Shelters Are Overcrowded

My whole life I’ve been a huge advocate for rescuing dogs as opposed to buying them from a breeder; the rugged I-have-a-story-to-tell look always appealed more to me then a pristine history-free face. As a dog and overall animal-lover, I felt that the world, or at least our school should be made aware of a growing issue within the animal community; overcrowding in shelters as a result of overbreeding.

As the years have progressed and the issue has remained unsolved and growing increasingly worse, the government has made little effort to correct the dilemma. Our nation has the power to fix this. Our nation has the resources to stop this before it becomes irreversible, before millions more of innocent creatures are euthanized as a result of a human’s wrongdoing. I am not here to criticize all breeders or to lay the blame at their feet: I am here to propose the only solution that will aid in the recovery of overcrowding. The government needs to create harsher laws regarding breeders and illegal distribution of puppies to puppy mills across the country and temporarily shut down breeders until the overpopulation of homeless animals lessens.

Breeders and puppy mills in the United States are not regulated by federal agencies which gives them the freedom to dish out as many dogs as they want. Female dogs require a minimum of a year for recovery until they are bred again but in today’s competitive market, dogs get as little as six weeks. Some puppy mills contain over 1000 breeding dogs. Many of the breeders in the country are not registered and sell their available dogs to pet stores and puppy mills across the nation. The government needs to create laws restricting the transport of dogs across state lines for sale purposes to avoid the probability that those dogs will be sold to people who are unable to care for them.

In one year, 7.6 million animals are placed in animal shelters nationwide with 2.7 million of them euthanized to make room for incoming animals. Most animals that enter shelters are strays and others enter because their owners could no longer care for them financially. With the struggles that are facing the economy in the United States, is it really smart for people to be breeding more dogs only to worsen the situation further? It is not canny to allow breeding to continue as it will only increase these ever growing statistics.

Breeders are only contributing to overcrowding and overpopulation of animals when they fail to do proper home/care checks on potential adopters. Most strays are domestic pets that were relinquished as a result of their owner’s improper care and irresponsibility. Although some responsible breeders make their buyers sign contracts that state the dog must be returned to the breeder if there is ever an issue, that is only a small portion of the ones who sell their dogs just to make a profit.

Breeders need to be shut down in order to allow the nation to catch up to the problem of overcrowding in shelters. People need to come to the realization that rescuing dogs from shelters is a better option than to buy. Dogs purchased from puppy mills are more likely to experience behavioral and health problems as well as a lack of socialization. The government needs to take a bigger stance in controlling the problem and creating harsher laws to punish people who neglect the laws put in place to protect innocent creatures. The nation’s leaders need to stop seeing animals as “property” and considering them disposable. Seeing that only 10 percent of the country’s pets are spayed or neutered, government officials should create laws that set a maximum allowance of dogs and cats that are not spayed and neutered. This issue is only worsening as the days pass and by allowing dogs to reproduce constantly, the shelters are growing in size and euthanizing innocent creatures at a rapid rate. There are other issues in the nation that some people may claim require more attention than the over breeding but this is one issue that can be helped now if only the right people would listen.