
Even accounting for the estimated 10's of millions of free-roaming and feral animals, this is an unacceptable number. Even worse, these numbers are from 2002...I doubt that it has improved much since then.
8-10 million kittens, cats, puppies, and dogs enter U.S. shelters each year. My Jack was one of the 54% who made it out alive. That leaves about 4.6 million who didn't.
Please, if you have not already done so, have your pets spayed or neutered. Make the appointment today.
(If you are not already a breeder, and are thinking how much fun it would be to have a litter or two of puppies running around your house, please think again. Breeding dogs is not something to be taken lightly, and it is NOT a good way to get rich...ask any of the breeder-members here.)
Please...make that appointment today.
Jack and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

[Jacquie Yorke (DRC)]

What a fantastic post Karen!!...I'm still reading through all of the responses.....

[Kyoko]

Wow... This statistics is amazing.
Thank you Karen for the informations...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The discussion is from last October, but somehow got revived. I'm glad, because it's still important to know.

[AndySharon BoomerShaynaMariner]

Some discussions should be "revived" every once in awhile. Sometimes for new members and sometimes the information is seasonal.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

It should come up every 3 months or so for new members. I had NO CLUE what I was doing when I bought Samantha from a pet store. A year later I am a approved foster home for the DRC and IDOG, have a foster ready for his forever home and adopted a little girl from a rescue who they got from an Amish PM.

What a difference a year, DK, DRC and the friends I made here can make.

For those who met me personally know I can talk and stand on my soapbox & tell anyone who makes the mistake to stop and tell me how fantastic the 3 doodles are, their stories. The response 'OMG, and I thought the Amish were such religious people' or 'I had no idea about PM'. A little education goes a long way.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

"Religious" is the wrong way to look at it. To a farmer a "livestock" is just that - "livestock" The puppies to them are no different from the hogs, hens, or sheep. Depending on the livestock they are raised for slaughter (hogs, cows, sheep), product (ie. eggs, milk,wool), or sale (pups, other livestock). They dont feel like they are doing anything to detract from their religion.

[Adina P]

I agree that pet dogs should be spayed/neutered with very rare exception.

I would like to hear more about measures to transform kill shelters into non-kills shelters. Maybe I'm just dreaming, but I really like Nathan Winograd's ideas about shelters needing to step up to the plate and CHOOSE to do things differently. I think kill shelters have gotten into a groove and just kinda do 'business as usual' and haven't really looked at better ways to market their dogs, increase adoptions, etc. But I've just kind of bought into Winograd's ideas cuz they sound pretty logical to me. I may be wayyyyy off base and unrealistic.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

The shelters with the highest kill levels are municipal facilities- animal control facilities- which are actually there to serve the "public good" and not really concerned with the welfare of the animals. The employees are just salaried county or city employees who may not even like animals...they could as easily be working in some other governmental facility, but happened to get assigned to AC. In the worst ones, dogs brought in are not vetted in any way, or even physically examined. One rescue pulled a doodle from a Florida shelter who turned out to be a different sex from what we were told, that is how far the shelter went to find out anything about the dog.
I like some of Winograd's ideas, but he is extremely unrealistic about a lot of what he says. A lot of the book seems to be personal vitriole towards certain individuals. Everybody has their agenda, even those who fight on the side of the angels.

[Adina P]

Sounds about right. I wish there was more of a campaign going on to reach those Animal Control shelters and educate them about better, more effective ways to do things.

Because there are many causes or reasons for the high euthanasia rates, right? The indirect causes such as lack of spay/neuter, puppy mills producing tons of dogs, lack of owner education/irresponsibility, etc are numerous and it seems there are lots of campaigns and education attempts for those early stages 'causes.' But not much education attempts at the immediate and direct cause to why are perfectly good dogs being killed? Cuz the shelters are killing them.

Obviously you can't just tell them to 'stop killing so many dogs' without an alternative solution, but I'm not sure WHAT that solution is for municipal facilities other than a grassroots effort of dog/animal lovers to reach cities and present some kind of alternative/plan to them. An alternative that continues to serve this supposed 'public good' but also considers the welfare of the animals.

Just something I've been mulling around in my brain. Not sure of the answer.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Dogfighting is a huge part of the problem, too. It is much more widespread throughout the country than most people realize, and involves millions of dogs. Every time a dogfighting ring is broken up, and the dogs are confiscated, the municipal shelters have to make room for 50-100 dogs or more. Because these dogs have to be kept separated from each other, 50 dogs will require 100 cages. That means the occupants of those 100 cages, which would normally be 200 dogs, including nursing mothers with puppies, have to be euthanized to make room for the fighting dogs, who will end up being euthanized anyway after the authorities are done documenting them.
This recently occurred in New Mexico. (I'm sure it occurs all over every day, but this is the case I happened to read about.) 145 lost, stray and abandoned dogs and puppies, many of them peoples pets who wandered off, were euthanized to make room for 53 pitbulls, the majority of which had to be euthanized anyway. The scope of the dog-fighting problem affects all of us in ways that exceed the usual "isn't that terrible what they did to those poor pits" commiserating. What if your dog got lost 3 days before a fighting ring in your county was discovered? Your dog could be euthanized before you had a chance to locate him. Many municipalities have 3 day hold periods for strays, and some areas are contemplating shortening it to 24 or 48 hours for economic reasons. California is currently trying to pass this type of legislation. Could you locate your dog within 24 hours if he got lost out in the country somewhere?
Everyone needs to understand the ways in which all of us are affected by the "kill" policies and euthanasia rates of municipal shelters.

[LuvMyAbby&Kaela]

Are these the "vic" dogs? Men! Sicko's! I swear a woman would never have thought of such a thing as these animal fights. - of course if the world was made of all women there may never have been any wars...lol. ;o)

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

No, the Vick dogs got really lucky...because of all the publicity, a lot of people came forward to save and rehabilitate them. There is a documentary about it.
But so many people think that was an isolated incident, and it was just business as usual in so many parts of the country. It really bothers me that so many people were unaware that that's just part of life for young men in certain cultures. It is going on all over, right now as I type this, in suburban neighborhoods as well as inner cities. The amounts of money involved are enormous, but it's more than that. The dogs give the owner a feeling of power, and they actually do define "manhood" for a lot of these kids.