Friday, February 4, 2011

Overpopulation Hypocrites

Most people recognize that there is a pet overpopulation problem. Animal shelters in the USA alone euthanize millions of pets every year to deal with this problem. Pet owners are constantly being encouraged to spay or neuter their pets, in effort to combat the growing problem of having more pets born every year than there are homes for.
 

Even when we go to countries where animal shelters are not present to euthanize excess animals, or to spay and neuter, we see “other” control measures being used. Poison is put out or the animals are tossed into pits to die slow deaths.

 
It seems odd that we, as humans, can recognize overpopulation in other species, and have no problems acting on it. We euthanize the unwanted, and we try to sterilize the masses that remain. Yet most countries do not even allow doctor assisted suicide, and laws that once saw some people sterilized (as in Alberta, Canada from 1928 to 1972) are considered outrageous and a violation of human rights.



On a planet with over 7 billion people, and over 1 billion of those living in dire need, we have crossed a line, and are refusing to deal with the consequences. Those who preach about spaying and neutering pets, need to also consider their own contribution to human overpopulation.

For the record, all my cats are spayed or neutered, and I had my tubes tied months after my first, and only, child was born.

Anyone who is concered about pet over population, and the "animal holocaust" needs to also see the problem as it exists in the human species.  People who worry about too many seals eating fish, too many deer in the forest, and too many unwanted pets, had better look at the growing numbers of humans on the planet too.

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