‘Loyalty’ works both ways
Published 4:30 pm Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Because Americans love popularity contests, it was recently reported as news that dogs are more beloved than cats.
A poll of pet owners — about 59 percent of American households own pets — showed 74 percent have dogs, and 47 percent have cats, and they expressed strong feelings about which makes a better pet. (Dumb dogs, evil cats, that kind of thing.) (Sixty percent, however, said they like both dogs and cats, but that news will never garner a cute “fighting like cats and dogs” headline.)
Americans love to say they especially value dogs for their “loyalty.” If only dogs could say the same about humans.
“Sterilizing pets isn’t a priority for new owners,” USA Today reported Tuesday.
Despite campaigns encouraging sterilization to reduce pet overpopulation, and expanding options for low-cost spay/neuter surgeries, nearly half of people who have acquired unsterilized pets in the last year haven’t fixed them, the paper reported.
Reasons given for not spaying/neutering: Pet too young, 34 percent; too expensive, 31 percent; haven’t gotten around to it; didn’t feel it was necessary; wanted to breed pet; it’s not natural; concerned about impact on pet’s personality; it would deprive pet of natural life.
Needless to say, if one can’t afford to spay/neuter a pet, one cannot afford a pet.
And if it’s “not necessary” to spay/neuter, it’s certainly not necessary to know how many animals are euthanized every year.
PetSmart Charities commissioned the poll to understand factors contributing to continued overpopulation, which results in an estimated 3 million to 6 million shelter animals being euthanized each year.
People underestimate the scope of the problem.
The poll found that 62 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds and 47 percent of 55-plus respondents estimated shelters euthanize fewer than 1 million animals annually; 28 percent put the number at 100,000 or less.
To bring the insanity full circle: In a study of pet relinquishment in 12 U.S. animal shelters, 55 percent of the surrendered dogs and 47 percent of the surrendered cats were unaltered. Thirty percent of the dogs were purebreds.
Of the approximately 77.5 million owned dogs in the United States, only 19 percent were adopted from an animal shelter.
A look at Petfinder.com (which lists 291,363 adoptable pets from 12,976 adoption groups) shows long-standing popular breeds, plus trendy ones over-populating shelters:
There are 19,381 Labrador retrievers for adoption; 12,710 pit bull terriers; 8,755 Chihuahuas; 7,459 terriers; 7,713 beagles; 6,782 German shepherds; 6,402 boxers; 4,385 dachshunds; and 4,364 border collies.
Dogs deserve “responsibility” and “loyalty” as the No. 1 reflection of our “love” for them, rather than “popularity” and “ignorance.”
