In all communities the world over, there are dozens, if not hundreds of stray animals wandering around.
In many cases they’re true strays, with no home and no one to care for them.
In other cases, they’re simply house pets that have somehow escaped their owners and are out in the open doing what they can to survive.
There are many ways to help deal with the plethora of roaming animals on our streets and under our porches. However, it all depends on what type of animal we’re talking about.
For those true strays, unloved and in numbers beyond what many people would suspect, the solution is simple in its idea, yet wildly time-consuming and expensive in its execution — catching them and then spaying and neutering them.
Of course, after that’s been done, there is still the matter of what to do with the animals. That is a completely different problem, as there are only so many people willing to adopt animals in any given community, and there are only so many animals a person or family can care for.
All of this plays into the need to have all pets spayed or neutered before they can escape their owners and go out and make babies.
Unfortunately, there seems to be a disconnect between the necessity of having the procedure done and actually doing the procedure. In certain segments of the population, cats and dogs are viewed more as property that can easily be replaced than as the loving companions they have been bred to be.
Notably, the rural population has a tendency to view cats as mousers, and accepts that cats will be killed for one reason or another. As such, they don’t fix their cats, ostensibly to have an endless supply of mousers on hand. One dies, simply replace it with a newer, live model.
Dogs, while not necessarily viewed the same way, often seem to receive the same treatment on farms. Be they used as sheepdogs or guard dogs, a common view is that if it dies, one of its puppies can take over.
While in both cases this makes practical sense, it’s a callous view to take towards animals that have chosen to allow themselves to be close to and serve humans.
What is also callous is how many pet owners don’t take the simple steps necessary to ensure their pets are safer if they should escape.
For example, getting a collar. Even better — getting a tag to go with that collar.
That collar, which doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, can be the difference between a lost animal ending up in the pound or being returned to its owner. An animal roaming the streets with a collar is easily identified as belonging to someone. An animal without a collar is assumed to be a stray.
If you love your pets, get them spayed, neutered and collared. It will protect them and help reduce the stray animal population.
