Falling in love, as any twelve-year-old would, she pleaded, "They're so cute! Mama, can we keep them? Please?"
The beauty of birth played out in the family's garage as red and white puppies stumbled and climbed over each other, creating a squirming mass of six tails and twenty-four legs. The mother, a Collie mix named Fancy, adored her babies as every mother does. She licked each fuzzy little body and nudged it to nurse.
"Yes, aren't they precious!" Mama answered, "But, Hannah, you know Dad and I already said we can't keep all of them. You can choose one to keep and we will have to find homes for the rest."
Hannah made a face to show her disappointment, but later that day she chose the largest, most active puppy for hers. As she lifted each of the others to her face and felt their squirming softness, she hoped all her friends would want puppies so that she could visit them often.
Neither she nor Fancy knew the odds that were stacked against these little fellows they loved so dearly. They did not know that, according to statistics, four of those six puppies would never find permanent, loving homes, and that, by the time Hannah finished junior high, they most likely, would have suffered hunger, neglect, abuse, injuries, and sickness, and that, after their miserable lives as unwanted animals, they would meet a tragic end, becoming just four more little bodies on the heap, nothing more than rotting garbage to an indifferent and throw-away society.
Even if Hannah's parents could find good homes for those six pups, they would only reduce the number of homes available to the ten dogs who already waited at their local shelter, with only five days left.
It can conservatively be figured that one dog, a mate and their offspring can produce over 1000 dogs in three years! There are simply not enough homes to go around. Four to six million pets are euthanized annually in the U.S. That's over 16,000, yes 16,000, cats and dogs just like yours and mine, killed every day!
That's why Spay Day USA was organized in 1995, and has gained momentum every year, to include Spay Day NSW (New South Wales) in 1999. On February 24th, communities all over the U.S. will hold spay/neuter clinics at low cost or no cost. Pets will be dropped off that morning and return home that evening or the following day, never to contribute to pet overpopulation again.
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