Animal Shelter Vs Animal Adoption Research Paper

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“In the U.S which has the largest number of pets in the world, 20-30 million cats and dogs are destroyed every year after being discarded by their owner” (“4 Animal Entertainers”). Most of the owner’s animals or even stray animals end up in local animal shelters waiting to be adopted or sadly be put down due to different circumstances. While millions of animals sit inside the confines of the shelter hoping one day that they could feel again loving arms of a family, breeders continue to mass produce pure breed dogs that although beautiful are well out of the price range for the average American family, therefore many end up in shelters creating a vicious cycle. Adopting is a much better option than buying at a pet store or from a breeder, …show more content…
The family decision is to make the animal part of their family and they choose to love and pamper that animal with all their heart and with provide them the best environments they can. Even with the very best of intentions, sometimes the most unexpected happens and they need to face the sadness of placing their animal into a shelter. Unfortunately the animal is unaware of what is going on, possibly thinking they are on their way for a checkup but as minutes, days and even weeks tick by they still believe that their owner will come back, but one day the person who shows up is the shelter worker who is there to begin the euthanasia process. A doctor waits outside the door explaining the need to put the animal down due to the shelter being overcrowded and the adoption limit having expired. The doctor puts the animal down on the table and pokes it with a catheter and then another needle goes in and medicine is pushed in and as the animal lying down it starts to close its eyes and it ends its life. According to the American Humane Society about one half of all dogs and approximately ¾ of all cats that enter animal shelters are euthanized. Cats are often euthanized more than dogs because they are more likely to enter an animal shelter not having any owner identification. When animals are in shelters they become really unhappy, terrified, lonely and even bored and some of the animals that have been in the shelters for a long amount of time have the potential to become dangerous and unadoptable and so the shelter has no choice but to proceed with the euthanasia. This is partly due to overcrowding, but mainly because of the potential danger. In some cases when a family makes the painful decision to drop their animal off at the