Mary Max, the Founder and Executive Director of Kind Green Planet, recently sent out this alert which made us excited to send letters again!
If You Love Pussy, Then You Better Put A Stamp On It.
Back to snail mail people! The U.S. Postal Service issues stamps featuring ten formerly homeless cats and dogs adopted from animal shelters. The stamps read, “Animal Rescue: Adopt a Shelter Pet,” and the goal is to raise awareness about the desperate plight of millions of homeless cats and dogs who find themselves in shelters every year. Tragically, the majority of these animals are put to death for no other reason than lacking a home.
We tend to think of our country as a cat- and dog-loving nation. And while there are millions of pets who are treated as family members, about five million cats and dogs are killed at animal shelters each year. In NYC alone, 20,000 shelter cats and dogs (primarily healthy, friendly animals) are killed yearly. This is more than 50 animals every day.
However, the good news is that, unlike so many problems in the world today, this one has an incredibly easy solution:
Don’t Buy!
Breeders and pets stores are the primary reason for the routine death described above. Because their concern is profit, every dollar they receive is encouragement to keep breeding while animals in shelters are killed. It is simple mathematics and ethics. If there are not enough homes available for all the cats and dogs who currently exist, then it is not ethical to bring more animals into the world.
Most, if not all, animals at pet stores (lizards, reptiles, birds, cats, rabbits, dogs) come from horrific breeding facilities. In the case of dogs, these facilities are termed “puppy mills.” At these facilities, the mother dog is imprisoned in a metal crate for her entire life, literally never being allowed to leave it, where she is forced to breed and nurse over and over again until her body gives out. The cage is typically outdoors, with no heat or air-conditioning. The bottom of her cage is cheap wire to allow for her and her puppies’ urine and feces to fall, yet makes her paws raw and plagued with sores. There isn’t any vet care since her life is considered cheap, and if she does gets sick, she will suffer until her illness does not allow her to reproduce or nurse. At this point, she is killed.
Her puppies are usually sold for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars because they have American Kennel Club (AKC) registration papers. The AKC supports puppy mills because they receive money from such breeding facilities for giving them their stamp of approval. The puppy mills, in turn, with this AKC stamp of approval sell the puppies for more money to the pet stores. And the pet stores, in turn, sell the puppies for more money because the public mistakenly believes that AKC is a certification of a healthy, well-adjusted, well-treated puppy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Puppy mill puppies are usually very sick (hidden until the buyer brings them home) due to being born to a sickly mother and weaned too soon.
This is what is really behind the “cute” puppies in the window!
So, if you are longing for a cat or dog, please adopt. Visit your local shelter or start on the web by visiting Petfinder.com (for NYC residents, please visit the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals or Animal Care and Control of New York City). And please note that if you are looking for a specific breed of animal, there are breed rescue groups for almost every breed.
Whether or not you can adopt an animal right now, please buy these “adopt stamps” and find every excuse to start snail-mailing again! It’s the best 44 cents you’ll ever spend!
Bow-wow and meow-meow,
Mary
