Please understand that the following writings may upset you and may make you weep. But these are things that must be said. I have intentionally done this in a stark black and white because I think this is a clear-cut, black and white issue.

Ok...this is an opinion-o-rant. I have to vent. I am so incredibly sad right now and I have to express it. Part of this sadness is anger towards those foolish, foolish human beings who say that they love animals, but express it in the strangest of ways.

1. You don't love animals if your pets are allowed to roam the streets.
2. You don't love animals is your pets are not kept up on their shots.
3. You don't love animals if you have more pets than you have money to care for them.
4. You don't love animals if you do not have your pet spayed or neutered. (For those who claim that they don't have the money, see #3).

I am mad obviously and ranting and raving...but why? Why am I ranting and raving? Is it because I see a new cat and/or dog dead on the highway EVERY day? Is it because I saw a beautiful St. Bernard just after it was hit by a car? The very same Saint Bernard that I had seen playing too close to the road on several occasions? The very same Saint Bernard that I knew I would see dead one day?

What is wrong with people? How can they be so callous? And let me state right up front that I know pagans who are just as bad. Pagans who say they love all animals and open their home to all animals but don't have the money to do so. These loved animals go hungry, go sick, infect entire populations, are ignored because there are so many in the household.

You know what? Some animals need to be euthanized. As a dog groomer, I had the misfortune to groom animals that were so loved that they were kept alive beyond all reasonable comfort zones. I am talking about dogs who literally couldn't WALK! I am talking about dogs in such arthritic pain that a light brushing caused them to whimper and cry. I have no clue what motivates people to do something so hideously cruel other than selfishness.

Euthanasia is not a bad thing. I wish every person who has ever allowed an animal to have a litter "because Buffy needs to feel motherhood" or "my children need to experience birth" had to stand at the front of the gas chamber and watch a dog or a cat die. IDIOTS! They are all IDIOTS. Yeah, maybe they are misinformed idiots who think they are doing a good thing, but they are still idiots. That goes for everyone who allows their animal to breed...male or female animal. I currently have 8 puppies who live next door to me. I want with all my heart to adopt one. I can't. We can not financially support one more animal. These puppies have mange. They are wormy. If they don't already have heartworms, I would be amazed.

I would call Animal Control, but apparently they don't work this part of the county. Why are people so intensely stupid? Why? 3/10/99 I found out that AC does work this part of the county if your dog is killed by your neighbor's dog. Click here for details.

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This is the response Dorothy Morrison gave. For those of you who don't know Dorothy, I encourage you to go to her page. She is a fascinating, beautiful woman and author who I am honored to call friend.
 

An Answer from Dorothy Morrison

We have two labs, and like Arwen, I simply cannot afford to take care of any more. Their annual shots alone cost $100 each. Add heartworm preventative, flea control products, and a prescription diet for one of them, and it runs an extra $150 per month!

This has opened an old wound that has me weeping at keyboard. Thank you, dearest Arwen, for bringing this to the forefront. I needed to be reminded, and others need to know!

And for anyone out there who says they're an animal lover, here's one more morsel of food for thought. Animals were once wild. We domesticated them. That means they can no longer fend for themselves, and that's our fault. Since we screwed this up in the first place, the least we can do is to take care of them now - and do it properly!!!

GIVE YOUR ANIMALS A FAIR SHAKE
by Dorothy Morrison

I’m an animal rights activist, but not the sort you might expect. I don’t lobby against hunters because I am one; by hunting, I take an active role in the conservation of wildlife. I don’t protest against local furriers because I believe that wasting the skin of an animal that gave its life to feed someone is a crime against Nature. No, I don’t even plan my purchases around products that carry a declaration against animal testing. It’s not that I like the use of laboratory animals any better than the next guy. It’s just that most over-the-counter products no longer require animal testing. There’s plenty of data available from previous test studies.

Just because I eat meat, wear leather shoes, and don’t get involved in any of the “normal” animal rights causes doesn’t make me any less an activist. My agenda is simply of a more practical nature. I believe that all domestic animals should be wanted, loved, appreciated, and given a good home. I believe that all pet owners should be responsible people, and am disgusted by the apathy shown toward millions of cats and dogs every day. I am the animal rights activist who lovingly cares for Nature’s unwanted babies day after day until - due to indifference, a lack of education, and a shortage of space - they are put to sleep. I, like thousands of other activists across the country, am a Humane Society shelter employee.

