Abandoned Christmas Presents: Animal shelters to be flooded with unwanted pets

Every year thousands of people have the grand idea to impulsively buy a pet for their loved one as a Christmas present. Weeks after Christmas animal shelters across Australia become flooded with unwanted pets from dogs and cats to birds and guinea pigs.

So what is it about humans that we can treat an animal as an object that can be taken back to the store and returned? Our modern society is being called the ‘throw away society’ because we dispose of something as soon as we don’t want it.

Just think of all the unwanted shirts and socks being thrown away after Christmas and compare that to an animal. Some would not physically throw away an animal into a trash can, but it is the same act as abandoning a puppy to an animal shelter that was meant to be a Christmas present, but the owners didn’t think it through enough.

So what exactly is the reality of ‘puppy-gifting’ at Christmas? If the puppy has come from a pet store, then chances are it has been bred in an illegal puppy farm where the conditions are squalid and the mother of the puppy is malnourished and injured. Puppy farming is like battery hen farming, and it gets a hell of a lot of support around Christmas. So then what happens to the puppy after Christmas when the person who received the gift decides they don’t want the responsibility? The puppy will go to a shelter and depending on which shelter, it may not be long before the puppy is euthanized.

To everyone thinking of buying an animal as a gift this Christmas, just don’t. Give it some more thought and adopt an animal from a shelter. 

Taylor-Jayne Wilkshire

Source: no source

Image: foter.com