Eight Thousand Every Day

Nearly one month ago, Mali, our family's 13-year-old beagle/springer mix, was euthanized. Mali was part of our family for nearly twelve and a half years and had been diagnosed with Cushing's disease a little over a year before. At the time of her death, she was quite senile and for about a month had spent most of her days lying on the tile in the kitchen. When I picked her up and put her on the table in the exam room at the vet's office, my mom started scratching her cheeks and talking to her and before she was even injected, Mali was quite relaxed and potentially even asleep. She didn't move from her relaxed, sleepy position at all except to twitch her leg slightly at the moment the needle entered her. She didn't squirm or fight; she was exhausted after a long, happy life, and was ready to move on.

Somewhere in the U.S. that day, a similar scene was unfolding, but actually that scene was much more gruesome. A young dog, maybe one year old, maybe five, was also in an exam room. He was not elderly and sick like Mali, but rather happy, lively, and energetic. He excitedly sniffed around the room and wagged his tail as he waited for the vet. When he was placed on the exam table, he definitely did not fall asleep. In fact, he didn't even lie still. He fought the sturdy hands charged with holding him in place as the vet sighed and injected the dog's vein. Within seconds, the struggle was over and he was dead.

I cried and cried as my little Mali was euthanized, but looking back, it was also beautiful. She gave us so much; she deserved to leave this earth with at least some of her dignity still intact and before she suffered the painful effects of old age and Cushing's disease that were starting to overtake her and would surely become much worse in the days and weeks ahead.

In contrast, the young dog's death was nothing short of horrific. In fact, 3 to 4 million dogs and cats in shelters are euthanized every year. That means that the day Mali died, a minimum of 8,219 dogs and cats were needlessly put to sleep. Yes, you read that right: more than eight thousand potentially adoptable dogs and cats are euthanized in the United States every day. Sure, some are sick or old, but the majority are cute, loving, adoptable dogs that shelters just don't have the resources to continue to support.

photo from www.occupyforanimals.org

Despite this horrifying statistic, breeders continue to facilitate the making of new dogs and people continue to purchase dogs from breeders; in fact, over a quarter of dogs and cats owned in the United States were bought from breeders. Many animals are acquired from the litter of a friend or family member's dog. A small percentage of dogs and cats are bought from pet shops, which are known to sell dogs that come from puppy mills. It's a harsh reality, but the fact is that for every animal that is obtained through any of the above methods, another shelter dog who could have been adopted is not.

Euthanasia of sick, hurting animals is a gift; euthanizing healthy animals is disgusting. It would be so simple to drastically reduce the euthanasia rate of healthy dogs and cats in the United States. All we need is more people to be on board. Spay and neuter your animals; the cost of spay or neuter surgery is less than the cost of caring for a litter of puppies or kittens for just one year and many shelters offer low-cost or free spay/neuter surgeries to qualifying pet owners. Regardless of what kind of dog you are looking for, check shelters first. If you are set on a specific breed or just a purebred in general, there are many breed-specific rescue organizations and a whopping 25% of dogs in local shelters are purebred. With the acquiring of any dog, you run the risk of it being wild or aggressive, and shelter dogs are no different. Just like breeder dogs, shelter dogs can be mean, but the majority are loving, trainable, and friendly.

I hope that I can honor the memory of Mali by raising awareness about this important issue. Won't you join me?

Statistics in this post are from www.aspca.org.