Today, I cried. Kennel L was empty. The three young dogs who greeted me with kisses every morning were gone. They were beautiful, healthy and playful, but no one adopted them. You see, they weren’t tiny puppies any more. They were over four months old. They weren’t purebred. It didn’t matter how smart they were, how good they were, or even how full of love they were - no one wanted them. As a result, they lost their lives, their chance to give and receive love, and the opportunity to explore the world they were born into.

Euthanization is something no one wants to talk about. We know it exists, but push it far back into the recesses of our minds where it never filters into our thoughts. It’s ugly, repulsive, and heart-wrenching, but make no mistake: it is a daily occurrence in every animal shelter in our United States, and something for which we are all held accountable.

If these animals died of disease, malnutrition, or unsanitary conditions, we might have an easier pill to swallow. They don’t. Local veterinarians help with the proper vaccines, worm medicines and disinfectants. Concerned citizens donate food, money, and supplies. Caring people do adopt. Still, countless animals lose their lives every single day. The culprits? Lack of space. Lack of education. And of course, lack of caring and understanding.

Although having larger shelter facilities is a definite plus, it will never resolve the problem completely. Fact is, even if every animal shelter in the nation had room for two or three hundred animals, thousands of animals would still die daily. Why? Because un-sterilized animals reproduce at mind-boggling rates. For example, one pair of sexually active dogs and their offspring can easily produce 80,000 puppies in seven years. Cats reproduce at a significantly higher rate, with one pair and their offspring capable of delivering 120,000 kittens in the same amount of time. If that doesn’t seem so bad, consider this. Together, one pair of dogs and one pair of cats can actually bring over 28,000 babies into the world each year - and no animal shelter on the planet can accomodate such numbers. Fortunately, there is an effective and simple solution to the problem: sterilization of all household pets.

Educating the public in the benefits of spaying and neutering isn’t an easy task because there are countless myths surrounding the process and its after-effects. Some folks insist that sterilization causes weight gain, laziness, and personality change. It doesn’t. Animals, like people, are born with individual personalities and they keep them through life. Weight gain and inertia are not caused by sterilization. These problems are usually the fault of the pet owner, and come from constant overfeeding and a lack of exercise.

Another common misconception is that allowing a pet one litter before sterilization is necessary for calming purposes. That is not only a fallacy, but such action serves to compound the population problem. Just for the sake of argument, though, let’s say you find a loving home for every animal in the litter. By doing so, you’ve just denied good homes to perfectly wonderful animals already in existence.

The most popular retort, however, is that to spay or neuter a pet is an abomination against the cycles of Nature. This simply isn’t true. It is through humankind’s intervention with Nature that animals first became domesticated, and now they reproduce much more quickly than was possible in the wild. These animals no longer possess the instinct or endurance to survive on their own, and maintaining this attitude is the same as delivering them to a life of starvation, disease, and inevitable death.

If you still aren’t convinced that sterilization is right for your pet, perhaps you should know that spaying and neutering ranks high as a preventative measure toward pet disease. It literally obliterates problems like breast inflammation and ovarian cysts, and significantly reduces the risk of testicular tumors, prostate gland enlargement, and breast, uterine and prostate cancers. We all want a long, healthy, and happy life for our pets, and sterilization - laced with lots of love - is an easy way to achieve that goal.

Regardless of age, any pet in good health can be spayed or neutered. If you have questions or doubts, call your local veterinary clinic or Humane Society office. Then take the first step for animal rights by making a surgical appointment for your pet. Maybe one day, Kennel L won’t be empty because no one cared. It will be empty because we accepted our responsibility as pet owners and took an active part in domestic animal conservation. It will be empty because we provided a loving home for every dog and cat in existence. Yes, it will be empty because we cared enough to give our animals a fair shake. That’s what animal rights activism is all about.

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7/26/1999
And this one is from Debbie.  Debbie rescues dogs. If you are thinking about breeding your pet, please read this one first.

Dear XXXX,
Please, please do not take this wrong.  But unless you are going to test your male and female, and are breeding to better the breed, please don't do it!  You are going to get some on here who will tell you about the cost, the time and money it takes to do this properly, and they are very TRUE!

But I want to talk to you about my area.  Rescue.  Can you guarentee that every pup you produce can go to a LOVING, GOOD home?  OK that is not too hard, but can you guarentee that every one of your pup's PUPS will go to a good home?  Or will you give out limited registration.

