Pet Overpopulation: The Importance Of Animal Adoption

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I. INTRODUCTION
A. According to the Humane Society, about 2.4 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs—about one every 13 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year (Pet Overpopulation-HSUS). Today, I am going to discuss the importance of animal adoption.
B. This is issue relates to all whether you like animals or not. We can not continue to let animals suffer because we neglect to act on this growing problem.
C. Recently, I visited a few animal shelters throughout San Diego because my family was interested in adopting a pet and I was shocked to see how overpopulated shelters are with animals that are perfectly healthy.
D. Becoming knowledgeable on the subject of animal adoption will hopefully lead some of you to consider adoption or …show more content…

Over-population: The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) reports that “Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats” (Shelter Intake and Surrender). Shelters become overpopulated because people do not neuter or spay their animals which leads them to over reproduce (Pet Overpopulation-AH).
2. Pets lose their homes: There are numerous reasons why pet owners give up their animals. It can be that financially they can no longer support a pet or they simply do want the animal (Pet Overpopulation-AH).
3. Animals are not valued enough: Many forget that animals have feelings too. We tend to overlook the benefits of having a pet. Allen R. McConnell, Ph.D., a professor of Psychology at the university of Miami published an online journal in 2011, about research on pet ownership, “Pets provide meaningful social support for owners, improving their lives. Whereas some past research found that people facing serious health challenges are better with pets, the current work found that everyday people can benefit from pet ownership as well” (Friends with Benefits: Pets Make Us Happier, Healthier). Animals can bring immense joy in our lives if we allow them to and we start looking at them as companions and not …show more content…

Barriers
1. Shelters animals are not given a second chance; a big misconception is that shelter animals come with a lot of baggage. People assume that shelter animals are aggressive or sick, but an animal that is ill or overly aggressive is never put up for adoption (Mazzio,

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