By Brian Akerman
Wild, Wild Pests
Your pets aren’t the only animals that need your help.
Photo courtesy of Barrio Dogs Inc.
SUPPORT THESE ANTI-CRUELTY
TO ANIMALS ORGANISATIONS:
- Animal Welfare Helderberg
- African Tails
- Tears Animal Rescue
- South African Mass Animal
Sterilisation Trust
- LEAPS
- Animal Welfare Society Stellenbosch
- SPCA
Domestic pets such as dogs and cats are not exclusively ‘household’ pets as some tend to live on the streets. They stroll around like hobos - shamelessly digging in the garbage for any sign of food in parks, schools and universities.
Stray animals are seldom a direct nuisance to us and are therefore easy to ignore, left to deal with their unkind circumstances alone… similar to poverty-stricken people. The difference (of course) is that humans are given more significance… and are yet still not ‘worthy’ of the few coins left in vain in front of our gearbox.
Escaped or abandoned animals go from domesticated to feral (wild) over varying lengths of time, according to their unique temperaments. Euthanasia is often the only practical solution in controlling the overpopulation of strays, especially as feral cats wipe out other species such as birds and rodents. Euthanasia, from the Greek for ‘good killing’, is the intentional killing of a lifeform in order to relieve it of pain or suffering, also known as ‘putting the animal down’.
Some animal shelters incorporate a policy of euthanizing an unclaimed animal after two weeks. Imagine homeless people had two weeks to get back on track or they face the chair after failing to find a home. According to Statistic Brain, about 3.5 million animals are euthanized at shelters every year. Some residents even take it upon themselves to alleviate feral overpopulation through the barrel of a gun.
Most private shelters decide against this and use the Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) system, which recently became popular in some areas. TNR is the method of spaying and neutering animals and returning them to their capture location. Neutering feral animals and releasing them back into the wild may seems like the obvious and most humane solution, but animals that have been domesticated will either suffer in the wild… or bring suffering to the wild. The TNR system could be fruitless as practitioners are unlikely to be able to keep up with the population rate of wild animals - or even one species for that matter.
I feel that an ultimate solution, as irrational as it is, would be to make a law for every citizen to own and take care of a domesticated animal. Obviously this is just a rough and probably ineffective rant, but maybe we should start taking responsibility for the little furry things that bring us joy.
Let me know what you think?