Why do we have so many Rescues?

I'm sure at some point someone from a much younger generation, or even a depression-era person has asked this question. Perhaps one day the realization of the sheer numbers of available rescues in any given metropolitan region struck this person as huge.

Everyone else besides this eclectic group member who are in some way involved with rescue knows we have a serious overpopulation problem with unwanted animals in this country. And we know we have had this problem for decades upon decades now.

I thought as many did 20 or so years ago that education would stop the problem. Instead the problem has grown phenomenally in the oh-so-wrong direction. Twenty years ago I did research on how many unwanted animals were put to death in this country. The figure was at about 90,000 per year. Today, according to the Humane Society of the United States the figure stands at about 3 to 4 million. That's per year.

I'm sure many will agree that it is a problem of out-of-control breeding. We've got Greyhound breeding for the dog track, and look at where those "surplus" dogs end up; either they are "disappeared" as my Dad used to say when he worked at an auto wrecking yard taking wrecked cars apart as a kid. Or a few lucky ones end up in a Greyhound rescue. The same is true in the horse industry. Except they often end up at meat-auctions as well.

We've got people buying "pure-bred" dogs and cats at pet stores...that are in existence due to the hard-at-work "Heartland" petmills; or from road-side displayed signs; or from backyard breeders. If you walk into an animal shelter, you'll find 30% there are purebred. That's out of 6 million taken in every year in nationwide shelters according to the HSUS.

We've also got people breeding and "domesticating" birds and rodents for "colors." Now those same animals are so inbred they can barely make it through couple of years of life without dying from some nasty disease. I've seen it in pet rats, mice and hamsters. Also, years ago Parakeets would normally live to be 12 years of age, and Cockatiels would live to be 18. Today you'd consider yourself lucky if one you had made it to 5 years of age. Also many of today's purebred dogs and cats have got cancer, or tumors, major organ failure, blindness, deafness, birth-defects, or a myriad of other diseases plaguing them at an overwhelming rate.

And what's point of all this? Money. Plain and simple. To some the end result of dollars disguised as self-importance is their life's goal, and the fact that that was achieved by sacrificing countless animals' lives does not matter one bit.

Yes, I've heard all the reasonable arguments: "We have to preserve the breeds," or; "We have to keep the breed pure," or; "I'm not inbreeding...I'm breeding for Type." And on, and on, and on. I say to all of them: Read Darwin; if you are disallowing Natural Selection, which "Is the process by which favorable heritable traits become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common, due to differential reproduction of genotypes," then you are inbreeding!

Now we've even got the more enterprising breeders who figured out that some out-crossing results in a more viable animal...not to mention a more inflated price tag. Think: Labra-doodles, Cock-a-poos, Puggles, Terry-poos, Chi-weinees....etc. But it's a little too late isn't it? We can find copious amounts of those "breeds" in Rescues too.

Basically as a civilized society we just can't go on like this. Many when considering the definition of a civilized society immediately think of the criminal element in their community. But I ask you is not a person who keeps a female animal in a cage for a decade breeding it over and over every 6 months during that time until it dies a criminal? Is not a person who produces purebred animals knowing each one comes with a laundry list of major health problems, then sells them for $1000 each to people who with very little doubt will have to spend thousands more in Vet bills on those animals a criminal? Is not this same person who while engaging in his/her "enterprise" denies basic needs such as food, water, and health-checks to these animals a criminal? After all no one can deny that anti-cruelty laws exist, and are enforceable by such standards, not to mention violation of anti-fraud laws.

So what is the answer then? We have the answer here to the question at the top of this post I think, but do we have the answer to the big question, the one that asks how do we stop this problem?

We can perhaps pass legislation that addresses rampant breeding of unnecessary animals. Or pass laws that steer people into looking first in the burgeoning population of homeless animals languishing currently in rescues and shelters for that first doggy for Johnny or Susie rather than to a breeder. Or it could be a tax-burdened law...you know...breed animals...pay hefty taxes. Kinda like the vice-taxes we have now. After all every tax-paying American Citizen is already burdened with extra taxes to treat the symptoms of this problem. Or how about a government rebate? The slogan could be: Adopt A Pet - Get A Check. Or instead will we just let the situation get so bad that the very act of breeding animals will be a criminal offense? Our jails and prisons are already overcrowded though aren't they?

Of course when discussing passing legislation, one must always consider that there is a risk that such laws will in the end be designed to self-serve the politicians who enacted them. Couldn't we instead figure this out on our own? However, I'll be the first to admit, no one has The Answer. Though it pains me to do so. I, a strong advocate of education admitting it didn't work.

Help me out here folks. Throw me a bone....pun not intended.