#53: Don’t Buy Pets, Let’s Adopt

When we spot the fluffy kittens and playful puppies through the glass windows of a pet retailer, it’s awfully hard not to stop and smile for a moment. On a whim, we sometimes get the urge to just take them all home.
 
But, hold on.
 
Even when they grow bigger, or, perhaps, old and frail in the years seemingly so far out to even imagine, can we care for them with all our love?
 
“For sure! By all means! Will look after for life!!”
 
If so, then why wait? Let’s rush out the door, though not to a pet retailer. Instead, to an animal shelter like the humane society.  And why not adopt the adorable cats and dogs who’re kept there, waiting to be taken home by a loving family? Let’s welcome the sheltered cats and dogs into our family as one of our own.
 
Approximately 6.5 million cats and dogs enter animal shelters in the US, annually. Reasons vary, including stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered, among others. And each year, approximately 1.53 million are euthanized in the US. Euthanizing in this case means to take away the innocent lives of healthy cats and dogs – who are adoptable into a family – simply due to the overcrowding of the shelters.
 
Why is it so important that we don’t buy pets from the retailers and breeders?
 
It’s because there are already so many companion animals living at the shelters, waiting to be adopted by a loving family. So many precious lives already exist today, that there’s no need to “manufacture” more life as Goods for sale and profit.
 
Moreover, any business involved in merchandise sales is bound to have some portion of their inventory “defective” or “leftover.” A pet sales business is no exception. No matter how beautiful these cats and dogs may be, some will be stigmatized as such at the discretion of sellers and buyers who seem more interested in the certain breed or color or “the look” rather than the equal dearness of each of their life.
 
The terrible truth is that, eventually, these unfairly stigmatized cats and dogs will be shipped away to the shelters. And if they don’t meet a loving family who’ll welcome them home, then in the near future, they'll be put to death. 
 
In Germany, known to be one of the pet-friendliest countries in the world, it’s a common understanding that pets are to be cared for life. Even when cats and dogs enter the animal shelters, more than 90% are adopted into a new family. What’s more, euthanizing healthy companion animals is prohibited by the German law, and pet sales are extremely rare due to the strict licensing/permitting system.
 
“But rather than the mixed-breeds at the shelters, I want the purebreds – like Labradors and Scottish Folds – from the breeders.” When we hold in our arms the adorable purebreds at a pet retailer, we just want to take them all home without thinking.
 
But, hold on right there, and let’s think for a moment.
 
To be sure, humans can’t be bought or sold. That’s the lesson we’ve learned from the dark days of slavery. We’ve learned that Life isn’t for sale. If so, then it should hold true for our pets who are also dear members of our family.

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