As some of you know, I've been feeding a stray cat and her kittens and on that note I want talk about a major problem. The problem is with our pets more precisely our tendency to be a throwaway society. My purpose is not to cause any disgust or hurt your feelings instead I am simply trying to raise awareness. I'm afraid that my words aren't going to be enough, so I am going to use some cold hard facts. I apologize for the facts being a bit old. I can't find my book right now so I'll post it later so let's just jump right into the facts.
According to 2005 - 2006 National Pet owners survey, there are somewhere between 73 million dogs and 90 million cats in American homes. While the numbers don't surprise me, I want you to consider the following. An estimated 70,000 kittens and puppies are born each day. Now, the feral or free roaming pet population is said to be around tens of millions: (http://www.usps.com/news/2002/philatelic/sr02_064.htm)
It really blows my mind to think that we buy animals only to throw them away. I understand that we may hate the ideas of the shelters or the pound. There are 6-8 million cats and dogs that enter shelters each year. There are 3 to 4 million cats and dogs that are euthanized each year. Are you mad yet? Now consider this last piece of the animals that enter shelters each year only 30 % of dogs will ever be returned to their owners and only 2 -5 % of cats will ever make back to the owner.
Perhaps you think that turning them lose to fend for themselves is a good idea. It's not trust me. Those free roaming / feral really do find themselves in peril. They may not be able to find or not enough food. Some animals even turn to wild animals to feed themselves and their offspring. What's wrong with that, you might ask? Parasites and rabies! They can pick up roundworms, tapeworms, and a whole string of parasites. It's not pretty. These parasites can literally rob their bodies of nutrients. They can end up poisoned by coming across any number of possible toxic substances. They have no way to seek shelter out of the elements. The water they might drink may not be clean which again can deliver parasites and poisons. There is no real way for them to veterinary care, so an injury could mean the end. Not to mention the possibility of them being collected and sold to scientific supply companies or collected and used in dog fights. Now I want you to consider something else for a few minutes.
I want you to consider for a second that 70,000 puppies and kittens are born each year. Now remember that 6 - 8 million cats and dogs enter shelters every year in our country. Also keep in mind that 3 to 4 million are euthanized in our country each year. So what harm really comes from dog being feral or free roaming? We talked about something's in the above paragraph. I want to move on though. Feral dogs will often join up in packs. I've witnessed this myself on what I consider to be a hair raising moment. I was out bird watching and there was a group of dogs running around at the local lake. I didn't think much of it until they fairly close by and one of them say me. They immediately started to bark and started to move a bit closer. I decided that I didn't want to mess with them. It would have been 5 dogs to 1 human. Luckily I had my bike and took off. Yes, I had some distance between them and me. This little story lends itself to the possibility that a dog or a cat could get rabies. Animals that they might choose to feed on could give them rabies. Dogs can catch distemper. The chances of coming in contact with a parasite increases in feral animals. A feral animal or free roaming may fear humans and therefore it might be more likely to attack. Well, I said that but you have to realize that I'm not an expert. Escaped animals will seek out food. It might mean attacking wildlife which means the food web becomes messed up. Did you know that a pack of dogs is capable of taking animals as big as deer? Anyway, I may not have done this issue any good, but hopefully, you are more aware. Talk to you later!
I'm gone for now!

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