I know it sounds very Bob Barkerish of me, but if you have a pet that isn't spayed or neutered please get it done soon. I'm not addressing responsible (and I stress the word responsible) breeders, but people with a family pet.
Today I watched a man dump a litter of puppies at a local shelter. He rounded them into the shelter's side pens and drove away without a second glance. He didn't leave them water or food or even look like he had an ounce of regret as he pulled away. I was screaming at him in my mind as I watched in disbelief, but despite wanting to yell and ask him what he was doing I remained silent. At least he was bringing them to the shelter, even if it was after hours and even if for all he knew they would be left alone all night within easy reach of strangers who might happen to walk by and decide to be cruel to those pups. At least he was giving them a chance instead of taking them out to a river in a burlap bag or slowly letting them starve or shooting them in the head. If I had told him what I wanted to he might have done those very things to the next litter instead of bringing them in. I guarantee he wouldn't have heeded the advice given in even a friendly level-headed conversation about spaying his dog so I stayed out of sight.
And so, I would like to give that advice to you. If you have a female, get her spayed. You might like puppies. You might think you would love to let your dog have some and they would be easy to give away to home. You might be right. But for every home you find for that puppy another shelter dog that already exists goes without a family. For some shelter dogs that means being put to sleep if a free puppy goes to a home where he could have been.
If you have a male you might not have to worry about the puppies that are made if he gets out of the yard one night. But someone else will. And that someone might not be willing to treat the puppies humanely. Those puppies, if lucky will end up being abandoned in a side pen at a shelter. Lucky, even if they are shivering with fear because they are scared to death of a human's touch and sick because they haven't had any vaccinations. The puppies I saw were still young enough that they should have eagerly ran towards me when I talked to them and tried to pet them. Instead they cowered in a corner and cried out when I reached out and touched them. I should have been able to pet and pick up puppies that age with abandon and let them give me puppy kisses. Instead I had to pick them up gingerly because they were sick with diarrhea and I had to go home and immediately wash my clothes in bleach and take a shower to get all the germs off of me before I could touch Abigail or my dogs for fear of what I might give to them.
I'm sure the man that dumped them, if he has any sort of compassion, probably told himself that they will find good, loving homes when left at the shelter. Maybe. If they aren't so sick they can't be saved and if someone will think to look there for a dog instead of answering a free puppy ad or buying one off the side of the road. Maybe, but I'm not so sure. And if they do find loving homes, those are homes that the other shelter dogs that have been waiting for will never see. For $40.00 that man could have had his dog spayed. Now that $40.00 won't even pay for the food and shelter those puppies are going to need for the night and don't forget the medicine and care they will need in the next few weeks if they thrive. But for him it's already forgotten.
Hopefully you can make up for his callousness by having your dog fixed. If you haven't thought of it this way before and have already had a dog that had puppies it's not too late to change your way of thinking. I did mine. It wasn't until several years ago that I realized what a difference spaying and neutering made. Maybe you can help a shelter dog that has been overlooked because of an overpopulation of puppies by getting your next one at your local shelter. And if you do go to your shelter be sure to tell at least one staff member thank you for what they do. I helped a staff member gather those puppies up and had no idea what to say to her. I wanted to share with her my disbelief and anger, but she already knew because she felt it too. I'm quite certain that she has seen far, far worse than that. And yet she continues to come back to work to help the animals who have never seen any compassion other than hers. She didn't need my help because she does that sort of thing everyday and could have probably done it faster without me, but in my naivety I thought I could help her without showing emotion and save her a little extra time by bringing her the pups so she could more quickly put them in a warm sheltered spot for the night. I was fighting the urge to throw up the entire time because of the uncertainty those pups now face. I was moving slowly, torn between wanting to give each of those pups some human kindness and being repulsed at the mess they were covered in. I wanted to leave quickly and forget the meanness I witnessed and was glad when I had gathered the last pup. All I could do was hand the staff member those puppies at the door of the quarantine building and feel relief that I wasn't allowed beyond that point. I'm not ready to see the other nameless animals that have been abandoned and are crying out for compassion and companionship behind those walls.
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