What are some ways that we can Prevent Animals from Needing Shelters in the first place?
First of all, people need to become more responsible pet owners. Having pets spayed and neutered really does save lives. I was love to see licensed breeders be the only ones to be able to breed dogs. Along with that, they would need to be regulated and monitored for dog safety.
People also need focus more time on training their pets, this would eliminate the "returns" to shelters. Many people get dogs that they can't handle or get them as puppies and never bother training them. As they grow up and get bigger the people realize that they can no longer handle their dog.
I read somewhere a while back about an animal abuse registry, similar to the sex offenders list. I think that is a great idea and could save thousands of animals lives by making it difficult for irresponsible people to own pets.
And finally, education! If people were more prepared to care for animals before they got them a lot of problems would be avoided. No matter what type of pet people are considering if they don't know before hand how to care for and handle that pet it will likely end up in a shelter.
Education - of course, I'm biased as a professional educator and dog trainer. A large proportion of the animals surrendered to shelters are there because of lack of training. The dogs reached adolescence and people didn't know what to do with the dog to get it to "obey." Puppy classes are very important to educate new owners, especially about responsible pet ownership and early socialization. Veterinarians need to get on board about appropriate training referrals and behavior modification using modern, force-free methods. People need to be educated in how to select an appropriate pet and the costs involved. I provide education to young children whenever possible about bite prevention and dogs in general, including clicker training. I have also started a new program to educate young people about dogs and dog training using positive reinforcement. We need to educate everyone, but focus on children - who can help us educate their parents!
The best and the main thing is to spay or neuter your pet so there are not any unwanted pregnancies. Second thing is not buy from a breeder the more that people do not buy from a breeder will eventually put them out of business. Many cities and states do offer low cost or in some cases free spay and neuter clinics where you can get your pet spayed or neutered at a very reasonable price. Check with your local animal control and they should be able to give you information on where to go for these low cost clinics.
Each potential dog caretaker needs to avail themselves of adequate information regarding the responsibilities inherent with pets. All dependent life, be it a human child or animal, making the decision to be responsible for another life requires careful consideration. Anything less results in unanticipated surprises that land animals in shelters.
Leash laws help to inhibit unwanted breeding. Spaying/neutering insures that a proliferation of unplanned puppies do not end up euthanized in overcrowded, understaffed shelters.
Missouri, especially the rural counties, still harbor illegal puppy mills, where indiscriminate breeding, neglect, rampant illness and animals whose paws never touch grass, languish and die, often slowly. Unfortunately, as long as individuals continue to purchase animals from pet stores who encourage these abominable, illegal breeding practices through apathy or inexcusable ignorance, animals will continue to suffer. Anyone suspecting activity that suggests the presence of a puppy mill should contact local law enforcement or the local shelter.
There are responsible, legal breeders who follow the guidelines established to insure the best possibility of producing a consistent, genetically healthy line of breed specific puppies, The shelters have many healthy, rescued purebred and mixed breed animals needing a loving, forever home.
by Simone Haruko Smith 5 years ago
What advice would you give to someone adopting a new pet? (Weekly Topic Inspiration)What is the best way to go about adopting a pet? How do you help a newly adopted pet adapt to his new home? How can we reduce the number of newly adopted pets that are returned to shelters? Share your pet adoption...
by ptosis 13 years ago
If the economic future of USA is to out-educate and out-invent our way out of crippliing debt thenWhy are teachers being fired across the board, education funding slashed & college grants ending? Are USA politicians working for China & not for the U.S.? --------Hey that would make a...
by Rochelle Frank 13 years ago
Can people educate themselves without going to university or college? If so, how?
by Peeples 10 years ago
Why do people abandon their animals when they move?A neighbor moved out and left a beautiful sweet German Shepard husky mix behind. We have taken her in for now. She is an amazing well behaved dog. Why do people do this? With all the resources out there (shelters, freecycle, craigslist) are there...
by Mr Grimwig 13 years ago
How can I help homeless animals without spending a lot of money?I want to help homeless animals, but I can't adopt one or donate a bunch of money because I'm not financially in a situation where I can do that. Do you have any ideas?
by Fawntia Fowler 13 years ago
What are the benefits of volunteering with animals?
Copyright © 2025 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2025 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |