7.8 million dogs and cats enter shelters yearly, with only 2.7 million shelter animals being adopted. That leaves over 5 million desperate animals in need of a home. Nearly 3 million of those unadopted animals are euthanized due to overcrowding and the shelters not having enough money to take care of the animals. Terri Gleize, who works at King’s Harvest Pet Rescue No Kill Shelter in Davenport, said that at the shelter there are over 300 cats with dogs coming in daily that need to be adopted.
Nearly all pet stores around the nation are buying their animals from mills, where animals are abused and are living in poor conditions. Dogs are forced into small wire cages,are deprived of food, not bathed, and females are forced to breed continuously with no breaks in between litters. When female dogs become too fragile to breed anymore, they are beaten and left to die. Buying an animal from a pet store is only supporting the puppy mills and making them believe that what they are doing is okay.
While buying a dog from a breeder is much better than buying from a pet store, breeding is not a responsible or smart thing to do, no matter how well the animals are treated. Overbreeding is adding to the overpopulation problem with dogs, and purebred dogs have a much higher risk of getting sick and developing lifelong diseases. 47 percent of dogs bought from breeders are rehomed to animal shelters for reasons such as their owner can no longer keep them or their owner no longer wants them. This leads to the overcrowding problem in shelters, leading to animals being euthanized.
Carly Hancock, a former Pleasant Valley student, has adopted two shelter cats in her life, both from Kings Harvent in Davenport. Hancock said that when she went to visit the shelter, she was heartbroken seeing all of the animals who need homes. Both times she adopted her cats, she went in to the shelter to look around and help in any way she could, and ended up falling in love and adopting her cats. Hancock also says she paid 25 dollars for her first kitten, and 80 for her second kitten who was up to date on immunizations and was microchipped. She says one of the best decisions she has made was adopting from the shelter.
Adopting from a shelter gives those animals a second chance at life. Shelters are now receiving donations almost daily, and over 70 percent of the population has either volunteered or is volunteering at an animal shelter. Buying from a shelter is an extremely smart decision, but is helping puppy and kitty mills get the bad reputation that they deserve. Donations and volunteers are always appreciated from all shelters around the nation.
