Shelter Euthanasia
Be Part of the Solution
If you love animals
and want to end the euthanasia of animals in shelters,
you can be a powerful part of the solution.
Together, we can end euthanasia by doing the following four things:
1. Acquire our companion animals through rescue and adoption:
Save a life!
Boycott pet shops and breeders until there are enough homes for every homeless animal. We will help reduce overpopulation rather than contribute to it.
Any breed, any species we are looking for can be found through rescue!
Check local shelters and rescue groups and http://www.petfinder.com
2. Choose animals well matched to our lifestyle so we are likely to. . .
enjoy a long harmonious life together!
When we choose wisely, we increase the chances of a lifetime of compatibility and love.
Prevent stress and potential heartbreak!
Tips on Finding the Right Pet
3. Spay and neuter all our animal companions:
Save many lives!
Facts and information on spaying and neutering and low cost resources
Prevent heartbreak and euthanasia!
All animals, and certainly those who bring us so much love as companions and family members,
deserve to be treated by us as we would want to be treated ourselves.
Finding Housing that Accepts Pets
Relief from Allergies to Animals
Herbal Remedy for Relief from Allergies to Animals
Connect with your Animal Directly to Uncover Root Causes & Resolve Problems
How to Select the Right Forever Pet for You
Many resources are available to help us keep our animals in times of stress, crisis and change, or to make plans for a new, loving, appropriate home for them. Animals are not disposable toys, status symbols or utilitarian objects to be traded in for the next model, to be set aside as no longer important when a new boyfriend, spouse, partner, baby, or the next new animal arrives. They are more than pieces of furniture to be left behind or casually given away when it's inconvenient to find a new home where they are allowed. Animals are living, breathing, feeling souls who share the earth with us. In my conversation with animals, it is heartbreakingly clear that they experience the same grief, confusion, sorrow, and trauma that humans do when they are abandoned, given away, sold, or traded in for a newer, younger, perhaps more perfectly conformed or higher performing model.
For every single animal euthanized in a shelter, there is a person OUTSIDE of that shelter responsible for it. The responsibility to keep shelters from euthanizing animals lies with each of us as pet owners. If we adopt through rescue, choose a good match, spay and neuter, and keep our animals for their lifetimes, the shelters will be near empty, not overfull, and euthanasia can become a tragedy of the past.
Remember, rescue and shelter workers and administrators cannot make this happen on their own, BUT WE CAN, SIMPLY BY MAKING THE FOUR CHOICES OUTLINED ABOVE. Together, we can end the euthanasia of healthy animals.
Memorial for Euthanized Shelter Animals
Every year, approximately 4 million companion animals
are euthanized in US animal shelters.
They die because they lived in a community in which there are more people that drop off animals at shelters than those who adopt animals at shelters, creating an overwhelming surplus of homeless animals. They were not euthanized because shelter staff did not care for them and love them, they were euthanized because the community members outside the walls of the shelter continue to overbreed animals, either intentionally, by accident or neglect, despite the surplus of homeless cats and dogs desperately in need of adoption.
Many of the animals died because the humans who owned them did not make or carry out a commitment to keep them for their lifetimes, but rather made a choice to let a shelter take responsibility for their animal.
These animals died in the arms of strangers, not in the arms of family loved ones. They deserve to be honored. They deserve our love. And they deserve the attention and energy of every animal lover to stop this tragedy.
Visit and stay awhile in the serenity of this star filled memorial... let yourself transcend the sadness and begin to feel the peace that love can bring. Let your heart fill with love. Allow love and peace to flow through you. Let yourself feel the love become so strong that you know that strength can solve this problem. As you gaze at the stars and let the music wash through you, you may also want to:
- ... pay your respects to all the animals who have died in shelters
- ... say a prayer for them
- ... send them your love
- ... send your love to the shelter workers who care for the homeless animals of your community
- ... say a prayer that all members of your community with animals take the simple steps to prevent further euthanasia by acquiring all their companion animals through rescue or adoption (saving a life), by spaying and neutering all their animals (saving many lives) and by keeping the animals they have for their natural lifetime.
- ... make a commitment to take these steps yourself.
Visualize all companion animals living in safe, loving homes.
May all beings be free from suffering
May all beings be at peace
~ Sufi blessing
Click the player above to listen to "For St. Francis"
from the CD Light from Assisi by Artist Richard Shulman.
Resources & Links
Reading these books can help us better understand the overpopulation problem and how we as individuals can so easily, and powerfully, do our part to help.
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Circles of Compassion: A Collection of Humane Words and Work |
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Lost and Found: Dogs, Cats, and Everyday Heroes at a Country Animal Shelter |
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One at a Time: A Week in an American Animal Shelter |
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Bridging the Bond: The Cultural Construction of the Shelter Pet |
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Compassion Fatigue—The Cost of Caring |
