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- 21
Paper, Plastic, or Dog: Our Disposable Society Takes On a New Life
Posted by Kris Lecakes Haley at 4:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)
These days, you can’t turn on the TV or look at a magazine without being “greened.” We’re guided to the best green car, the most savory green restaurant, or the most efficient green energy system. Emissions are examined, and thermostats are tightened-and our belts are not far behind. We compost, compact, and conserve, lest our carbon footprint inch a size larger, all for the sake of the environment.
We reuse items to the point of disintegration, and what we don’t reuse, we recycle, carefully checking each category of plastic and glass. We seek water that is grey, build our homes with hay, and try to biodegrade in each and every way!
We’ve made great green progress. However, the disposable society we strive to deter has taken on a new life-a living, breathing life, or actually, lives. Trumping the dilemma of disposable products are the saddest recyclables of all: animals who have become victims of a national overpopulation epidemic.
Tens of thousands of puppies and kittens are born in the U.S. each day. Each year, 6 to 8 million animals are found on the streets or surrendered to animal shelters with only half, 3 to 4 million of them, “recycled” into new homes, which means that each year, 3 to 4 million animals must be euthanized for the lack of a good home.
Sadly, in our society, recycling trash seems to hold a place of greater importance than sparing animals homelessness, suffering, and needless deaths. It happens every day. The poor economy is frequently cited as animal companions are abandoned at veterinary offices or worse, left behind to starve in abandoned, foreclosed homes.
What does that say about us as a society? Why is it that we do a better job at recycling used cans than we do these precious lives? Why won’t our disposable society take on a new life?
I think we should be able to apply the same logic to animal companions. If these discarded sentient beings are lucky - they will be indeed “recycled.” Why not consider a “green,” recycled dog or cat as your next family member and adopt one of many perfectly good companion animals from an animal shelter as opposed to visiting a pet store or a breeder? If our society began to see these abandoned angels as “green,” imagine this new and expanded definition of sustainable stewardship! A new, rich, and truly responsible shade of green.
Have you taken on a “new” life? Tell us about your “green” animal companion!
Posted to Family & Friends | Posted to Tags: cat, Cats, dog, Dogs, Environment, green, Kris Lecakes Haley, recycle, shelter
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Bill says...
October 22nd, 2009, 7:01 pm
The apartment I live in doesn’t allow pets. But I spend a lot of time outdoors where I enjoy meeting my wild neighbors. At the lake where I kayak I prefer wild animals but I also meet two kinds of captive canines, each living in drastically different circumstances. At one end of the lake there’s a wolf sanctuary that takes in illegally owned wolves which have been confiscated by law enforcement. Here they live out their lives as naturally as possible in packs roaming around large outdoor enclosures with minimal human interference. They spend their time running or just loafing on acres of open air, trees, and dirt. I love to hear their howling in the early morning. At the other end of the lake there’s a puppy mill. I often hear the dogs barking from their row of cramped wire cages. There’s no outdoor run for them. Not as lucky as the rescued wolves these dogs are just another source of income for a dairy farmer. It pains me to hear their barking. I wish everyone who buys from a breeder had to pay a heavy tax with that money going to support and operate shelters and sanctuaries. Maybe that would encourage more people to adopt instead of buy.
Laura says...
October 23rd, 2009, 5:11 pm
Right on!!! My dogs are as green as they get & will be with me for life! I don’t understand how anyone could do any different. Pets are part of the family, just like any human family member, and they ar NOT disposable!
Pam says...
October 23rd, 2009, 5:16 pm
Unfortunately in the past year with the economy in serious trouble, many pet owners who lose their jobs and homes also lose their beloved pets.
I foster for a local humane organization and have seen many of the animals that we had found good homes for returned by owners in tears because they can no longer care for their pets. I have also seen a sharp decline in the number of new adoptions and this makes the situation harder.
What can we do? Keep trying and keep pushing for pet owners who havn’t to get their pets spayed and neutered and yes please recycle those who don’t have homes instead of breeding and buying from pet shops.
Jana Friedman says...
October 23rd, 2009, 5:19 pm
It’s a wonderful idea…I just wish more people understood the importance of this. I have a cat, Opie, that I got 8 years ago from the SPCA and I love her with all my might. Now I have 3 budgies that I adopted from Mickaboo domestic bird sanctuary…their motto, don’t breed, don’t buy, but adopt and be a forever home for a sweet bird (all sorts…from small to large birds).
My cat gets slong with them fine…she has accepted them.
