Thinking about adopting a pet? Well, before you go into your nearest pet store, why don’t check out your local shelter and see if there is a beauty that will be your loyal companion. Nearly half of all animals that enter a shelter never make it out. We should all stand together, and stop animal cruelty, and give these poor creatures a chance to have a happy family that will stay with them until the end.

Ever thought about the unfortunate kitten struggling to survive, roaming through the streets? The deprived kitten might be one of the abandoned pets that one family’s cat’s litter, but because the cat hasn’t been neutered, and the family couldn’t afford another mouth to feed, so another poor kitten has entered the shelter. Five out of ten dogs and seven out of ten cats in shelters are destroyed simply because there is no one to adopt them. You can help now by neutering your pet if you don’t want any new members in your family. The cost of spaying and neutering a pet is less than the cost of raising puppies or kittens for one year. The average cost of basic food, supplies, medical care and training for a dog or cat is $700 to $8875 annually. Worst yet, only 10 percent of the animals received by shelters have been spayed or neutered. About 75 percent of owned pets are neutered. Are you part of the 75 percent? Please stop making an innocent creature that just came to earth to suffer through the pain of losing its family, mom, and love that it need.

Now, I am not saying that buying pets from pet stores are bad or anything, I’m only trying to say, before you go and spend a fortune on your dream pet, please considerate the poor animals that are in the shelters, waiting for their destiny to ending to finish blissfully and full of care. The majority of pets are obtained from acquaintances and family members. About 15 to 20 percent of dogs are purchased from breeders; 2 to 10 percent are purchased from pet shops; yet only 10 to 20 percent of cats and dogs are adopted from shelters. You may think these innocent living beings have the shelter to look after them, why we have to care. Well, you’re wrong, because 3 to 4 million cats and dogs, all healthy and adoptable, are euthanized every year! I am not asking much, but your choice can have a huge affect the turn out to other lives. Some people return to the shelter where they adopt their pet from frequently, but sometimes it isn’t always good news. More than 20 percent people who leave dogs in shelters adopted them from a shelter. Approximately 5 to 7 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year, but we still have to raise more awareness to help these animals to find the perfect home, and it could be yours…
A lot of residents own pets, in fact about 63 percent of all households in the United States have a pet, which means about 75 million dogs and about 85 million cats are owned in the United States. You might like to cuddle and have fun with your animal buddy, but they are also at risk or suffering and you might not know it. Your pet may get lost and some volunteers might find your pet, but according to the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (NCPPSP), at least 20 percent of cats are acquired as strays, many strays are lost pets who were not kept properly indoors or provided with identification, and less than 2 percent cats and only 15 to 20 percent of dogs are returned to their owners. To ensure your pet will be safe and returned when get lost; make sure it have a collar or tags, because most of the lost pets that got returned were identified with tags or microchips. And, maybe most of you will argue with me on this, but neglect and abandonment are the most common forms of companion animal abuse in the U.S., a pet is great responsibility, so make sure you are fulfilling your role of being your pet’s reliable friend.

One more thing, if you are not an animal lover, you don’t have to adopt a pet or anything, but please do not hurt or torture any animals just for personal amusements. You may think it is nothing at the time, but take the circus for an example, I am pretty sure most of us enjoy watching the circus perform cool animal tricks and laugh at the most bizarre sights, but do you know that in many circuses, animals are trained through the use of intimidation and physical abuse! The elephants that perform in circuses are often kept in chains for as long 23 hours a day from the time they are babies! Let’s all take a stand against animal cruelty, against the fact that every year 100 million animals will die in experiments and tests, against the cruelty of killing animals for their fur to make coats. The next time, before you buy your beloved real fur coat, think about the 18 foxes that were killed to make one fox fur coat, the 55 minks to make just one mink coat! Not only is that, one billion animals slaughtered by the leather industries every year! Behind every pretty object lies an ugly truth. So let’s all unite together, and raise awareness to help stop animal cruelty! We can all help; it may be as simple as saying no and help stop a defenseless creature from being tormented by other people that you might know. Animals may not have a voice to speak up for themselves, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to be free and enjoy the lives they were meant to have.

I might not influence you much, but I have very strong opinions, and I believe that we can all work together and give love and rescue the animals from the hopeless and loneliness they endured throughout their lives. And just like Jeremy Bentham said: “The question is not, ‘Can they reason?’ Nor, ‘Can they talk?’ but rather, ‘Can they suffer?’.” Join me, together, we can raise consciousness to help the shelter animals and stop animal cruelty! These animals need a warm, welcoming place to live; they need to be treated with respect and love; they need adoring family members; they need you.