Dead Dog Walkin'

[kellychaos]

Are New York and California in a contest to determine which is the hotbed for stupid legislation. How about, instead of arguing over euthenasia intrinsic value, they consider placing fines on people who neglect spaying/neutering their pets and even heavier fines on people caught abandoning pets. I seriously don't see the merits of this legislation. It's like taking a dump at a skunk farm.

Animal Lovers Campaign for a 'No-Kill' New York

Fri November 7, 2003 02:31 PM ET

By Larry Fine
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Last year 30,000 dogs and cats were killed in New York shelters, and animal lovers are galvanized to save some lives by encouraging Big Apple residents to adopt strays to find the pet of their dreams.

New York animal lovers and metropolitan shelters announced an ad campaign on Friday aimed at limiting euthanasia and turning Gotham into a "no-kill" city. And, using new technology, they unveiled a Pet-ATM to encourage pet adoption.

Actresses Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters, who both have adopted dogs, helped New York City Animal Care & Control launch the campaign and interactive adoption service to find homes for 50,000 animals in the shelters.

"We put down 30,000 dogs and cats last year and we're going to stop it," said Moore. "We have a goal, and it's a reasonable goal. We're going to make New York City a no-kill city."

Ads promoting pet adoption are going up in subways and taxicabs, on billboards and in newspapers, to "get the message out to get a pet by adopting rather than buying," Moore said about the privately funded initiative.

To make adopting easier, computer technology will be used in a Pet-ATM system called ARK, or Animal Rescue Kiosk. ARKs will be placed in some 50 city shelters and eventually in libraries and other public places.

"It's like a dog and cat ATM," explained Peters. "You can find out who is available in all the shelters. You see a photo of the dog. You can search by breeds, you get descriptions."

ARK will also help distraught owners locate lost pets which find their way to a shelter.

Steering the project is Animal Care & Control's executive director, Ed Boks, the former head of Arizona's Maricopa County Animal Care & Control, the largest pet adoption agency in the United States and first municipal "no kill" shelter.

"Ordinarily it's very tough in a community to implement a no-kill program, but New Yorkers seem to embrace it. I'm very optimistic," he said.

[Jeanette X]

It is a sad reality that euthanisia is neccesary to control the animal populations. If it can be avoided, great, but if it has to be done, it has to be done.
And I definetely agree with you Kelly. "Backyard breeders" who breed their pets irresponsibly are a major factor in animal overpopulation.
My own dog was found abandoned at a recycling center as a pup. If nobody had adopted him, he would have been destroyed. People who abandon animals make me sick.

[El Blanco]

"We put down 30,000 dogs and cats last year and we're going to stop it," said Moore. "We have a goal, and it's a reasonable goal. We're going to make New York City a no-kill city."

Does the word "rabies" ring a bell?

And can you really force people fix their pets?

[kellychaos]

Unfortunately, you can't really force people to fix their pets as, I'm willing to bet, most pets are muts and other than vet records, there's no way to trace that a person is a pet owner at all. What you can do; however, is to provide some kind of incentive for pet owners to fix there pets and make the cost of that particular procedure so nominal that cost wouldn't be so much of a concern. I don't particularly like the fact that pets have to be euthanized in order to control the population but realistically, until people start showing a keener interest in "planned parenthood", I don't see a better option. Besides, have you ever been to a local dog pound? I was considering getting a dog from one and came to realize, through inspection, that the majority of them were either sick or ill-tempered. I actually took an alaskan husky home for a few days and he growled and bared his teeth at me for no reason ... back to the pound he went. You never know how previous owners may have abused their pets.

[Jeanette X]

It is true that dogs in pounds are often ill-tempered or sick. But occasionally there is a decent one.