This is a wonderful article. I hope people read it and do the right thing!
Alicia says...
October 23rd, 2009, 5:37 pm
I have 3 female dogs, two of them rescued. They are my family the best companions in the world. Hopefully people would end buying them and leave them heartbroken it is really horrible what they do, they would never do it.
Love, Alicia
Lana Badouin says...
October 23rd, 2009, 5:45 pm
My husband and I always take in any strays, cat or dog, that we find. We try to get them back to their owners, but when that is not possible( and usually it is not), we find them a good forever home. Our latest was a 10 year old terrier mix. He was in terrible shape with rotting teeth and a lump in his abdomine the size of a fist. I had him groomed, teeth extracted, and lump (his spleen) removed. Thankfully it was not cancer. When we got him, he was terrified of people. I have worked with him using positive reinforcement, and he has come a long way, even wagging his tail when he sees us. Since he is 10 years old, he will probable continue to stay with my pack of 4 other dogs and 3 cats. I love it.
MARSHA GILBERT says...
October 23rd, 2009, 6:11 pm
I have seven dogs, and only one of them I actually bought from someone who had the puppies. Two of them were left at Kmart where I work, one of them was starved and had the mange really bad, the other was just left. Another one was left behind when the owners packed up and left her behind during a really cold winter. One just showed up at my house. One belonged to my neighbor who did not feed him or treat his mange. And my last one belonged to another neighbor who had other dogs and could not take another one, so I did. I call them my babies, and they are all doing just fine…tequila,sage,shaggy, squirt, olive, pebbles, and piper…six girls and one boy…..all fixed!!!!!
Matt Green says...
October 23rd, 2009, 6:14 pm
Great point of view. I totally support this idea.
regina sigal says...
October 23rd, 2009, 6:16 pm
First of all I do not beleive in the national psychosis of everything “green”.
Millions of people who eat meat never understand that they are eating
animals. About animal overpopulation I don’t think there is any
solution. When I think about poor animals my heart is breaking and I
immidiatly have an anxiety attacks. I do my share by adopting 2 dogs
and 2 cats and sending money to PITA, HSUS, ASPCA and others
I know it’s a drop in the ocean, but at least I can sleep at night.
Ms Lois Koch says...
October 23rd, 2009, 6:33 pm
Oh, boy! This reminds me of those awful stories what aliens can and will do to human beings! I guess we REALLY act like that in our animal friends minds!!
Sheila Cal says...
October 23rd, 2009, 6:39 pm
I have “recycled” three dogs already! These are the best recycling projects I have ever achieved! The eldest passed last year, but I’m recycling my loving memories towards him every single day. The other two, my lovely girls, (one lives at my parents’) and since I got married I took up “recycling” and got a lovely baby left in the street with her siblings within hours from being born. These are the most rewarding recycling projects to be done!
Finn Skovgaard says...
October 23rd, 2009, 7:25 pm
Although I already have 5-6 cats, depending on which ones I count, I’m bottle feeding six kittens out of which the semi-wild mother left three, one a day, under my car, for me to adopt for some reason. I found the other three in a cold corner in the garage and decided to reunite them with the ‘outcasts’ I was already feeding. If I’d left them with their mother, they would again have become wild cats and continued breeding. I realise now that bottle feeding six kittens is hard work, as is keeping them clean, but I simply couldn’t just ask the vet to put them down. The next challenge is how to capture the semi-wild mother when she comes in to eat so she can be sterilised and the breeding circle broken. Any ideas anyone? If anyone near Avignon, France, wants a kitten to let me know.
Gail Richardson says...
October 23rd, 2009, 9:15 pm
Every single one of the many kitty-cats I’ve adopted over the years has been a rescue, a giveaway at the vet’s, an orphan, a stray, or given to me by owners who could not keep them.
Tammy says...
October 23rd, 2009, 11:25 pm
That would be so wonderful if people can start to give animals the second chance (or third or fourth in some cases) that garbage gets!
Our permanent family members have all been rescues, but besides that we foster dogs from a local one woman run rescue. My daughter and I have fostered at least 20 dogs in the last year who have all been re-homed! I am saying this because I didn’t know about the need for foster homes til recently. Most rescue groups are only able to operate with the help of foster homes. Where else would they put 40-50 dogs!!?
If anyone is open to sharing their home with a needy, often neglected or abused or just dumped dog, please, go to http://WWW.PETFINDER.COM and find the rescue groups in your area and give a dog, cat, etc a chance at a life that they otherwise wouldn’t have. If not you, then who??
