Cookie, availble now at Cat Matchers, photo: Beth Bodden
Estimates are at least 80,000 and maybe as many as 100,000 animals are euthanized in North Texas shelters each year. The sad fact is that there simply are not enough homes for them all, so no matter how much we try we can't rescue them all. We must focus more on educating the public about the need to spay and neuter pets and we must continue to provide resources for those who want to spay/neuter their pets but can't afford it. That's how we'll reduce the huge numbers of unwanted dogs and cats arriving at shelters and rescue groups each day.
Alliance for Humane Action makes it easy to educate the public and promote spay/neuter with this fun and informative video. "Help, I Need Somebody" was produced for Alliance for Humane Action by Mathew Jenkins and Marian McNair. AHA provides spay and neuter surgery plus selected vaccines to animal guardians in Illinois at affordable rates. They also teach other groups how to craft messages for their own organizations that "stick with" people.
What can you do to help? Please share this article and the video, spay and neuter your pets, and encourage others to do the same.
For more information: Low cost spay/neuter resources in the Metroplex
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Comments
Simply chanting "spay/neuter" isn't doing the trick. It never has. Yet Dallas Animal Services doesn't seem interested, or even concerned with, the disturbingly high number of animals they kill - a number which hasn't changed much in decades.
We will only see a reduction in euthanasia when Dallas Animal Control recognizes the fact that our current shelter kill rates are unacceptably high, and begin to study shelters that have successfully lowered their own euthanasia rate.
Of course it's all DAS's fault. They refuse to offer spayed/neutered animals to the public. They also never turn away any animal for any reason. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the 2 million people in the City of Dallas, or the estimated 4 million animals...it's all the shelter's fault! Texas' "right to breed" policies are not to blame either. I'm certain Dallas Animal Services just loves to kill animals too. They live for it! They should be more like the SPCA...picking and choosing which animals to take in. That way, they can keep the moronic public's special interests alive and well. Better yet, how about waking up to reality...Dallas and Texas in general is still far behind the rest of the nation in terms of stray and unaltered animal policies. Start with Oak Cliff, work your way to Pleasant Grove, and when you're done there, talk to North Dallas about their insane phobia of wildlife. Maybe you'll have time to sleep?
The kill rates will go down if people have their pets SPAYED or NEUTERED. No one like to euthanize animals.
As for DAS never turning any animal away- they are a municipal shelter, they have to accept every animal that is brought to them. They dont have the option to pick and chose that privately funded shelters do.
Want to change the euthanasia rates? Donate your time or money. Help with adoptions, trap neuter and release, do what you can to help rather than sitting back and complaining about it.
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