He’s your best friend, your companion for life, the one you can count on to always be loyal. No I am not talking about your friend, I’m talking about your dog. I mean they are man’s best friend right? I’m sure then that many of you pet owners remember that feeling of bringing your pet home on the first day and all the excitement that came with it. It’s great to hear the heart-warming stories of an animal being brought to a new home. However, this is not the case for all animals. Despite how much we love our dogs and cats, there is still a huge pet homelessness problem in America. There are about 70 million stray animals currently living in the United States due to excessive breeding. Of this 70 million, only about 7 million, enter the nation’s 3,500 shelters every year, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Of the 7 million animals entering shelters each year, only half are adopted each year. People often look down upon shelter animals because they believe they’re “old”, “ugly”, or “used”. Shelters are not advertised like pet stores are; they do not have dogs in the window, sales or coupons in the paper, which makes people look over them often as well. This lack of adoption is harmful to shelters that receive little funding, the cost of maintaining the facility as well as providing care to the animals can be rather cost-heavy.
It is for these reasons that I have chosen to fund raise for the Broome County Humane Society. The Humane Society is an independent, non-profit animal welfare organization. They receive no government funding. The Broome County Humane Society’s goal is to be the premier animal resource center in the Southern Tier, dedicated to creating a humane community by improving and providing enrichment, education, and programming to keep animals and families together. To achieve this, the organization serves the community by sheltering animals, finding them homes, investigating reports of animal cruelty, educating people of all ages, and rescuing animals from threatening situations. In addition, they provide services such as, spay and neutering, boarding, grooming, euthanasia and cremation (for non-adoptable, already owned pets), and emergency services. Through December 2018, the Broome County Humane Society has rescued 863 cats and 638 dogs in the Southern Tier. The Broome County Humane Society holds a special place in my heart, as my own four-legged friend was one of the 638 dogs rescued from their facility. My dog came from an elderly woman who was an animal hoarder and had way too many dogs on her hands. The conditions my dog endured before being brought to my home breaks my heart. She was packed in a small house with close to 30 others. I cannot imagine my childhood without my dog and I owe the great memories I have had to the Broome County Humane Society.
I ask you all to think of your own pets and what they mean to you. Your contributions can provide more than just food for an animal, or a blanket for them to sleep on. Your contribution can help provide them a more positive future and a fresh start at their forever home. I ask you all to please consider donating a dollar to the organization that has given so much to me.
I was really able to sympathize with this blog post. I too have a dog, and have had him for a large portion of my life, and can't imagine life without my four-legged friend beside me.
ReplyDeleteBack at home, my godmother is very involved in this type of work. She volunteers much of her free time towards working to find cats and dogs homes and keep them off of the streets. I have been lucky to have seen the effects of this directly, including helping out sometimes. Probably my favorite was back when I was becoming Bar Mitzvah'd and I decided to put my Mitzvah Project (for those who don't know, it's a community service thing you can do alongside being Bar Mitzvah'd) towards dogs and cats by collecting toys, animals, food, and more. Obviously, when I delivered the toys and such to the dogs, they didn't actually say "thank you" but I could tell how excited they were for all the things I brought.
It also amazes me how only of the 70 million strays in the USA (which is already a very large number), only 10% get into shelters. Not to mention, who knows if those shelters treat them well. It's uplifting seeing that your Humane Society treats the animals with such love and care, as well as medical attention if necessary. I can't say for sure if others go as far as this one, but I feel like that is probably unlikely.
I also feel like part of me understanding and supporting your blog post and what it conveys has to do with the fact that I have a pet back home. I feel like pets, however, are one of those things that regardless of if you have one, you always want the best for them. After all, it seems like everyone loves looking up dog pictures and petting "doggo's" every time someone sees one.
This blog post really brings to light an issue that I did not realize our country has. It also was upsetting to read because I have a dog that I have grown up with and the thought of him being mistreated or alone is horrible. When I was in high school I volunteered a lot of my time towards a program near my home. This program was Last Chance Animal Rescue and once or twice a week I would go set up pens with animals in local pet supply stores. I saw many animals get adopted and that always made me happy. I know that I made a difference to those animals, but after reading your post, it is clear to me that there is still much to be done to help the animal adoption systems in the United States.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that around 70 million strays are in the country is shocking to me. The number is incredible, and it upsets me to know that so many animals are without a home. I was also surprised to read that there are only about 3,500 animal shelters in the United States. That number is far too low to even come close to rescuing the strays. I was glad to read about all of the good that the Broome County Humane Society has done for you and its community, and I plan on helping the establishment in the near future because of the information this post has provided me.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete“Man’s best friend” is where the problem starts. The increasing popularity of dogs leads to an alarming increase in homeless animals. Despite the demand for pets, there are still many homeless animals. In fact, there are so many homeless animals that even after people buy and adopt, the immense amount of dogs bred still exceeds the number of animals being adopted and bought. I wholeheartedly agree that this is a problem that could be improved significantly if animal shelters had the funding that they needed.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how little-advertised shelters are, and I have to agree. I am ashamed to say that my family bought our dog from a pet store instead of adopting him. Although I loved him to death, I realize that there was probably a dog in a shelter that needed our family more. As you said, we did not realize the problem with buying a pet from a pet store, and this could have been fixed by funding these shelters. They could have used the money to market themselves as a better alternative.
I am happy to say that my family ended up learning about shelters. After my dog passed away, we decided to foster a dog from a non-profit organization. Through this non-profit, I was able to learn about the discrimination people had against animals that were “old, ugly, or used.” In my case, she was both a senior and abused. Her old owner had kept her tied up in the backyard with only a blanket to sleep on.
Upon reading your pitch, I decided to visit the website for the Broome County Humane Society. Though you wrote about most of the things they do to help these animals, I was also interested in the fostering aspect. I find fostering particularly important because shelters often have very limited space, so by allowing people to foster, it helps reduce overcrowding. Fostering also helps the animals get used to being in a home environment. Their foster parents can spread the word about them and educate others on why adopting is better than buying. Fostering is not only beneficial for the animal but also for people looking to adopt who aren’t sure if they are prepared. We can’t save all the animals, but we can take the first step by donating to the Broome County Humane Society.