Planning A Pet As A Holiday Gift? Adopt A Shelter Pet

• Thomas Nelson
• December 14, 2020
• Animals
• 0 Comments

Adopting a pet is a big commitment. The average dog will live 10 to 13 years. Cats live 10 to 20 years. Think a small pet like a rabbit will be short lived? Think again. Rabbits, if properly cared for, will live 8 to 14 years. Deciding to pick up a new companion animal for your family or yourself is a long term commitment. Because of some of the unexpectedness of this commitment, many animals are left in shelters shortly after the holiday season is over. They can be hard to train, destructive if not properly cared for, and people simply experience buyer’s remorse. These shelter pets often meet a grim fate.

To give you an idea of the gravity of the situation, about 10,000 puppy mills across the United States churn out 2 million puppies every year. And each year, 650,000 dogs are killed in animal shelters because they couldn’t be rehomed quickly enough or suffer severe behavioral issues that prevent them from being safely rehomed.

Not every dog in the United States is born in a puppy mill – they aren’t solely to blame. But these two figures do indicate just how much of a problem puppy mills are and just how unprepared people sometimes are to care for a puppy. If you buy a puppy from a pet store, there’s a good chance it came from one of these mills, and there’s a better chance that a homeless dog is waiting for you at a nearby animal shelter.

Shelter pet facts

To get an idea of why animal shelters are crucial and why it’s important that we adopt from a shelter instead of from pet stores, here are some raw shelter pet facts, courtesy of the ASPCA:

• 6.5 million animals enter animal shelters each year.
• 3.2 million shelter animals are adopted every year
• 1.6 million dogs and 1.6 million cats get adopted every year
• 1.5 million shelter animals are killed each year
• 670,000 homeless dogs are euthanized each year
• 860,000 homeless cats are euthanized each year

These figures focus primarily on cats and dogs, but other animals are surrendered at animal shelters too. 80% of rabbits purchased as an Easter bunny wind up being surrendered to an animal shelter. Other small animals, like chickens, mice, rats, and ferrets are also surrendered to animal shelters.

Why you should adopt a shelter pet

There are a lot of really great reasons to adopt a shelter pet. The number one reason being that you save an animal’s life and give them a second chance at a loving home.

Not only that, but animal shelters help reduce pet overpopulation. Most shelter swill neuter and spay animals before adoption or require that their adoption candidates spay or neuter shortly after adoption.

Animal shelters provide a great service for communities too. Shelters employ people who are able to provide resources to at risk animals and their caretakers.

The best reason to get a shelter pet, though, is for the companionship you get from a new pet!

Not sure? Foster a pet

You may have read all of the information in this article and really want to help but you’re just not sure if you’re ready for a long-term commitment. Maybe you’ve never had a cat or a dog before but want to try. Instead of adopting, consider fostering a pet.

Many animal shelters reach capacity at different times in the year, which is where fosters come in handy. When you foster an animal, you remove it from the shelter and house it in your own home, but you aren’t permanently adopting the pet. This reduces the burden on animal shelters and the number of animals that have to be put down to make room.

While fostering your pet, you may be asked to show it to potential adoptees. If you love the pet, you can begin the paperwork to adopt it yourself!