The amount of homeless people in the U.S. is quite high, being in the millions most likely. But have the people of the U.S. ever bother to stop and think on how much more stray animals there is compared to homeless people? “Homeless animals outnumber homeless people 5 to 1.” (Dosomething.org, 2018) This is only due to the overwhelming several animals in the U.S. alone. Though unlike homeless people, strays are being abandoned, abused, and even killed off by people.
The safety of animals continues to decrease from the pets that are abused and neglected by unfit owners to the owners that straight up abandon their pets into the wild or at shelters, even owners that have their pets work or fight each other to the death for their personal gain. At the end of the day, a stray pet is in as much possible danger as a homeless person if not more. Looking at it from another view, it is nearly impossible to decide the number of strays in the U.S. alone due to how badly animals outnumber humans.
The number of animals that are sent to the animal shelter is outrageous, even to the point that shelters have been turning down anymore animals as they have been out of room for a while now. Owners who leave their pets at the shelter fail to realize that they are either having their pets be euthanized or stuck in a cage for the rest of their lives.
Sure, there might be the few that manage to get adopted but when comparing that small number of pets to the larger number of pets that are stuck in the shelter for the rest of their lives until they are euthanized, it is hardly noticeable “Of the approximately 6.5 million companion animals who enter shelters nationwide every year, approximately 3.3 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cat.” (ASPCA, 2018) When a pet is abandoned by their owner, this is what knocks down their trust towards humans. It is exactly how humans on this planet that is called Earth works. If people were to continue messing with someone’s trust, this will lead to that someone not being able to trust anyone.
The list doesn’t even end here, as local animal shelters are more likely to not have the proper equipment and medicine to neuter the animals there. “Each year, approximately 7.6 million animals enter animal shelters nationwide—and nearly 3 million don’t make it out.” (ASPCA, 2018) With nearly half of the number of animals entering animal shelters to not make it out each year, the numbers continue to increase each year as time goes on.
The definition of an unfit pet owner is an owner who does not care for the wellbeing of their pet, an owner that thinks it is alright to beat and neglect their pet. Animal abuse has gone on for as long as both humans and animals have been. Unfit owners see this as the only way to discipline animals and thanks to owners thinking this way, it has increased the number of times they are abused each day around the world. It has gotten to the point where the owners starve and even kill their pets.
A good example of how badly animals are being treated is a puppy mill. “The goal of puppy mills is to produce the largest number of puppies as quickly as possible, without consideration of genetic quality or the care of the animals.” (Animal Legal Defense Fund, 2018) Even though a puppy mill only focuses on dogs, look at how only dogs are being treated and this isn’t even the worse for other animals.
When it comes to the brutal injuries and merciless deaths, there are sadly a handful of ways that animals must worry about, which mostly includes dogs. The more commonly known places where all this take places is during dog fights and Greyhound racing.
“Although fights are not usually to the death, many dogs succumb to their injuries later, and losing dogs are often discarded, killed or brutally executed as part of the sport.” (ASPCA, 2018) This can also be said for the Greyhound racing as they receive broken bones, paralysis, and electrocution. And this is only for the dogs that are injured, as the dogs that do manage to survive the race but not win are disposed with soon afterwards.
After everything that animals do for humanity for as long they have both been here, this seems to be the thanks that they receive till this day and it gets worse as the years go on. Animals do not deserve to be treated the way they are being treated. Killed off and disabled for the rest of their lives for the personal gain of civilization? Left to rot on the streets and in animal shelters?
Abused and neglected by the very people that they thought they could trust? Animals are just like humans, living creatures on this planet Earth that have emotions and feelings. With this going on for as long as it has, there are many questions that is being asked. Why is this going on way longer than anything else that involved a living species on this planet.