At this moment, I have 14 poodles in my house.  I only own three. My house smells at times from the older ones who have lost some control of bladder and bowel at night (don't ask me why at night) and those who were never trained properly, as well as those who were puppy mill poodles and had never been potty trained.  I can't even PLACE IN NEW HOMES the dogs I have in rescue right now!!!  That tells me that there are too many poodles right now.  Then I have those older dogs that because they are going blind, have skin problems, can't hear or are getting senile that people don't want and drop off on me.  They don't want to put down their own dogs, they can't
think about doing this so they put them here to retire and have someone else deal with an aging poodle.  This year alone, I have taken in 6 senior poodles and been able to place one.  That is just the seniors.  I have two more coming who are over 10 and guess what?  They too will probably never find new homes and spend the rest of their lives here!

Then there are the sick poobabies that the families threw away because they were not perfect and the product of bad breeding.  Issaic has Sebascious Adenitis.  Do you know what that is?  It is a congenital disease of the skin.  He has some bald patches, some straight rough hair patches and some regular poodle hair patches.  I have had many people call about him, ask about him but when they see him, well, no one wants him. Not even his well known breeder who never tested her dogs.  Out of all my rescues, he is the best trained yet because of the way he looks, no one wants him.

Then there was Silver who lucked out.  He had heartworm because his owners didn't give him the preventative, too expensive they said. They dumped him in the shelter for someone else to care for.  Can you guarentee all your pups will get their preventative?  Or will they be like Silver. Silver lucked out and found a wonderful home after he was treated (very expensive) for heart worms.

Then there is Tiffany who was abused, Brandy too.  Their minds are not right.  Brandy was neglected and easy to treat.  But Tiffany was left in a crate for days at a time.  A very small crate with no toys, no diversion. She is now a mean poobaby.  She can be loving at times, she is even getting better.  But years of abuse/neglect have taken her mind.  Can you guarantee your pups will not be cared for in this manner?

Then there are all the puppy mill dogs, but I will not go there at this time.  That is a different story.    What I am getting at is can you guarentee me you will test (expensive) your dogs, give adequate care to the pups including vet care and socialization.  Will you guarentee that I will NEVER see one of your pups or your pup's pups in my rescue?  Good breeders will take back any of the dogs they have sold AT ANY TIME!  Or the work with a rescue who will.

I know I may have come across very harsh, believe me, I have tried to say these words with a loving plead in my voice.  Not for me, but for the poodles around me. Enjoy your poodle, love them, spoil them but do not breed them unless you are going to research pedigrees, know about what lines carry what diseases.  Attend poodle club meetings if you can.  Get to know some reputable breeders and ask them what they go through to have a litter of pups.  Ask them if they make money off their pups.  Ask them about the c-sections in the middle of the night, the sick pups, those born with congenital problems, the decision to put a pup down, this is a very hard job!!!  If it weren't for back yard breeders and puppy mills spewing out poodle pups left and right that have all these congenital problems, then we wouldn't have sick poodles at the vet being told Fluffy has bad knees, or Pepe has allergies.  Then spending a fortune to help these poobabies lead better lives.

I am not a saint.  I am a clean up crew.  My hat is off to the reputable breeder who knows their stuff, puts lots of money into their line and researches pedigrees before they breed.  I tried this at one time.  I was a reputable breeder.  But you can sometimes be fooled by people who say they will give the pup a good home.  When I saw how one of my pups was being abused and I could do NOTHING about it, my soft heart just couldn't take it anymore and I went into rescue instead.

The last thing I have to say is sometimes disputed, but if you don't rescue (or work with a rescue) then DON'T BREED.  Too many dogs die in shelters everyday.  Even poodles are being put down in shelters, YES, even poodles.  I hardly ever say NO to any poodle but recently I had to.

There was a young female poodle at a local shelter.  I was called which was strange because this shelter always called the Dallas poodle rescues first.  But I went down and here was a matted suppose to be white poodle who had bitten two shelter workers.  I was bitten three times, not once, but three times, trying to evaluate this dog.  It was a tiny toy, it had old broken bones, its jaw was crooked from being broken.  It has welts that looked like it had been hit with a belt.  I sat there and cried like a baby as I held this growling mess of fur.  I cried and cried while this baby tried her hardest to bite me again.  They were going to put her down and I wanted to hold her for a minute or two to let her know someone cared.  This gal never calmed down.  She never stopped trying to bite me.  Even as they slipped the needle into her vein, she was snapping growling and being vicious.  Only after the drugs took effect did she finally smile (poodles smile when happy).  I know she finally found her peace and that is why she smiled.  I held that baby for about another 15 minutes after her last breath telling her I would come and claim her when I came to the bridge.  I don't even know her name.

Please don't breed, please?????