The Companion-Animal Overpopulation Crisis
PETA cares deeply about the issue of euthanasia and the work of PETA US to end the companion-animal overpopulation crisis. We are glad that you care. To read about what PETA US is doing to help unwanted animals in their own backyard and why they offer a euthanasia service, please see the following articles:
- A Gentle Hand for the Toughest Cases
- Meet Some of the Animals PETA US Helped in 2011
- Pepper’s Story: Justice for a Forgotten Victim
- An Open Door for Animals in Need
- The Stories Behind the Statistics
- Will You Nip Just One Birthing Machine in the Bud?
- Placing the Blame Where it Belongs
PETA US is on the front lines in the battle against animal homelessness. Their field workers are on duty around the clock, and their emergency pager is always on. During hurricanes, snowstorms, heat waves and cold snaps, they are out helping cats stuck in tree tops and drainage ditches, ducklings stranded in sewer pipes and dogs left to die at the end of a chain – any animal who needs help, anytime and anywhere. Some of the animals they take in are lost companion animals whom they eventually reunite with grateful guardians, while others are taken to local agencies where they will have a chance to be adopted. PETA US helps guardians keep their animal companions by offering counselling tips, helping to find animal-friendly housing and assisting in providing humane care. But they also take responsibility for the animals nobody wants – the sick, the scarred and broken, the elderly, the aggressive and unsocialised and the perfectly healthy ones who are thrown away like last year’s fad toy. They do everything in their power to help these animals. They treat their injuries if they can, they feed them, they love them with all their hearts and they give them a safe place to rest, if that’s what the animal needs. Sometimes such animals need the comfort of being put out of their misery – a painless release from a world in which they were abused and unwanted.
PETA US is not alone in this work: millions of homeless animals are euthanised in animal shelters and veterinary offices across America because of simple math: too many animals, not enough suitable homes. As many as 8 million animals flood U.S. animal shelters annually, and half must be euthanised. Even if those 8 million animals could be placed with loving families, there would be up to 8 million more the next year, and the year after that.
The answer lies in prevention. We must stop irresponsible guardians, backyard breeders and puppy-millers who churn out litters without a thought as to where these helpless animals will go. PETA US runs three mobile spay-and-neuter clinics, serving low-income residents in Virginia and North Carolina. The clinics offer free and low-cost sterilization surgeries as well as other services, such as flea and tick treatments, vaccinations and deworming. Since starting their first mobile clinic in 2001, they have sterilized nearly 80,000 animals, including 10,564 in 2011 alone.
Finally, please know that a lot of the misleading and outright false rumours that are spread concerning the efforts of PETA US are the work of the deceitfully named “Center for Consumer Freedom” (CCF), a front group for Philip Morris, Outback Steakhouse, KFC, cattle ranchers, and other animal exploiters who kill millions of animals every year – not out of compassion, but out of greed. To learn more about CCF – whose website USA Today said should be renamed “FatforProfit.com” – please see the following websites:
We hope that this message has shed some light on PETA US’ work. Please read more about the challenges that those of us here in Britain and Europe face in helping companion animals, and also consider taking action.
