Don't Litter! Spay and Neuter!

I'm starting to really lose my patience with people and their ability to care for animals. First, let me say that I consider myself an animal rights activist in a "normal" way. Years ago I would have told you that I was not an activist because I thought an animal rights activist was some psycho who joined PETA and spent their life protesting stupid things. My aunt is one of those people. I remember hearing about how she drove for 7 hours, to go protest a pigeon shoot that was being done because the pigeons were bringing disease and filth into New York City years ago (the shoot was going to be in Central Park). At the time, I thought my aunt was nuts. I still think she's nuts. She goes above and beyond what I consider to be normal animal rights activism. So let me clarify by saying that I am not a vegetarian and never will be one. I love meat, but I am one of those people that vegetarians hate because I choose to ignore the fact that I'm eating an animal. I don't want to think of the poor cow that had to die just so I could eat a good steak. So I simply don't think about it. Psychotic animal rights people hate people like me.

So what do I consider NORMAL animal rights activism? To put it simply, its common sense. Its treating your pets the way they deserve to be treated. Its treating animals like they are living things, not objects. I will never tell someone to put an animal above a human (yet another thing that the "crazy" people hate about people like me).

However, in general, I am getting really sick of people and their excuses for treating animals the way they do. Right now I have a house full of 9 cats. Every single one of them is a rescue.

Lots of people who fall into the crazy animal rights category believe that no one should ever give up a pet that they have taken into their home. I agree to a point. I do believe that some people have very valid reasons for re-homing an animal. However, I think that these people with valid reasons are overshadowed by the people with utterly ridiculous reasons. In the past year, these are excuses that I have seen on Craigslist and Freecycle, both here and back in Jacksonville, for getting rid of an animal or asking for a new animal.

"I'm moving to California and I have to get rid of my cat. We are moving into base housing and I don't know if they allow animals so we have to get rid of him." (seriously? You don't even know if they allow animals, but you have to get rid of the cat? First of all, don't even get me started on the phrase "get rid of" and second, why are you getting rid of the cat if you may still be able to keep it? And moving shouldn't be an issue. I moved with 6 cats and a rabbit from Florida to Washington and everyone was just fine.)

"We got new carpet in our house and my orange cat clashes with it. We have to get rid of him. However, I'm now looking for an all black cat because he will fit in better with the decor of my house." (I wish I was joking about this one but sadly, I'm not.)

"I'm looking for a FREE cat. Must have all shots and be spayed or neutered. I can't afford to take a cat to the vet so it MUST be free. We just moved here and I had to get rid of my son's cat before the move. He's devastated so I need to find him a new cat. Please help." (Why should anyone help? Why should anyone give you a new cat when you'll just get rid of it when you move again? And by the way, no animals are free. If you get a free cat now, what happens when you have to take it to the vet later?)

"I have to get rid of my dog TODAY. If no one wants him then I will have to take him to the pound and I really don't want to do that because he's such a great pet. I really hope that someone will help me." (This is a common one that I see often. The person uses guilt trips to pawn their animal off on someone. I hate to break it to you, but it is not MY fault if you have to take your dog to the pound. I'm not happy that you have to do it either, but take the blame yourself. Its no one's fault but your own that you took in an animal that you weren't prepared to care for.)

"We're a military family and we are moving. We need to find new homes for our 2 dogs and 3 cats."(This one makes me really angry too. This is also a common posting, especially in Jacksonville. It always appears that the poster is trying to get sympathy about being a military family. Unfortunately, what that person doesn't know is that ads like these are what prevent responsible military families from adopting animals from shelters. Many shelters around the whole country and also in Europe will not allow a military family to adopt any animal, no matter how much you prove to them that you will care for it. (I frequent a military wives forum and there is currently a girl on there who lives in England right now with other rescued animals. She recently begged and pleaded to adopt a shelter animal and was denied because her husband was in the military.)The reasoning behind this is that too many military families abandon animals when they move. So thanks, irresponsible military families. You've ruined it for the rest of us.)

