NOVEMBER 19, 2005 : My last few days have been a blur, we have people on the ground in the areas hardest hit by Katrina and we are scrambling to find safe haven for thousands of animals. Yet there is no room at the inn and why, because we in the animal welfare community know there are not enough homes to go around. Most of the animals coming out of this poverty stricken area are not spayed and neutered, Many of them have heartworm and yet America is trying to open their arms to this latest group of victims, but at what cost. The lives of the shelter animals who have been waiting for homes that don't come.
We know there is only so much room in each shelter and foster homes can only house a certain number of animals and they are filled. I wonder how many more animals are being killed at the shelters in the South who used to depend on rescue to transport their animals to other groups?
Add to this what our group does along with education, we rescue Puppy Mill dogs. Dogs purposely bred time and time again to satisfy the consumers who continue to purchase puppy after puppy in the retail markets and then without so much as a look over their shoulder, dump those same unhealthy, un-socialized pets on the rescue community.
This cannot continue. Katrina and its aftermath has caused a 'STATE OF EMERGENCY ," we were already in a State of Emergency " but no one noticed. Its time to make sure someone notices.
I call for a moratorium on all Commercial Breeding. Commercial Breeders should be directly responsible for the added costs to their community which their production of defective products cost. The individual breeder and or broker should be given a bill for each of their animals which end up in a shelter or rescue and the cost of the killing and disposing of the animal which was killed to make room for that animal.
I would like to see Retail outlets for pets (Pet Stores that sell cats and dogs) have to pay a surcharge on each animal sold. That cost would directly go to pay for the costs of housing and killing the animals they prevented from getting a home.
Yes, this is a big order but I open this email up to suggestions from Rescue as to how to go about something of this nature.
A very frustrated.
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