Should You Adopt a Shelter Animal?

Jul 13, 2020

"Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened."
-Anatole France

Buying Lives

If you are considering bringing an animal into your life, then the only option is to adopt or rescue. To purchase an animal from a breeder or pet store makes them your property; you own them. It creates a level of hierarchy between you and the animal, with you being the master and they being nothing more than an expensive gift. There is no other situation in the world in which good people buy the lives of others because buying living beings is a slave trade. We give the traders money in exchange for someone that will serve a specific function in our lives. With animals, that function is to make us happy.

This may seem like an outlandish claim to make -- calling the breeding industry a slave trade -- but if we simply were to replace the dogs with children, there would be international outrage over this industry: "Open this present first, sweetie! Look, it's that baby you wanted from the kid store!" And how barbaric would it be to force humans to breed, a word so animalistic that to use it for humans is incredibly degrading, force the females to give birth, and then steal and sell her babies. Over and over and over again. There's nothing compassionate or humane in that.

A Shelter Tragedy

By purchasing an animal instead of adopting, you are also condemning a shelter animal to death. Each year, about 1.5 million animals are killed in American shelters. And though they may call it euthanasia, it is not. A life can only be taken through euthanization if they are in such pain that allowing them to live is more cruel than ending their suffering. But many shelters simply do not have the capacity to take in every animal they receive; so, they kill off the old, the ones with health problems (however minor), and the unsociable or aggressive.

My dog, my beautiful little Jolie, was one of those dogs on the docket for death at the county's open admission shelter. Thankfully, she was rescued by a local no-kill shelter, where we found each other. Though she was only three years old at the time, she had heartworms (and a little bit of an attitude), which is why I suspect she would have been killed. Now, three years later, she's my furry ball of sunshine. She is the sweetest, prettiest, most wonderful companion I could have ever asked for; she's perfect.

Puppy Mills

Nearly all pet store animals come from large-scale breeding operations, commonly referred to as puppy mills. Though the babies that come from these facilities seem fine behind the plexiglass at the pet store, the ones remaining at the mill are in far worse condition. Their parents are trapped in small cages, allowed no physical or psychological stimulation, simply circling their prison for hours on end. The babies are born and raised in filth, and some are too weak to survive.

This doesn't let breeders off the hook, though, because not all small-scale breeders care about their animals' welfare, either. When I worked at a doggy daycare, we, unfortunately, had tons of breeder puppies, and there was one specific breeder that really stood out to us as problematic (to say the least). The bitch -- the word used for a breeding female dog, which I will most certainly be discussing in my swear word edition of Animal Insults, particularly as the human connotation compares to the male counterpart, the stud -- always came in for grooming with matted hair and fleas. Our clients came in with the floppy, dopey Labradoodle puppies, but they never saw how mistreated their fur babies' mother was. However, even if the breeder kept the dogs under pristine conditions and cared for them wonderfully, that doesn't change the fact that exploiting someone's reproductive system to make money is immoral.

Psychological Issues

Many people are under the assumption that purchasing an animal from a breeder or pet store as a baby automatically means they will be well-behaved; some people are even willing to spend thousands of dollars on puppies from show dogs or purebreds with desirable bloodlines, as if that will somehow influence the puppies' temperament. However, just like with human babies, puppies and kittens and every other baby animal cannot be easily controlled.

In my experience, these puppies often have very serious mental health issues: separation anxiety, unprovoked aggression, and perhaps worst of all, the inability to communicate with other dogs effectively. In the first couple months of life, puppies learn dog language. Their mothers teach them how to interact with their siblings, how to understand warning signals, and how to express their feelings. But often at just six weeks old, the puppies are taken away and sold to their owners before getting a good grasp on this. Therefore, they don't understand what it means when that crotchety older dog at the park growls at them to back off, which could result in fights and injuries. Sometimes, they can't cope with being left at home for eight hours a day, destroying their bed, urinating over everything, or having panic attacks.

Now, that's not to say that shelter animals are perfect and will never have these kinds of issues. Like I said above, whenever you bring a baby into your life -- particularly if the animal has been a victim of abuse -- it requires hard work and training, and you must be prepared to devote nearly all your time to watching them and teaching them, and that's exhausting. It's much like having a human baby, except these ones never grow up to care for themselves.

Endless Possibilities

However, one of the overlooked, incredible aspects about adopting is that you can choose the animal you want! You can visit the shelter and interact with them, learn their personalities, and form genuine bonds with them before finally bringing them home; you can even foster them to see if you'll be a good fit together. That kind of personalized care and informative information is rare from a breeder; they just want to get your money and go.

Many people are afraid of shelter animals because they might be too aggressive or destroy the furniture or be too difficult to train, but when you buy from a breeder, those fears will likely be realized. Rescuing a shelter animal means you can find an animal with the exact personality that matches you: maybe you want a lazy cat to keep you company while living alone, or an energetic puppy to race around the yard with your kids. The possibilities are endless when it comes to adoption!

Adopt, Don't Shop!

Adopting an animal is an incredibly rewarding experience, and though we have come far in recent years with more people choosing to adopt than ever, there are still so many animals being exploited and purchased by so-called animal lovers. So, let's spread the word: Animal lovers don't buy animals; we rescue them.

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