Monday, April 30, 2012

Fixed Solution

     I think that it should be Texas law that all pet owners spay or neuter their animals. I think that breeding should only be legal if someone has been issued a license. I personally don't agree with breeding animals for a profit, but when it comes to homeless animals, I'd much rather people be breeding with purpose than letting their pets run around and end up giving birth to puppies on the patio of the Humane Society.
   
     If it were a law that everyone must spay or neuter their pet, think about how much money would be saved that would usually be spent on keeping animals alive in shelters as well as the money saved from euthanization. More importantly, think about how many potential lives will be saved. Each animal is capable of giving birth to about five litters per year. That's 30 potential lives with 30 different families that need to be found. All of that could be prevented with a quick and relatively cheap procedure.
   
     My favorite thing to hear from pet owners is, "Getting your cat fixed is so expensive!". I especially find it humorous when the same person is in between puffs of a cigarette. If you can afford to smoke a pack a day, you can afford to get your cat fixed.

     Obviously, animals would benefit from this law because it helps to prevent them from homelessness but I believe this law would also benefit people of all sorts. It would benefit the animal lover, obviously because their hearts would break less often considering the number of homeless puppies and kittens would decrease. Then, it would also help the lazy animal owner by preventing the ailments faced when trying to find homes for all the unwanted babies as well as rid them of all the stress and worry caused by the paranoia of their pet becoming pregnant.

     With that being said, there is no excuse for not spaying or neutering your animal. When someone takes on the responsibility of owning a pet, they're also taking on the responsibility of providing the best living condition for the animal as well as preventing any unwanted pregnancies. So, I believe that all of Texas' animals AND people would benefit from it being a law to spay or neuter your pet, rather they're from the shelter or not.

2 comments:

  1. I agree with Christine. I think that if the state were to require us to spay and neuter our pets it would decrease the number of homeless pets considerably. This would put less of a burden on the city to need to care for them through animal shelters. I see another benefit as well, it would take the free pets off the market and in order to get a pet you would have to pay for it and pay for it to be fixed. This is more of an investment than just grabbing a cute kitty from the side of the road where someone has a box of free kittens to give away. If people were to have to pay to get pets and pay for fixing them, I think that less people would haphazardly choose to own animals, thus less chance of abandoned animals. Overall, this sounds like it would be a great measure for the legislature to pass.

    On the other hand, I can see it backfiring in one big way. This type of legislation would need to be enforced. Someone would have to check and see if animals have been spayed or neutered. This creates a huge problem in that instead of spending extra money on animal shelters, we now must spend it on checking with citizens to ensure they are having their pets fixed. The only way I see this being possible is more legislation stating that the people issued licenses to breed, must keep track of every pet they adopt out and make sure those pets are spayed or neutered either before they adopt them out or that the new owner does it. Even with that one flaw, I still feel this might be a worthy cause though.

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  2. Fellow classmate Christine recently wrote an article
    called, Fixed Solution, which discusses there being a law about
    spaying and neutering animals. I do think something needs
    to be done about the massive amount of animals that call
    their home The Humane Society. We all know when a dog or
    kitten lives there, they run risk of being euthanized.
    Personally I grew up with dogs, I have never been
    a kitten or cat person, but I am a dog lover. Since living
    on my own at 18, I knew that even though I was accustomed to
    having a dog roaming around and that loving face to come
    home to, that it was a major expense. One at that, that I
    could just not afford. For 5 years now I have gone without
    having my own pet and lived vicariously through friends and
    family. I realize that this was probably a mature decision
    that I have made these past five years and wish that there
    was some way to enforce pet owners to realize an animal is
    just like a person. They need shots, medical attention,
    grooming of some sort, possible surgeries and if you can
    not afford any of the above for a pet, than you should think
    twice about having and owning a pet. Hats off to Christine
    for the cigarette comment.
    I do also see that it would be tremendously hard
    and nearly impossible to keep track of every dog and cat
    born, who owns it, what shots it has had, and whether it has
    been spayed. I think it is not a likely solution for all the
    poor animals that currently are homeless or in a home where the
    owner can not afford to spay and care for them to remain that way. However, better late than never, a simple database could possibly help with animals being spayed and their information.
    I, myself am now a pet owner of a female Chihuahua. I
    got her from a "breeder" whom had not provided the puppy the
    shots they said they had. While I sometimes regret not going
    to the Humane Society to 'save a life' I feel like I have
    saved a life, I have gotten this dog spayed and up to date on
    shots.
    Overall, I think that with some changes, trial and
    error this could be a great law for society.

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