A Note from Bill (Sunday 3/10/02) ...

Once again I must point out the obvious: The problem of overpopulation of dogs (and cats) is not going to be solved by adoption alone. There are TOO many homeless dogs (and cats) out there. There are NOT enough homes for them. While I write this note our fellow human beings are busy killing the "surplus" of dogs (and cats)--which is now (and has been for a long, long time) the accepted method of dealing with overpopulation.

The solution--controlling conception via spay and neuter--is SO simple, SO relatively inexpensive and SO achievable, and yet the killing goes on and on and on. I find myself in total despair every time I think about the problem.

But the following calendar photo of a mother wolf and her pup reminds us again of why we MUST (and WILL) keep rescuing and trying to adopt out as many of the homeless as we can while at the same time continuing to try to get everyone to WAKE UP and spay and neuter their dogs (and cats):

And it's the same deal today with mother dogs (who are, of course, descendants of mother wolves). We take mother dogs' puppies, and when we do, we make an agreement with the mother dog to care for her babies for life. Civilized human beings don't kill their "surplus" dogs and cats. Civilized human beings figure out a way to stop dogs and cats from over breeding--and QUICK!

      Please help find ways to make more people aware of the tragic overpopulation problem, currently being alleviated throughout the world by the killing of healthy young (as well as older) dogs (and cats). We must make everyone aware of what must be done to stop the killing and solve the problem right now:

      Changing the mindset of the vast majority of us humans to no-kill will mean we (all of us) will have to take care of the existing "surplus" in no-kill shelters like Straydog (continuing always to adopt out as many as we can) until there is no longer a surplus, which will happen when we get everyone to spay and neuter their pets.

      With no-kill as our mindset everyone will very quickly realize how expensive it is to run (and continue to maintain) no-kill shelters and how less expensive it will be to control population via spay and neuter rather than continuing to build more and more no-kill animal shelters. With no-kill as our mindset we will ultimately (and hopefully very quickly) eliminate the "surplus" of dogs (and cats) via the only acceptable method: Conception Control via spay and neuter.

      We will know we have achieved Conception Control when Killing (or allowing to die prematurely) is no longer an accepted method of population control.

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