Official Position on Pet Welfare
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." – Mahatma Gandhi
According to the American Humane Association, an estimated 9.6 million animals are
euthanized in the United States every year. The majority of these are euthanized at animal shelters.
Mass euthanization of pets is institutionalized pet abuse. It is immoral. It is technically illegal.
Pet abuse is not just a moral problem.
It is a serious social problem. Pet abuse has been proven to increase violent crime. Un-spayed/neutered pets cause pet abuse. There are simply far too many pets competing for a limited number of good homes.
Pet abuse is correlated with gender, dysfunctional homes, and criminal activity – particularly rape, child molestation/abuse, homicide, and domestic violence.
Pet abusers are almost exclusively male.
Pet abuse is the same institutionalized abuse pattern that has been historically perpetrated by males against females and children.
"It’s my wife. I have the right to do what I want."
"It’s my child. I have the right to do what I want."
"It’s my pet. I have the right to do what I want."
Their justification is simple. Their family is their property. Once they become property, they are no longer living creatures. They are just objects.
Most pet abuse occurs in dysfunctional homes.
Dysfunctional families tend to treat their pets as poorly as they treat each other, as objects – as property. Pets become the front line victims of this anger and contempt.
These are the same families that refuse to neuter/spay their pets. Their rationale is familiar. "She is my property. No one has the right to tell me what to do with my property. I might want to breed her someday."
When the pet becomes too much of a burden she is then abandoned to breed other unwanted pets. If she is lucky, she is taken to a county shelter where she is euthanized.
Violence against pets breeds violence against people.
According to The National Animal Abuse Registry:
"The estimates are that there are 60 million households in the United States who have one or more pets. These pets are considered to be companions and family members.
"There is overwhelming evidence to show that human abusers, murderers or violent criminals began their abuse first with their own pets.
"30% of convicted child molesters and 48% of convicted rapists admitted animal cruelty in their childhood."
"Chances are if an animal is being abused and there is a child in that household then the child is also being abused. Chances are that a child abusing an animal can grow up to be someone who commits other violent crimes. View this website to see the statistics of just such animal cruelty and human violence.
"In 1997 Boston's Northeastern University and the MSPCA did a study that found 70% of all animal abusers have committed at least 1 other crime and that 40% had committed violent crimes against humans.
"Studies also found that a history of animal abuse was found in 25% of male criminals, 30% of convicted child molesters, 36% of domestic violence cases and 46% of homicide cases."
The empirical evidence is overwhelming. Passive acceptance of violent behavior promotes violent behavior. The way we treat our pets predicts the way we treat each other. If we slaughter helpless pets as population control, we will pay the price of violence.
We need fewer pets and better homes.
Unfortunately, the root cause of our pet abuse problem is that we don't treat our pets as living creatures, but rather as commodities.
The basic assumption of a free market economy is that the relationship between supply and demand determines the fair market value of a good or service.
When the supply of pets is too high, their value decreases proportionately.
When the price for an item is extremely low the marketplace considers the item to be disposable. An item is disposable when it costs
less money to replace it than it does to maintain it.
The only way to increase the value of our pets within society as a whole is to decrease their (re)production.
Since supply and demand factors exist only at the marketplace level, corrective steps must be taken at a global level.
We must adopt a mandatory universal spay/neuter policy for all dogs and cats with exceptions for breeding.
Like our children, pets are our responsibility, not our property.
Glenn T. Dixon
Jeffersonville Anti-Crime Taskforce (JACT)
contact@myjact.org