I am extremely passionate about animal welfare, so this is the first (of hopefully many) posts where I aim to spread awareness and a solution for the epidemic we face in this country when it comes to our homeless pet population. This is a complicated subject, so I will keep the points high level. If you have more in depth questions, Best Friends Animal Society is an amazing resource (and it is a very positive/uplifting site i.e. no scary pictures or stories so don’t be afraid to click the link) or feel free to contact me.

Today, 5,500 dogs and cats were killed in America’s shelters… that is over 2,000,000 a year. It is such an incredibly high number that it is hard to process. Many of these are puppies, kittens, and perfectly healthy and adoptable animals.

How does this happen? There are many answers to this question, but below are some simple answers:

• Not spay/neutering pets causes exponential growth and unwanted litters. One litter of kittens if not spayed/neutered can turn into over 11,606,077 cats… yes, 11.6 MILLION. While one accidental litter might seem harmless, that is 8-12 animals that will now die in shelters because there are less adopters, and 1,000 “accidental” litters add up
• Buying over adopting. Simple: adopting is saving 2 lives – the one of the animal you take home and the one that can take its place in a rescue or shelter. Additionally, breeding for profit increases the number of animals looking for homes and decreases the pool of potential families for unwanted pets. Buying a dog is the death sentence for an animal in a shelter waiting for a home. Animals from pet store or Craig’s list are often raised in unimaginable conditions and are either from Puppy Mills or irresponsible “back yard breeders”
• There are not enough resources to take care of these animals. The government does not allocate enough money to keep our animals safe, so it is up to private citizens to start rescues, raise money, and medically treat ill animals.
• People are cruel. I won’t go into more detail here, but you can imagine.

 

The plight of unwanted animals is ALL of our problem. **BE PART OF THE SOLUTION** If you truly love animals, adopt. It is that simple. Want a purebred? There are breed specific rescues and you can go to PetFinder.com to find any breed, age, size all over the country. If you can’t adopt, you can foster, if you can’t foster you can donate.

Join the movement!

There are amazing people out there doing their part to save more animals. When I was contacted by Dog Rescue Shirt Club to do a collaboration with their awesome company, I said ABSOLUTELY.  For $20/month you get a new tshirt from a different rescue each month (I’m wearing White River Animal Rescue’s shirt – SO cute!) and 100% of the proceeds are donated to that rescue. AMAZING! This is such a fun concept, and anything/everything that helps animals I support. A monthly membership would be such a fun gift for a friend!

Find out more about Dog Rescue Shirt Club here.

PS – This is Lilly Diane in my pictures. We’ve fostered many dogs, but she is our only “foster failure” (even though I fall in love with each new foster)! June 11th will be her 1-year adopta-versary and we’ve loved every minute 🙂

Shyla Bracelet // Lilah Cuff Bracelet

I SWEAR she loves me!!