I Am Sick of the Death

I am sick of my Facebook newsfeed being filled with appeals to save this dog with only one day to live before it is killed. 

I am sick of posts about some poor dog that has been confined to a kennel run in an animal shelter for the past two or three years. I am sick of people refusing to have their dogs and cats spayed or neutered, thus contributing to the millions -- yes, millions -- of pet animals killed each year because there is no room, and there are no homes, for them.

I worked in a large California humane society for 8 years in the 1980s. Sadly, the past 35 years have seen little improvement in the number of animals killed each year for lack of space. Some 3 to 4 million companion animals are killed in this country every year.

I have adopted 15 dogs over the years, some from humane societies, some from rescue groups, and some directly from their previous families. All were spayed or neutered except one. He, sadly, died before he could be neutered. But he never added to the surplus pet problem.

The problem of too many dogs and cats is one that can be, and should be, corrected. 

I cannot solve the overpopulation problem on my own.

Whenever a post appears in my newsfeed about a dog in urgent need of adoption or rescue, I block that organization so I don't see any more of its pleasing posts. This is particularly true of animal shelters in other states. 

I cannot adopt the millions of dogs in need of new homes. I cannot donate enough money to fix this problem. It is a problem of human making. Humans have allowed this problem to continue for many decades. Only humans, collectively, can solve this problem.

I cannot continue to be besieged by stories of dogs needing urgent rescue. These stories hurt my soul, and my soul has been hurt far too much. I do what I can to help, but besieging me with more sad dog stories isn't the answer. 

I am currently looking for another dog to adopt. That is all I can do.