Great News - My Favorite Thing!!

That is great news.

The only thing I mildly disagree with is not to ever buy pets from breeders. I believe it's important to support QUALITY breeders as they keep the characteristics of breeds alive. QUALITY breeders also breed for intelligence, disposition and health. And IMO, it's very important to keep good DNA in the pet gene pool.

Often, it's much cheaper to buy a dog from a QUALITY breeder for $1000 that has been bred for health, than it is to pay vet bills down the road because a pet dog has some type of health problems due to poor breeding. Not to mention, the emotional pain of having a dog that has health problems.

So IMO, either get a pet from the shelter or support QUALTIY, caring breeders.

That really is something to celebrate, Kay!

We have a commercial all the time from some national humane org and the pictures and music are just heart-breaking - showing abused and neglected dogs, cats, horses, baby seals and even cows - and it shows the expression on their faces and they look so depressed- as if their feelings are really hurt on top of whatever their physical problems are.

'is somebody going to feed me today'?
'am i going to die today'?

I will tell you it is just gut wrenching to watch - but it really makes you aware that your $18 a month or whatever they are asking could save one of these precious little beings.

I wish I had 10 of them - well even 1 of them would do.

Keep up the good work!

That's terrific. Very glad to hear the numbers are reversing.

We're a rescue-only family. We have two right now. I'd have four or five, but I don't really have the space or the inclination to spend half my day with a pooper scooper in hand.

Kay,

That is wonderful news!

Perhaps pet mortality rate finally provides something in which Mississippi doesn't rank fiftieth of the fifty states.

Just kidding. I have enjoyed visiting beautiful Mississippi many times, except one January many years ago when I got stranded in a motel by a blizzard.

I love my two dogs to distraction. One we adopted from the local shelter; the other showed up one day as a bedraggled stray at our front gate. The love and pleasure they give us far outweighs the cost of maintaining them.

At various times, our household has included as many as six dogs at once. Three of those passed away from natural causes at ages ranging from twelve to fifteen years. For a couple of them we found other homes, as there were personality conflicts that sometimes led to furious encounters.

My heart goes out to the many neglected and abused dogs that are all around us. I simply cannot fathom how anybody could be so cruel to these lovely creatures. I do what I can to redress the balance.

I hope all Warriors will read this thread and take action to address the issue in their communities.

That is great news. I have not looked into this for a while, but where I live it seems all shelters in the region could work together towards that kind of record. They'd have to rework some policies and local regulations...

Also strongly encourage people to do breed research before they buy or adopt.

Example: I love Huskys, but they need to run (the Iditiarod is a 110 mile per day pace), can be escape artists, howlers when left alone, very stubborn, and fighters... They tend to end up in shelters at around one year old because the owners did not know of their tendencies and that they do require special handling.

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My vet is so anti-kill that she rescued four ten month old large, large mix, unsocialized dogs that animal control had two counties away and they were going to put them all down. She got them trained and socialized and adopted. In the process, one escaped and was wild in the woods for a few days before she spotted it. She was able to tranquilize it, but it did not lay down for a couple of miles.

So here is this 105 pound woman going a couple of miles in the snow after this 110 lbs Pyrenees mix, and carrying it back to her truck. All ended well.

The face says it all...

3m - That's a great pic and reminds me of what our firefighters now do here in Canada.

When our firefighters are called upon, they now have the equipment to help save animals - oxygen which is vital if they are to survive and the firefighters are now equipped with special animal-sized oxygen masks.

It's amazing to see news stories about animals that have been saved - kudos to our firefighters. They don't give up - I recall one story about a family dog that was given oxygen for well over 30 minutes. That dog survived thanks to them.

I hope this is now common practice everywhere, or soon to be.