America’s Shelter Dog Problem
Millions of dogs reside in shelters and rescues throughout the United States. The exact number of these animals is unknown, but is speculated at upwards of 6 million. The hard truth is that over half of the dogs in shelters are euthanized. That’s over 3 million dogs every year! Picture 10 dogs…now imagine 5 of those destroyed.
At this point you may be asking “How does this happen? Where are these dogs coming from?”
The answer to this is not so simple.
A sizable portion of these animals comes from pet owners choosing not to spay or neuter their dog, resulting in litters of undesired puppies. In fact, over half of the dogs given up at shelters are intact.
But, consider this: You are walking down the street with a friend and pass by a pet store. In the window are five puppies. Three of them are sleeping in the corner and the other two are tumbling and wrestling with each other. They are just so cute, soft, and squishy looking, that you both decide to go in for a closer look. After holding one of the puppies, you can’t bear to live without her. Now you are a proud new owner of a puppy. The thing is, after the first night with your new companion, you realize how big of a commitment you just made. You were up all night because your puppy was whining and needed to go to the bathroom over and over. Weeks pass and the crying stops, but your puppy begins to cause mischief around the house…
Ok, so maybe dogs aren’t always impulse buys, but many people do not realize the time and monetary commitment involved in owning a dog, let alone a puppy. It’s not surprising that many of the dogs relinquished to shelters are between 5 months to 3 years of age.
The main reasons for giving up a dog are:
- a lifestyle change of the owner
- behavioral problems
Behavioral issues can escalate without sound animal training and owner education.
The current reality for shelter dogs is not a positive one… though there are lucky ones. By teaching and promoting training, generating compassion and increasing awareness we can reduce the number of unwanted animals and assure more shelter dogs become lucky dogs.
For more detailed information on studies regarding shelter dogs and owners please refer to www.petpopulation.org
Our Philosophy
There are many wonderful organizations and people doing some amazing work to reduce the homeless dog population. But still, millions of dogs are living in shelters and or being euthanized at an alarming rate. We are going to be different in a variety of ways and we are going to have fun while doing it!! This is a serious, national problem and we do not take it lightly, but we feel our approach will appeal to a different if not larger audience.
Positive reinforcement training is at the heart of everything we plan to do. From our commercials, to our reality show and our education and outreach programs, we will need to train each and every day. Our proposed “Rescue and Rehabilitation Center “ will be highly unique in that every person who works with us, whether that be our president, human resources director, gift store attendant or volunteer, will be required to take part in the daily care and training of our animals.
The word “commitment” is part of our daily life. We are committed to drastically reducing the homeless dog population and our vision to achieve this goal. Any action without commitment, however noble, is wasted. So often we talk to people who are excited about what we are doing and seem eager to help…when the excitement wears off, they tend to just fade away. We know that we can not build our organization without a strong foundation, without commitment. With all of our members, we ask that they state their level of commitment, this can be as little as an hour a week or simply doing some research……but when people commit to helping, we hold them to their word.
We truly hope that we will form a “network” of people and organizations who want to share solutions to our shelter dog problem. It doesn’t matter to us who you are affiliated with; we want to work with anyone and everyone who is committed to this cause. Contact us, if we can help you in any way…we will. We have a “Facebook” page as well and it is proving to be a great way to share thoughts and ideas…feel free to join our group and give us your thoughts.
This is an exciting time for us and we invite you to join us in creating some real change….and have fun along the way!
