How do we stop the Tide?

Most reading this will know that Animal Rescue and Bengals in particular are my passion in life. At the moment I still don't know if I can face going back to the county shelter again, the sheer amount of unnecessary loss of life might well be just too overwhelming and I still need to think about it.

In the meantime my work with Great Lakes Bengal Rescue continues and as a new Director I hope to really make a difference in the years to come.

But back to that loss of life, how can we stop the tide? Because honestly, the loss of life is a Tsunami not only of abuse and neglect, lack of training, it is also one of ignorance, stupidity, lack of caring.

I wonder how much of that Tsunami is unseen. How many animals out there die of starvation, or pyometra from a womb infection left untreated, or are abused and quietly buried in backyards. Or the age old drowning the kittens and puppies in the bucket syndrome. How do we stop the tide?

The only clear way is to educate and spay and neuter. We need to go into schools and teach kids about responsibility towards living creatures and taking care of them properly. We need books for children that spread the message. We need spay and neuter clinics, because if they can work in Mexico, then they work here too.

If we care we can do more than watch those terrible commercials with those despairing faces of dogs and cats while the soundtrack moves us to tears. We can foster, we can donate locally, we can pledge money to spaying and neutering and we can talk to people.

I hear it over and over, oh I got this kitten because they were trying to get rid of them. Or, I got this puppy from this guy whose dog had puppies and he was trying to get rid of them. Instead of that I want to hear, can you tell me where I can get a kitten or puppy for my family?

I heard breeder say the most responsible thing I have ever heard this week. She said, 'I breed to order, I am not going to breed just for the sake of it, I am only going to breed if there are homes for these kittens.' If we were not talking on the phone I would have hugged her.

Perhaps it seems overwhelming, maybe it seems impossible. But we just have to stop the tide.