Letter to the Editor: Animal breeding is rampant, wrong

So, today I would like to talk about a personal problem to me. I’m an animal lover and it kills me to see or hear that some breeders are breeding animals when there are plenty of good animals that are already existing and enduring too little space in shelters. Some people are paying hundreds or thousands from breeders thinking it makes their animal “better” but most of the time they will just look better but physically they won’t. As an example, society loves small dogs so, some breeders will breed small dogs not caring about their health, often females are way too young to be bred and once they reach a point of no longer reproducing, they are simply left to die.

Then sometimes they are sold to pet stores without knowing. But that’s just one problem. Also, the more they breed means fewer animals in shelters that get a new home. Some breeders don’t care at all about the animal and are just doing it for the money, which means the breeders could be hurting their health and hygiene.

As a child, I wanted animals to all be treated the same but nowadays that’s not the case. In some cases, young animals are being sold in days but older animals are there for months or years then end up being killed. Did you know that every 1.5 million shelters are killing 870,000 dogs and 860,000 cats (www.aspca.org)? Is this the kind of world we want to show children that if something is too old that we need to throw it away?

NO, that isn’t how it should be. To the public, I think people should try to stand up to this problem and try to fix it, and not just say they are going to fix it but to really fix it. I also think shelters should try harder to give animals a good, loving home. Or if you are thinking about getting an animal to make sure you get it from a shelter or from someone you trust, don’t just buy an animal from a dark alleyway. I hope you have a good day and consider my recommendations.

Lindsey Peterson

Brandon