Adopt, Don't Shop!
So you want to bring a dog into your family? Maybe you have an idea in mind already for the perfect dog for you, and maybe you've seen a few ads on Kijiji or Craigslist you're thinking about responding to. After all, $600 for a purebred Goldendoodle isn't too bad, is it?
Think beyond the money for a few minutes and beyond just this one dog. Where does it come from? What impact does it's very life have on the rest of the dog population? Who is profiting off the sale of these dogs? By spending the money, what kind of practices are you supporting?
First, I want you to do me, and yourself, a favor ... something that will help open your eyes. Find a day where you have an hour or so to spare and wander down to your local pound or Animal Services. Ask if you can see the dogs. You'll find yourself in a large room with a concrete floor and cages lining the walls. The size of the room depends on the size of the city you live in; larger cities are able to 'house' more animals. Walk through the room and you'll be greeted by sad eyes staring at you from between the bars. Some of the dogs will immediately start wagging their tails happily, daring to hope that a human might notice them and offer them just a little attention and companionship. A few of the dogs will not get up off the floor, content to spend their days huddled in a ball, shutting out the world. Some of the dogs will bark, acting aggressively out of fear to anyone who approaches them, after being housed in a 2x2 cage for an unknown amount of time. Look at how skinny some of them are, how underfed. Look at the scars on that one and wonder how he came to end up behind these bars. Watch the one with his tail wagging and wonder how much abuse and abandonment it will take for him to finally lose his trust with people.
Then, after seeing all this, remind yourself of this fact. Every year, millions of cats and dogs are destroyed through euthanasia through Animal Service agencies. The odds are that every animal you just met, every dog you just saw backing away from the bars, running to the bars to greet you, staring at you with sad, hopeless eyes, will be dead within a month. And if you click this link, you'll see their final destination.
Are you disturbed? Do you feel that anxiousness in the pit of your stomach, that vague uneasy feeling that you can't seem to shake? Good, you should. It is disturbing, to anyone with an ounce of compassion and empathy.
We spent hundreds upon hundreds of years breeding and overbreeding these dogs. Because of our insatiable need to have the "perfect dogs", we now have millions upon millions of animals living out the rest of their short lives in cages, waiting for the day the needle goes into their veins to finally end it all. And even in the midst of this, people breed their dogs, sentencing more and more shelter dogs to death. For every 6 puppies born, that's 6 more shelter dogs sentenced to die. For every litter of pups born because some ignorant parent thought children should witness the miracle of birth, a few more dogs are dragged from their cages into a back room, never to come out again. For every person too lazy or cheap to have their dogs spayed or neutered, resulting in accidental pregnancies, more shelter dogs will never see a permenant, loving home.
And then, to top it off, you have pet stores selling live puppies like stocked merchandise, available to anyone with the money to purchase them, no adoption agreement, no checking of references, no assurances of a healthy life, just a product for sale.
Meanwhile, shelter dogs await their turn to visit that back room.
The most upsetting thing about this for me is that there's an easy solution. All it takes is public awareness, loss of ignorance and the willingless to adopt the perfect dog from a shelter or a rescue instead of buying from pet stores, puppy mills, backyard breeders and online ad listings. But, there are so many myths running rampant about shelter dogs, most can't see their way past the media fed stereotypes to find out the truth for themselves, and will end up overpaying for a dog that just took the place of a deserving shelter dog.
So let's try to quash a few of those myths, shall we?
Shelter dogs have too many issues!Yes, some do. And so do dogs that come from breeders, pet stores and ad listings. And if you love your dog, it's not difficult to pursue professional training if the problems are more than you can personally deal with. I have one rescue dog that suffers severe separation anxiety thanks to his history of abandonment. I adopted him from the pound, by the way. With a little time and attention, he learned to trust again and is, by far, the most amazing dog I've ever owned. |
Doesn't it cost too much to?$600 and upwards to buy a dog from a reputable breeder. $150 to buy from our local Animal Services. You do the math. |
I've heard that shelter dogs are often violent!Violent dogs aren't rehomed to ordinary citizens, and are usually given their death sentence immediately, even when simple rehabilitation would have remedied the problem. |
I want a purebred, not a shelter mutt.There are many purebreds rotting away in shelters, and there are breed specific rescues all across the country. And for the record, mutts are generally healthier than purebreds. |
These are the most common excuses I hear, and most often are based on ignorance of the truth, not outright excuses to avoid adopting from a shelter or rescue. I honestly believe that were more people aware, adoption rates of shelter dogs would skyrocket.
Dogs sitting in rescues and shelters are just as deserving of loving homes and owners as those $600 dogs from a breeder, perhaps more so, because they've gone through more to earn that position. They're the last chance dogs, the ones people have previously given up on, and they deserve to know that their life doesn't have to be about abuse, abandonment and neglect. They deserve to be loved. Please, consider all of this the next time you decide to bring a dog into your family. Consider your local pound, and the dogs with a death sentence. Consider your local rescues, run by hardworking, loving people who just want the dogs in their care to have a second chance. Consider saving a dog and proving to them humans are still worthy of their loyalty and companionship. You'll see the gratitude in their eyes if you do, and they'll work even harder, every day, to pay you back with love for your decision to adopt instead of shop.