Gotta Let it Out

 How do you feel when someone gives up their pet? And now.. How do you feel when they give their pet up to the shelter? I know how reading something like that makes me feel. Shelters smell of death and despair, and before anyone says anything, even no-kill shelters are stressful and can freak out an animal. Now don't get me wrong, I understand that sometimes there is just nothing you can do. You exhaust all your options, and you just are left with nothing. I'm more talking about the people who don't exhaust all their options. The people who don't follow the suggestions and guidance of others in the situation, and just decide to dump their animal. That is what pisses me off.

No -Kill Shelters are called that, because they don't euthanize healthy animals. However they do euthanize dangerous, or terminally ill animals. Which I understand. But what are the chances that pet you dumped, is actually going to ever get out of that shelter? Actually live life outside of a cage with a family?  I don't understand people who can dump an animal; a family member. They are not "until you get pregnant" pets. They are forever.  (What would kill me more is seeing someone who does that, getting another animal later on down the road.)

I would never give my dog to a shelter. No kill or otherwise. Because I would take the effort in finding someone to adopt my dog. That isn't the shelters job. With so much social media, and rescue groups around the country, animals are saved everyday. Ones needing homes, and those who need fosters for awhile. I'm proud to say I see that happen quite often in the social media community. It's a chance for a giant team of  animal lovers to do something good.

I know that it irritates me further, when I give advice, and I try to help the animal find a home, only to find out that nothing was done that I offered. And the animal was dumped anyway. I know by the end of this, I'm probably rambling. But I am just severely pissed off that I put in the effort in other people's pets... and they can't even put the same effort in their own.

I needed to get this out, because I feel a better now.

Conservation Message at it's finest

 I get asked almost every day, why do I feel so strongly about animals. Why don't I just relax, because someone will help the animals.. Well it's not always that easy. Sadly, people who think that it will get done, so they do nothing, are as big a problem as those who just don't care. If you don't do what you can, then you allow things to fall into the cracks. You allow things like animal abuse, dog fighting, breed specific legislation, and even bigger things such as whaling and exotic animal hunting to continue when you do not fight it.  

Your world could be such a different place without things around you. One time I had someone tell me, that they didn't give a damn about recycling. Because they didn't care about pollution. Their exact words to me, were that if some people could pollute the world and drive hummers, she was going to pollute in a way she could. By  not giving a damn, and throwing away recyclable items. She said that as she threw a soda can to the ground. I guess she's never seen the after effect of those decisions..

We have one world. As far as we know, we will never have another place to call home. Why not care about the planet we live on, rather than ignore it because that's the easy way out? The water we have today, was water our ancestors drank and lived from. No new water has ever been created, and yet.. We pollute it like we could never run out. What happens when all that waste destroys all the water? What happens when the fumes from your vehicle destroy the environment? What happens when the landfills are so full of garbage, we have to start finding alternate ways of disposing it? 

One person can't do everything,  but they can do something. That something could be the difference between a bright future for our planet, and living in a wasteland not suitable for life at all. That was why her comment had made me as upset as it did. I had to look at her and call her ignorant, to which she didn't care. She was proud to not know about what was going on, and to not want to contribute. But yet there are people out there right now, cleaning up the planet that people like her continue to live on. They aren't just ruining things for themselves, they ruin things for all life. I cannot imagine being so selfish as to not understand or care the huge scheme of things. 

People can tell me I'm beating a dead horse, or that I'm fighting a lost cause. Let them. But it will not change the way I feel about it. Nothing will. We were put on this planet to care for it, not see what it would take to finally destroy it. I can only hope that future generations understand what could be lost, if we choose to follow the route that we are on.

What do YOU do, to protect your environment?