Pet Overpopulation

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Pet Overpopulation A pack of dogs is playing in a ditch which is in the middle of a busy road. Some people in the cars look to see if the dogs' owner is nearby and wonder why anyone would allow their dogs to play so close to danger. Some drivers seem oblivious to the motley assortment romping in the water next to the road. They all keep driving without another thought for the safety or lives of those poor creatures. Unfortunately, this is a common scene in many areas. Unwanted dogs and cats are dumped to fend for themselves because there just are not enough homes for all of them. Where have these unwanted animals come from? The huge population is attributed to out of control breeding due to irresponsible owners, breeding by owners solely for profit without care for the health of their animals and the pet population, and puppy mills or commercial breeding. In as little as six years, 67,000 puppies can come from the brood of just two dogs. In seven years, two cats and their offspring can create 420,000 kittens. There are approximately 70,000 kittens and puppies born each day (Quirk). What happens to all of these pets? Most of them will never make it to their first birthdays. According to Robert Aaron, "Every year in the United States, 8 million to 10 million cats and dogs are given up to animal shelters and others are abandoned." This may be due to the "throwaway" mentality of the populace today. Four to five million pets are euthanized every year in shelters, not always humanely (Aaron). Ideally, pet supply would be equal to the demand for wanted pets. There may never be enough caring homes for all the pets as is evident by the fact that only about 25 percent of the pets in shelters are ever adopted. F... ... middle of paper ... ...lable or if changes are needed. Are assertions in the source based on reliable evidence? Are sources cited? How are you able to tell? They do list where they get their info from within the paragraphs or quotes. Is the information consistent with the information found in print sources, other Web sites, newsgroups, or mailing lists? Is the evidence contained within the source sufficient, reliable, and relevant to your topic? I have seen some of the same info from this site on other sites. It does match. In a couple of sentences, explain the significance of this source and why it should be included in your research. This site gives a lot of pertinent information that pertains to local and national happenings as far as pet overpopulation goes. They have researched many sites and brought the info into their own.

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