Melissa Clark

Senior Harper Clark sits with her adopted dog, Mister.

It is a common saying that an animal is a person’s best companion. These pets can be found anywhere, but as the number of shelter animals continues to grow by the day, it is just as important for the animals to find companionship as well.

Every year, about 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide. Most of the time, these animals have done nothing wrong; they are just put into shelters because of human problems.

Even with this, these animals are looking for love.

Sophomore Jae Jepsen who has rescued a shelter dog explained a perk of adopting was seeing the growth within her new animal. “Pets in shelters are some of the best ones because you get to see how they become more comfortable and loving over time.”

Of all the healthy pets coming into shelters every year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized. This is the result of too many pets entering shelters with too few people adopting them.

This number could dramatically decrease if more people adopted pets instead of buying them. With each adoption, shelter space is freed up for the next animal to come in who might desperately need it.

For junior Caleb Swinney and his family, they chose to adopt a dog that has previously been fostered. “We liked that our dog was fostered. We were able to get to know a lot more about him from the foster parent before we even got him,” he described. Fostering is another positive way to rescue pets who need it.

Dogs bought from a pet store, flea market or online seller only contribute to the success of puppy mills. Puppy mills are factory style breeders that put their profit above the wellbeing of their animals. Their goal is to produce as many puppies as possible, disregarding the conditions in which they do so. 

The female dogs are continuously bred while being provided with improper medical care, causing the majority of them to be very sick and emotionally-troubled as a result. Puppy mills are able to stay afloat due to their deceitful ways of business: targeting unsuspecting customers. This tyranny of mass breeding will continue to thrive unless people make an effort to avoid them and, instead, turn to shelters to adopt. 

It is a common misconception that shelter animals, especially dogs, were abandoned for being violent and harmful. But that is often far from the truth. The majority of the time, shelter dogs were runaways or surrendered as their owner could no longer provide an acceptable life.

Yes, some are more aggressive towards other animals due to their past experiences, but at the same time, when offered a new future in a loving home, these animals can start to exceed expectations. The animals abandoned at shelters yearn for a human companion just as much as a person wants a new animal companion.

“When we adopted our dog, Bruce, he did not know how to be a pet or cuddle at all. Now, he always wants to be close to us and have someone holding him. It was great to see the complete turnaround,” Jepsen said lovingly as she talked about her relationship with her rescue.

Most importantly, through adoption a person will gain a new best friend who wants one as much as they do.