How would you react if you were told that 70 million innocent beings live homeless and without shelter in the United States?
How would you react if you knew that that statistic was over 100 times greater than the number of homeless humans?
That 70 million represents the count of stray cats and kittens in the United States at a given time according to the ASPCA. The harrowing truth, too, is that that amount is ever-increasing (at times unlike that of homeless humans) and includes dogs. Also according to the ASPCA, 7.6 million unwanted companion animals (cats and dogs, primarily) enter shelters every year. These incredibly lucky animals represent the few who happen to display behavioral and physical promise as potential companion pets. The rest of the country's stray animals, unfortunately, either die trying to fend for themselves or live precariously as feral wanderers. In numerous cases, these animals are supremely malnourished and deprived of proper socialization, which is vital to the prospect of their successful adoptions.
Almost more significant than the issue of general animal homelessness is the poor likelihood of certain animals landing suitable forever homes. Often, pets are poorly suited to the people who adopt them or -- most often the case -- people fail to realize that pets are individuals just like humans and each have unique (and sometimes aggravating) needs and quirks. What is the bottom line? So many animals waste their lives in shelters (or, even worse, get euthanized) because of people.
The sole reason why many dogs and cats end up in shelters and stay in shelters is because of human error. Dogs especially can be difficult to handle when it comes to training and getting along well in their new environment. They, like human children, take a lot of time and patience. People often seek dog adoption because they want a cute companion who won't require any major maintenance and who, like in the movies, will be up for anything, any time. Unfortunately, this is a grossly warped perception of the dog. Society's lovable portrait of man's best friend conveniently leaves out the crazy expensive and frequent vet visits, poop messes, pee messes, chewed shoes, late nights and early morning walks.
If a puppy's crucial formative months (two to six months of age) are wasted with halfhearted, flawed training and abusive human behavior, the resulting teenage or adult dog is guaranteed to be obstinate, confused, aggressive or all of the above.
I'm not going to lie, when my boyfriend and I laid eyes on the eight-month-old purebred American Eskimo puppy on Charleston nonprofit Pet Helpers's PetFinder.com page, we couldn't resist pulling all the stops to try and take him home. Asa seemed perfect at a glance and even the day we met him. Somehow, things worked out fairly well after we took him home, but it definitely wasn't a walk in the park. We did some digging and found out that his original owners exhibited abusive behavior toward him and essentially "gave up" on training him. They threw him into an overrun "kill" shelter (from which "no-kill" Pet Helpers thankfully later took him) and explained that this was "in the dog's best interest." Asa went into shock when his lifestyle changed dramatically and his people never came back for him. His long, fluffy coat became matted and dirty because shelters can only do so much in the way of grooming. All in all, we had a hot mess on our hands when we adopted this adolescent dog because of the way people treated him in his life prior. Most people cannot know their adopted dog's backstory, but it is not far-fetched to assume that there are plenty of other dogs out there in the shelters.
Another correctable reason for there being so many homeless and hopeless animals in shelters is irresponsible ("backyard") breeding. Too many self-proclaimed dog and cat lovers take it upon themselves to haphazardly carry forth the characteristics of a favorite breed. Due to lack of adequate education and sometimes, pure stubbornness, backyard breeders with no knowledge of genetics or veterinary science are able to sell puppies or kittens out of their homes. In a standard case of backyard breeding, the proprietor is simply in it for the profit and cares little about the "bigger picture" health of their animals and the breed they are working with. They do not adhere to responsible breeders' physical and mental standards for individuals of the breed and create offspring that only resemble the true breed standard. In extreme cases, puppies or kittens from these outfitters are sick (often with "silent" killer diseases), socially deprived and raised in filth. Because the animals purchased from these types of places are usually hard to handle or sickly later on (if they survive puppyhood / kittenhood), they are often abandoned or given up. This, of course, only adds to the ever-increasing number of homeless pets. These animals can end up demanding a lot of the owner financially and may never be fully healthy or social.
There are obviously countless more complicated reasons for the continuance of this problem (such as lack of funding for shelters / relief efforts and the naturally frequent breeding of stray individuals), but it is easy for us to do our part as responsible stewards of companion animals. We can spay or neuter our pets, volunteer to socialize teenage and adult cats and dogs in local shelters and we can, most importantly, do research and understand the effort that goes into raising a good, healthy dog or cat.
At a glance, the problem of overabundance in animal shelters seems unsolvable. However, much like mainstream human social problems such as racial injustice and poverty, small steps can be taken by all of us in order to remedy the problem. No problem -- no matter how large in scale -- is unsolvable. We each have two hands, one heart and one brilliant mind. With even just a little bit of effort, we can all positively contribute to what I like to call the "adoption dilemma."
