Appreciating the Differences (Reply)

GilmanNYCwrites: In hard times, sometimes the only thing in one's life that can be counted upon is your pet. A real animal lover would go hungry before their pet would.

Reply: Yes, you are so right -- and so profound.

Unfortunately, people are very different in how they relate and connect to their pets.

For some, (particularly older people whose kids have grown up and moved on) their pets become like surrogate children. Sometimes the dog or cat in the senior citizen's home is the only reliable company the person has on a day to day basis.

But, there are many other people for whom the pet dog or cat is like a prop, a toy for their kids or so-called, "protection" for the home.

They never really establish a close connection, understanding of or relationship with the pet and therefore, the cat or dog is easily given up or abandoned at the first inconvenience or life stress.

I think what we need to understand is that not everyone relates to animals the same way most of us coming to this journal do.

They may have had different upbringings, different life experiences, different cultural attitudes and different psychological makeup.

The important thing is not to try and "judge" so much, as figure out how we can deal with the problems.

As said many times in this journal, I believe the keys to bringing down the kill numbers in animal shelters are:

1-- Humane Education in the schools, starting from the early grades and continuing through the Middle and High Schools.

2-- Creation of enough full service animal shelters to properly serve the communities. We should not be having to kill animals for "space" reasons alone. The fact we do, indicates lack of sufficient shelters to humanely serve the animals and the people.

3-- Creation of and easy availability of low cost and free spay/neuter services.

If all of these (and other) changes were in place, I think we would go a long way in helping to create "low (and eventually) no kill" animal shelters, that instead of being places where animals are dropped off to die, would become true sanctuaries until such time the animals could find authentic loving and committed homes. -- PCA

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#1 Comment from jmuhjacat
3/21/08 4:15 PM | Permalink

Agree 100% and have advocated for these changes all my life. Have no intention of stopping, ever. btw, that is a GORGEOUS little golden-eyed ebony cat face!

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Appreciating the Differences (Reply)