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It's not acceptable to
discard animals
September 4, 2008
When we want to discard clothes that don't fit, we often give them
away, and when a sofa is worn past the point of our comfort zone we
often place it on the curb for pickup. Tragically, there are folks
who seem to have the same mind-set when it comes to their pets.
It's a painful reality and anyone who lives near an area where
there's a lot of open land has likely experienced finding a stray
dog or cat on their property. Rather than leaving an animal behind,
alone in an abandoned house, tied to a tree or discarded in an open
field, we urge people to bring these animals to an animal shelter.
Shelters, especially an open-admission shelter like the Louisiana
SPCA, accept animals under any circumstances. Judgments are not made
and temporary shelter is provided to protect the animals from a
dangerous life on the streets. The ultimate goal is to help the
animals find a new home and a better life.
When pets that no longer are cared for are allowed to wander out on
their own, this behavior teaches children that it's OK to do this.
If a parent, for example, allows a pet to sire litter after litter
and then simply casts out litter mates that are not placed in homes,
they are teaching their children that animals are objects rather
than living beings and that we don't bear a moral responsibility for what
happens to them.
Just recently, in an ongoing project, my colleagues and I had an
opportunity to view archives dating back more than 100 years about
the history of the LA/SPCA. These documents revealed some of the
practices representative of the times that would raise an outcry by
today's standards.
We have evolved to a better place, but the key to evolving further
is continual education. It's spreading the word to co-workers,
families, friends and most importantly our children and future
generations that animals can't simply be discarded like an old sofa.
-
Gloria Dauphin
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