Dogs and Cats:
Doing What Is Best for Them

In a perfect world, animals would be free to live their lives to the fullest: raising their young, enjoying their native environments, and following their natural instincts. However, dogs and cats have a difficult time surviving ‘free’ in our concrete jungles so we must take as good care of them as possible. People with the time, money, love and patience to make a lifetime commitment to an animal can make an enormous difference by adopting from a shelter or rescuing animals from a perilous life on the street. But it is also important to stop manufacturing ‘purebred pets’, thereby perpetuating a class of animals forced to rely on humans to survive.

The sad truth is, not everyone loves animals. Ask any animal welfare officer about the animals found bruised, bloodied and emaciated; the litters of puppies and kittens rescued from taped-up boxes alongside highways or from sealed plastic garbage bags thrown into lakes and rivers; and the animals abandoned because they ‘bark too much’ or because they are aging or because the family is moving.

Even people who care about animals are often unable to recognise or meet animals’ many needs. For example, dogs love going outside for walks or to play with their guardians, but some people take all the fun out of going for a walk by keeping their dogs on an unreasonably short chain and yanking them or hitting them with a stick for going astray. If you think you need a stick, you do not need a dog.

Domesticated animals are in a catch-22 situation – they have difficulty surviving on their own yet they retain many of their basic instincts and drives. Usually, they are isolated from their natural packs. Their bodies and souls yearn to roam – but for safety’s sake, they are confined to a house or yard, always dependent on their guardians even for a drink of water, food to eat or social contact. If we tried to think of the cruelest punishment for dogs, we probably could not come up with anything worse than ‘solitary confinement’ on a chain or in a kennel yet many people keep dogs in this way.

As long as people treat animals as toys, possessions and commodities rather than as individuals with feelings, families and friendships, widespread neglect and abuse is destined to continue.

Breeding’s Sad Legacy

One unspayed dog can lead to 28,244 puppies in nine years. One unspayed cat can lead to 14 million kittens in nine years!

Because the number of animals far exceeds the demand for them, millions of homeless cats and dogs suffer from abandonment, abuse, starvation, disease, highway death or procurement for
laboratories.

Many people who acquire animals end up giving them away, abandoning them or taking them to shelters.

In light of these tragic facts, no breeding can be considered ‘responsible’. Those who breed animals for profit and individuals who let their dog or cat have ‘just one litter’, however well-intentioned they may be, contribute to the severe dog and cat overpopulation crisis. Every newborn puppy or kitten means one home fewer for a dog or cat desperately waiting in a shelter or roaming the streets.

Problems With Purebreds

So-called ‘purebred’ breeding (breeding animals to have certain appearances or traits) has caused a wide range of health defects in animals. For example, ‘flat-faced’ dogs, like bulldogs or Boston terriers, experience respiratory difficulties because of shorter breathing passages and find hot weather and anaesthesia very hard to deal with; bloodhounds and Shar Peis are prone to skin infections from excessively wrinkled skin; Dalmatians are often deaf; and other dogs suffer from epileptic seizures, hip dysplasia, painful back problems – the list goes on – as a result of humans’ thinking they know better than Nature.

Sadly, while breeders ‘custom-design’ millions of dogs and cats each year, countless equally deserving dogs and cats languish without food or love.

Obedience Training

PETA wholeheartedly supports humane, interactive training: It gives dogs more freedom and understanding of our world. Dogs should be humanely trained only by those they live with; turning a dog over to someone else to train not only allows for unseen abuse, it also prevents guardians from learning how to communicate effectively with their animal companions.

Compassion, clarity and consistency are the most important elements of dog training. Positive reinforcement and praise for good behaviour works best. Dogs thrive on making you happy and proud of them. Training should never include any activity that endangers animals or puts undue stress on them, such as physical abuse or yelling.

What You Can Do

Spay or neuter dogs and cats, including stray animals. Make sure the stray animals are taken back to exactly where they were found after recovery from surgery. Stray animals taken to alien territory will be victims of aggression from animals who have already claimed that area as their own. They also will not know where to find food or water.

Adopt from shelters or from the street, never buy from a pet shop – and don’t forget adult animals, who are often overlooked by people looking for a puppy or kitten.

Work within your community to legislate mandatory and humane spaying and neutering.

If someone is planning to breed an animal, speak out against it.

Point out neglect – talk to the animal’s guardian, send a letter or contact an animal welfare society. Be persistent!

Walk and play daily with your companion animals.

If possible, adopt two animals of the same species. Animals need animal companionship. Having an animal friend can help alleviate the boredom and loneliness of long hours spent waiting for you to come home.