Daisy says...
October 24th, 2009, 1:52 am
Sadly, this is just and evil society…too many people…too many buildings…too many things, and nothing really matters, there is no meaning, there is no purpose, just a few caring souls that do not make up a third of the whole population! God is quietly looking down…and it is not looking pretty!
Alysoun Mahoney says...
October 24th, 2009, 8:30 am
Yes - I’ve taken on TEN new lives in the last 17 years, as a matter of fact!
Photos together with some bios at my Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=155274&id=1541805064&l=3e76a79a85
Angela and Hans Geekers says...
October 24th, 2009, 1:48 pm
We frist met Megan when we were living in New Zealand. She was in the amimal shelter of the S.P.C.A. a sad, jumpy, timid little girl with five pups and only a year old. She is now four. Happy, running on beaches and walking in the mountains, fit intelligent and always smiling. We feel if you want an animal in your life, save one from a shelter and stop the promotion of more unwanted animals in “Pet Shops”. There’s enought for all, without the need to sell them.
Brittany Bangs says...
October 24th, 2009, 7:59 pm
We Had A Dog That Had Gone Missing. And We Went Looking For Him At Shelters. My Parents Went And Found A Dog There That They Thought Looked Sad And The Shelter Was Going To Put Her Down. So They Took Her Home And She Actually Ended Up Having Puppies! No One Knew She Was Pregnant.
Lillian Marie says...
October 25th, 2009, 9:02 pm
This idea is Great!! I hope it catches on. Back here in Baguio City,the Philippines, the idea of neutering and spaying isn’t a trend yet and breeders are still few. At home, I got a cat, an orphan feral kitten I brought up. She got her first litter of 4 fiesty beautiful kittens and before they were a month old, relatives had claimed them as their own!! I’ll have her spayed when her kittens are all grown.
Pamela says...
October 26th, 2009, 5:13 am
Do people really still buy from pet stores or breeders? How sad. The healthiest animals don’t come from either. I feel so sorry for the animals that end up in stores, treated like disposable commodities.
Jenny Clemson says...
October 26th, 2009, 11:56 am
I could not agree more with your article. Currently, I have 5 cats which were all “recycled” whom I found on the streets fending for themselves. I work with a non-profit rescue group in Phoenix, AZ who do not have a shelter at this time. The organization relies solely on foster homes which I have become at this time. I also have spayed and neutered over 60 plus cats which were once part of the family but sadly thrown out like trash. They have been left behind and have now formed colonies whom I feed each and every day and check on their health. It is too bad that people throw their aniamls out like they do cigarette butts on the streets. I do feel one person can make a difference. If we encourage others to do the same it will impact the lives of these forgotten aniamls.
Christy says...
October 26th, 2009, 3:37 pm
A fantastic resource for pet adoption is petfinder.com. Aside from general ignorance or lack of compassion, I think the reason a lot of people go to a breeder or pet store is because they want a certain breed. If someone doesn’t like the idea of going to a shelter and just deciding from whatever animal is there, pet finder is a fantastic resource. With it, you enter the animal and breed that you are looking for as well as your zip code, and it searches shelters, listing them by proximity to the zip code. You can enter an age range for the animal, and aside from cats and dogs they have pigs, reptiles and birds. There are even descriptions written about each pet, so you can see if he/she likes people, other animals, is shy etc. Petfinder is how my mother found her cat, and he the quite literally the perfect pet! I love it because someone can get the pet they are looking for while still adopting.
Extra bonus: when you adopt from a shelter, the animal already has its shots and is neutered or spayed.
Alex says...
October 28th, 2009, 11:34 pm
Great article. And wouldn’t it be fantastic if our companion cats and dogs were considered green. Unfortunately here in New Zealand we live in a society with a very low awareness of sentience in other life forms with many animals viewed as simply pests. A recent book full of ignorance written by two academics Brenda and Robert Vale of Victoria University in New Zealand, is entitled ’save the planet and eat the dog’. The book is about our companions ‘carbon footprint’ and how it would be better to get rid of the dog or the cat and raise animals you can eat. Designed to make owners of feline or canine companions guilty I shake my head in disbelief. To me my cats ‘are’ members of my family and their carbon footprints are as irrelevant to me as the carbon footprints of children. Will they advocate getting rid of the children? I think not. They just dont see that we share this planet. If you agree you can email them at robert.vale@vuw.ac.nz or brenda.vale@vuw.ac.nz or go to http://www.victoria.ac.nz to find other contacts. Cheers Alex!