Animals Do Not Make Good Gifts

Animals DO NOT Make Good Gifts

This Holiday season you may be tempted to give animals as a gift, please don’t give in. An animal who is given as a gift risks a lifetime of suffering, unloved and unwanted. You may have good intentions, it is unfair to give an animal to anyone unless you are absolutely certain that the person wants that particular animal as a companion and is willing and able to give a lifetime of proper care.

Recently, the LA Times published this article chronicling a demand/trend for shiny new purebred pups referring to as the “Paris Hilton Syndrome.” To date, “A third of the dogs held at San Francisco’s city shelter are all or part Chihuahua. If the trend continues, officials said, the shelter would become 50% Chihuahua within months. While many people will buy into the “Christmas puppy” dream this season, by summer, when the dogs have grown a bit and aren’t as cute and their owners make plans to get away for summer vacation, many may end up at the shelters.

Animal shelters are filled beyond capacity with homeless animals. Many of these are former “pets” who were easily “bought” but somehow did not fit into their lifestyle or they were not prepared for the serious commitment (exercise, housebreak,veterinary/emergency care, spay/neuter, grooming supplies, leashes, harnesses, and bedding). Many people experience little or no guilt when turning an animal over to a shelter or simply abandon them on the road.

If you still want to give an animal as a gift (do not shop, go to your local shelter) please discuss this idea with the prospective recipients, please make sure that they have the time, willingness, ability, and resources to properly care for an animal. Consider offering them a gift certificate from the local animal shelter. Again, Do not shop from the pet stores.

When you shop from pet stores you contribute to the misery of the puppy mills. When I talk to most of my friends, I realized that most of them do not know what the term puppy mill means. A puppy mill is a breeding operation in which dogs are repeatedly bred for financial gain and are kept in substandard conditions. Puppy mill dogs are often confined to small cages for their entire lives and commonly suffer from various infections and parasites. Dogs who live their entire lives in cages and are continually bred for years, without human companionship and with little hope of ever becoming part of a family. These dogs receive little or no veterinary care and never see a bed, a treat or a toy. After their fertility wanes, breeding animals are commonly killed, abandoned or sold to another mill. The annual result of all this breeding is hundreds of thousands of puppies, many with behavior and/or health problems.

Behind the friendly facade of the local pet shop, the pastoral scenes on a “breeder’s” website, or the neighbourhood newspaper ad, there often lies a puppy mill. These canine breeding facilities house dogs in shockingly poor conditions.

You can do your part to help stop Puppy Mills:

• Boycott Pet Stores that sell animals
• Choosing not to buy your next Pet from an Internet site
• Spay and Neuter your Pets
• Adopt a Pet from a local shelter
• Donate money, food etc. to your local shelter
• Sponsor a special needs dog in a rescue program
• Write a letter or email, make a phone call to your state Rep.
• Tell ALL your friends and family to do the same

Me and Badem, we wish you and your furry family a very Merry Christmas, and let’s hope 2010 brings an END to Puppy Mills and Animal Abuse.

Happy Holidays

Love,

Pia

And some words from Badem

Dear Santa,

As a rescued/adopted kid I appreciate that you gave me a loving HOME 4 years ago. THANK YOU. I could not be happier. But please tell my human friends not to give pets as gifts this year. Tell them this: Don`t SHOP for your BEST FRIENDS, ADOPT!! Don`t support Puppy Mills!!

Heyy I have been a really good girl this year. Don`t you think? I only chased the squirrels (just wanted to play with them). I write this year for the friends I had to leave at the shelter, on the streets and who suffer at the puppy mills.

Can you please bring them loving new homes this year? They will be as good as I have been this year. They promises.

Much Love, Badem ♥

http://www.nopuppymillscanada.ca/

http://www.stoppuppymills.org/survivor_stories.html