It seems like every year at this time we get a huge litter of puppies at the SPCA of Mariposa County. The puppies this year are 10 of the cutest I have seen and that is saying a lot, because I have taken thousands of puppy photos. I always try to get a photo of all the puppies together. This is no easy task. Just getting 10 puppies in one place and at one time to look at you and be able to see all of them is almost impossible. That never seems to deter me from trying. This year I had the help of Joe, my husband and Patti the SPCA kennel attendant. Another thing that made it harder this year was that I had knee replacement surgery about a month ago. I sat in a chair with rollers and I snapped away while Patti and Joe tried to make sure I could see them all.
Just because these puppies are cute and will probably
find good homes doesn't mean that this mother shouldn't have been spayed. The SPCA gets lots of puppies that are not cute
each year. We try our best to find good homes for all of them, but there just aren't enough families that want dogs.
People like us, who spend most of our “free” time rescuing homeless dogs, always offer one big reason for spaying or neutering your dog: the appalling pet overpopulation problem that results in thousands of pets being euthanized (killed) every day.
Some 70,000 puppies and kittens are born every day in the U.S.
Between four million and six million pets are euthanized every year because they are homeless.
That means between 11,000 and 16,000 pets are euthanized every day simply because they are homeless.
An animal in a shelter is killed every 1.5 seconds.
Only one animal in 10 born in the U.S. gets a good home that lasts a lifetime.
These alarming statistics present a good enough reason, all by themselves, for preventing more pet animal births. Simply put, the widespread failure to spay or neuter dogs results in homelessness, misery, cruelty, and death.
Please Spay and Neuter your animals.
For more information: The Humane Society of the United States
http://www.hsus.org/pets/pet_care/why_you_should_spay_or_
neuter_your_pet.html
