JPG Magazine: Stories: Photo Essay: This Is Who We Are

This Is Who We Are

By Susan Sabo

9 May 2008

We don't spay or neuter our dogs. We chain them in the backyard. We beat and kick them when they don't "behave." We abandon them in shelters, where they'll likely be killed. We abandon them in the streets, where they'll likely die of starvation. We kill their spirit, their will to live.

We break their hearts.

Every year, 8 to 12 million cats and dogs enter shelters in the United States alone. Eventually, 60-70% of them are euthanized.

We must start taking responsibility for these statistics.

People often tell me that they don't visit shelters because it makes them "too sad." But that's exactly why people should visit shelters.

Shelters don't exist because our society has a need for surplus animals; they exist because of our actions.

They exist because it's just as easy to dump a family dog as it is the family trash. They exist because we like the status of a purebred dog that cost upwards of $1000. They exist because we choose to deny their existence, we don't want to know about , much less see, the dump trucks that leave daily from each shelter (in LA county alone) with hundreds of pounds of dead animals.

They exist because we don't want to know that the dog we dropped off because it "just wasn't working out" will be rendered and processed and used in makeup, pet food and other products.

They exist because although we like to think of ourselves as "dog people," the truth is, that we are really "my dog people."

This is not an animal rights issue; it's a question of being human, and humane.

Every time someone buys a dog or cat from a pet shop or a breeder, every time someone drops off a pet at a shelter, they are sentencing an animal to death.

Go to your local shelter. Go visit a local rescue. See what we have done and what we have become.

Because this is who we are, and if we are to change who we are, we have to change what we do.