[links.pets]

[wispfox]

Via cadhla, whose wording I'm stealing:

If you think that the death of even one animal in a shelter is wrong, that it's always inhumanely done, that the people who work there are heartless...this won't change your mind, because your mind is made up. But the fact of the matter is, there is only so much space and so much money, and if you wonder why spaying and neutering is important, when kittens and puppies are so darn cute, you need to read this.

Sometimes, there are no happy endings.

Spay and neuter your pets.

(the_xtina, do not read this. You already know why, and this article _hurt_)

Comments

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

if you wonder why spaying and neutering is important, when kittens and puppies are so darn cute, you need to read this.

is there anyone of our social circle who doesn't understand why spaying is important?

i'm just curious.

n.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Doubt it, but I know there are lots more people reading me than necessarily fall into our social circle.

Not that that means anything as far as the likelyhood of anyone reading me _not_ knowing, mind.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

This sort of signal amplification is useful. For example, there are people in *my* social circle who poo-poo the necessity of sterilization, and it's good to have this sort of thing to show them.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

This, too!

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I've known more than one person who doesn't think it's a big deal, some with a lot of hostility. We moved away from a set of roommates we'd mostly been getting along with because one had a cat he refused to neuter, saying it was tantamount to sexual mutilation. The cat yowled and sprayed and it was misery. I've also known folks who think that kittens are just SO CUTE that it's bad to neuter feral cats, like somehow cats will vanish as a species if we do.

And as I lie here with my utterly beloved family snoring next to me as one recovers from knee surgery, I'm not looking at the link.

[shadesong.livejournal.com]

Shit. *crying*

Not that it was anything I didn't know. But it always gutpunches me.

Or you get the people who pull up in a moving van to drop off their family pet, saying that they can't take the dog with them and that they were unable to find the animal a home. They drive away, conscious clear, leaving the dirty work for you. Like you're some kind of sin-eater.

*points up* Change "dog" to "cat", and that was Max. My poor boy. They declawed him and defanged him, and dumped him at the shelter when they moved. We were so lucky, both me and him - I went to the shelter that very afternoon and snapped him up.

Max is a wonderful cat. He is sweet and friendly. The only time I ever had any trouble with him was when I was packing to move from Florida to Georgia.

He saw the moving process beginning, and he thought we were ditching him, too.

The move between houses in Atlanta went fine - because, after the move from Florida, he'd realized that I would never dump him.

Both of my boys are shelter cats. Both are neutered.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

I am infinitely grateful to the people who, when they couldn't keep DJ, paid money to have a rescue group do an assisted adoption (they showed her at their pet faires, etc. but she stayed in her home) to find another place for her to live. They paid $75 and went along with her to the pet faires until she found a new home, which is our home.

She is the best dog ever.

[vampry.livejournal.com]

The mother pit bull story....that's what got me.

My friend found a pit bull that has recently given birth. She's emaciated but full of milk - she's lactating - and we have no idea where she came from or where her pups are.

It's heart-wrenching. He can't keep her and I can't either so ----

(came here through shadesong

[jasra]

*sad, teary sigh*

*sniff*

[(Anonymous)]

I cam eon over from your roommates blog to find myself crying at my desk over this article. The saddest part is that people who don't get it will never get it - whether they read this article or not. I got it before I read the article. Before my husband and I got married we had a discussion agreeing that we would ONLY EVER adopt dogs from shelters - no breeders - helping even one or two or three (I am hopeful) in my life will be better than not.

I wish there was a way to make everyone read that article before they gave tehir pet up to a shelter. Some instances are unavoidable more than others - the owner that dies suddenly etc. But most of them are avoidable with a little planning.

Thanks for sharing
www.smoochdog.com