January 27, 2009Comments are closed.attitude, mandatory desexing, shelter procedure
It seems like a solid argument; if we don’t stop the leak, then we’ll never be able to stop mopping the floor. And this is the justification used when animal welfare groups set about to develop regulations to help stamp out over-breeding by backyard breeders and puppy farms.
Of course everyone wants to see an end to the mistreatment of dogs, and for every dog to be bred and brought up in a way which sees it become a satisfactory family pet. But is over population the problem and does it really lead to shelter deaths?
If we truly have a ‘dog overpopulation problem’, then there wouldn’t be a market for new puppies. Breeders would be dropping their prices exponentially to move stock and would be breeding less often if they found themselves with excess animals. But a quick look on Pet Link shows over 100 listings for litters today alone. And it’s just lunchtime! American bulldogs are selling for $1,000 – $1,200. Pom puppies are $500. Cavalier x’s are $450 – $600. And it’s estimated another 500,000 pups are sold through pet shops nationally. So it seems there is no lack of homes for puppies.
So if it’s not oversupply, it must be a huge number of ‘irresponsible owners’ buying the wrong pet, or cute puppies, and then dumping them, right?
According to the Pet Net website there was a little over 2 million, dogs and owned cats in NSW/ACT in 2005. The number of dogs and cats killed in NSW last year was 33,000. Lets assume for one moment that as many pets are rehomed as killed (though it’s often the case that many more pets are killed than rehomed), and that’s around 66,000 dogs and cats entering the pound system.
Which means only 3% of the pet population of NSW winding up in care. Which pretty much reflects The National People and Pets Survey 2006 which found that less than 5% of dogs and cats ever need the services of a pound or shelter.
Why should we consider 3% abandonment acceptable? Because like employment and it is not realistic to aim for 100% nor is it desirable.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
The natural rate of unemployment is the healthy unemployment rate that will always occur in an economy, unless it is severely overheated. It is not possible for the entire labour force to be employed at any one time. The natural rate of unemployment can vary over time. In the late 1960s and 1970s the natural rate was between 1% and 2%. Currently, the natural rate of unemployment is considered to be around 5% ref
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
We will always need shelters for a small percentage of the community, who due to crisis, situation or behaviour need support of a pound or rescue and that is actually a really positive thing. That is what shelters are for. But there is absolutely no “surrender crisis” or “puppy overpopulation problem*” in Australia.
So then, why are there so many pound deaths?
Simply, there is only one cause of pound deaths. The pounds themselves.
As usual Pet Connection puts it beautifully;
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
If we have learned anything in this post-Redemption era it’s that dogs die in shelters not because of ‘irresponsible pet owners’ or ‘greedy breeders’ but because of the shelters’ own policies and actions.
This repressive, white-lipped scorn of breeders springs from exactly the same ideology that gives us rescue groups and shelters that can barely find a home they consider good enough to adopt a pet to. Which are usually run by the exact same people who mourn and lament and rend their garments about how all the irresponsible bad pet owners are the ones making them kill all these poor dogs and cats, and swearing we cannot adopt our way out of ‘pet overpopulation’, and wielding shelter kill statistics like a club to punish pet owners who don’t treat their animals in exactly the way they’d like them to.
The whole thing is just a big huge heap of propaganda. Owning dogs is not a zero sum game. People often have dogs from breeders and shelters or rescue groups at the same time. Dogs are like potato chips to most of us, and once we have one, wherever we get her, we’re likely to get another. If we want to increase the number of shelter adoptions, and I know I do, we’d have a lot more luck doing that if we promoted shelter dogs instead of telling home-based breeders they’re bad and wrong for doing what dog lovers have done for thousands of years, breed their dogs.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
All this energy being expended trying to chase down the source of abandoned pets is overlooking the fact that we’ve not been ‘mopping the floor’ at all. We’ve instead locked the door, turned our back and let the room fill to waist deep.
Pounds who won’t take phone calls from the public because they haven’t got the resources to deal with enquiries from potential adopters. Pounds who believe that no one would want the pets they have. ‘Super pounds’ which take animals found in one area and move them hundreds of kilometres from where they were lost making it difficult for people to be reunited with their pets. Laws which see huge fines for people unfortunate enough to have an animal escape. Pounds who won’t release to rescue groups. Pounds who make no effort to work with volunteers or foster carers. Pounds releasing undesexed animals to the public. Pounds who drive policies which see semi-owned cats who had been living peacefully in their communities, impounded and killed. Restrictive adoption criteria. Rude staff. Inconvenient opening hours and locations. A depressing environment. The general feeling that the public are to be resented and are an inconvenience, rather than designing the function of animal management to be supporting pet owners.
All of these factors contribute to our huge kill rates and our comparatively low levels of rehoming. If it were any other industry we’d call it poor performance. But in rescue we look to blame the community for needing us at all – rather than improve our statistics or the experience with dealing with us.
Of course hundreds of animals flooding shelters each week seems insurmountable – we’ve never put ourselves in a position to succeed because we’ve been too busy blaming outside factors for the situation we’re in. The truth is our situation and the situation for animals is never going to get any better until we stop looking for someone to blame and start doing things that actually work.
*Cats are different. There is a cat overpopulation problem which is exasperated by council ‘catch and kill’ policies and other stupid legislation.