Moving beyond excuses to get rid of animals, comes my second biggest issue with people. And that is losing pets. I will be the first one to tell you that one of my cats ran away last year. He was gone for 3 months and I never thought I would see him again. But, it was an accident. I opened the door and he ran out and into the night, into a swamp and I lost sight of him. I completely understand that accidents happen. I know dogs will dig under fences, cats will push window screens out, etc...However, I have no sympathy for you, when your own stupidity is what causes you to lose your pet.

For example, there is a person on Craigslist right now who is missing 3 kittens. She wrote a very heart felt ad and seems genuinely upset that her kittens are missing. HOWEVER, she goes on to explain how they got lost. Kitten #1 was let outside a month ago and never came home. 2 weeks ago, kitten #2 was let outside and never came home. Now this week kitten #3 was let out and didn't come home. She goes on to plead with people to return her cats. You know what though? I don't have sympathy for her. I'm not going to get into a huge debate about indoor vs outdoor animals. I prefer to keep mine indoors. I also understand that some people have large amounts of land where their animals live carefree outdoors. However, does it really take more than common sense to realize that this woman is missing 3 cats because she LETS THEM OUTSIDE??? Wouldn't you think that after the first one disappeared, she'd be more careful with the other 2? And lets give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe it didn't sink in the first time, but after the second one went missing, wouldn't you think to keep an eye on the 3rd one? I really do hope those kittens are ok, but I hope that someone else found them and took them inside to give them a good home.

My third issue is spaying and neutering. The reason I started on this rant today is because I read an interesting article about a bill that is trying to get passed here in Washington. Many states have low cost or free spay and neuter programs for low income families. Jacksonville had several of these programs and they were very successful. Here's a link to what Washington is trying to accomplish and I urge you to support this cause whether you love animals or not. In my mind, it benefits the people that love animals AND the people that hate them. If you hate animals, and more people start spaying and neutering their pets, then you will have less strays wandering around :-). Therefore, everyone can win in the end! Save Washington Pets

Rhode Island recently became a state that makes spaying and neutering pets a law. I don't completely agree with that though. I do agree with spaying and neutering for various other reasons though. One reason obviously being that they can't reproduce more homeless animals. The 2nd being because it has shown to negate the chances of certain health problems (i.e. ovarian cancer). I think people should have a choice as to what they want to do with their pet. If you want to have an intact male dog or cat. Fine. But do the rest of the world a favor and keep him away from other dogs and cats!! Another recent Craigslist posting is from a woman in this area who lost her male cat. He was an outdoor cat and not fixed. She may not even think about it, but I find myself wondering how many stray female cats that male impregnated already. Its the same with females. Another common Freecyle and Craigslist posting goes something like this:

"Oops...lol...my cat accidently got pregnant for a 3rd time. Now I have kittens and if I can't get rid of them by the end of the week then I will be forced to take them to the pound." (And here we go with the common sense thing again. How does your cat ACCIDENTLY get pregnant 3 times? I'm willing to let one time slip. But 3?? Take your cat inside idiot. OR if you insist on having an outdoor cat, get her spayed! This is really not that complicated, and I, along with many others, don't find it funny the way you do.)

Look at it this way. For every cat or dog that gets adopted outside of a shelter, a shelter animal will die. There are horrendous numbers of animals put to sleep every single year because shelters don't have the room for them. I'm not going to debate real breeders, because I actually don't mind responsible breeders. But people who accidently let their animals reproduce are doing nothing but making the overall problem worse. Think about this. If you want to adopt a stray cat and you see someone outside of Walmart giving away free ones, then you might take one home. However, if that person with their accidental litter wasn't there, you probably would have gone to a shelter and rescued a cat from there. Now I'm not saying that the non shelter animals should be ignored. None of my cats came from a shelter. Mine were all found wandering around stray or trapped as ferals. I'm a person who would take home a kitten that was being giving away outside of Walmart, but thats not the point. The point is, there shouldn't be someone giving those kittens away in the first place if you were just a responsible pet owner!! So please everyone - Don't Litter...Spay and Neuter :-).

I don't mean to offend anyone who may disagree with this post. Its just amazing to me that now that I have started my own form of rescue (no abandoned animal goes unwelcomed in this house) that I can see the irresponsibility of others out there. Its no wonder why shelter workers are always stressed and unhappy. When all you see is stupidity around you all day long, how can it NOT bring you down?