An Outraged Citizen Speaks: Animal adoptions not a top county priority
Mike Schwager |
For any who has made a dog or cat a member of your family, you know how endearing and valued they become. Yet across our nation, millions of healthy, adoptable dogs and cats are killed each year at our county shelters. This is true as well in Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Here in Broward, in 2008, 10,339 animals were euthanized. The numbers were similar in 2007 and 2006.The core of the problem is an unspoken attitude of irreverence for the lives of these precious, feeling creatures. The Animal Care and Regulation Division is in actuality a disposal unit for the elimination of these endearing animals. Until they are killed, and due to this disposal attitude, many are cramped in small cages, lack exercise, are not touched, and the food is awful. Virtually all develop kennel cough. No serious effort is made to draw traffic to the two Broward facilities, allowing for adoptions to increase. Few know their locations. Despite pleas for large, colorful signage leading to these places, they’ve been ignored, as have past offers to provide free publicity. It is heartbreaking to watch TV public service spots run by the ASPCA depicting the plight of shelter animals - and to recognize that ACARD does nothing of this kind.
If the politicians and bureaucrats who run ACARD truly valued the lives of these stressed-out animals, why is little done to boost traffic and adoptions? Officials feign concern, but it is disingenuous. A few staunch volunteers who have saved hundreds of lives each year by taking pictures of these precious ones and posting them on Craig’s List and Petfinder are no longer allowed to do so. With an annual budget that runs in the millions, why aren’t resources marshaled toward saving lives instead of destroying them? Why don’t we see a competent PR agency hired to develop relationships with the media? Why isn’t the volunteer corps drastically increased to promote the animals on Web sites?
As Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”Petition your Broward
Mike Schwager is a resident of Fort Lauderdale. Websites: www.mediamavens.com,www.Enrichment.com, www.TVtraining.tv, www.PRStraightTalk.com.
The above OpEd was recently published in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. It is short due to word length limitation. There was much more to write. Healthy, adoptable, sweet and vulnerable dogs dragged in terror to the killing rooms, knowing what awaits them; lying on tables, shaking and terrified, as “normal, reasonable” people inject them with poison. Their dead but warm bodies thrown into trash bags and disposal bins. In Broward County, 10,000 killed every year by “normal, reasonable” people. In Miami/Dade, the official count is 21,000 - but the true number is higher. This atrocity must end. More - much more - must be done to end the kill policies in these counties and other counties across America. Money must be invested in aggressive marketing/PR campaigns that boost traffic, and adoptions to these places. Political officials feign concern, but in truth do not care, for the numbers are not declining, and in the present economic Recession, the numbers are actually increasing. These unconditionally loving creatures have no voice. We ARE their voices. They are our comfort, our connection to pure Being - and we must NOT treat them without reverence or respect. If you are in Broward County, Florida, please sign a Petition of Protest to the Broward Commissioners at this site: www.CompassionateAnimalFriendsofBroward.org.
Read the book, “Redemption” by Nathan Winograd and learn that it IS possible to convert kill disposal units into no-kill adoption facilities. Thank you. God Bless you, and let God work through us to bless them!
[This page is dedicated to my beloved late sister Heddy Schwager McKenna, who was a devout lover of animals, and who understood their purity and connection to Divine Source].
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