Responsible Pet Ownership. What is that?

Briefly, Responsible Pet Ownership is doing everything in your power to keep your pets healthy and safe. That's it, that's all we want, healthy and safe pets. Can you go beyond this? Of course, you can train to have an agility dog or a therapy dog or any of that and that would be wonderful so please do! But all the world really needs is for pet owners to be responsible for their charges.
What does keeping them healthy and safe entail? Not much really, when you think about how little time and effort is needed for most of it.
Yearly vet visits with vaccinations....should take about 30 mins and cost very little, around $100 in Alabama. That's $100 for a whole year of health! Over a pet's lifetime, those vet visits will increase his health and longevity for years.
Spay/neuter. There are NUMEROUS health benefits to spay/neuter, but the biggest benefit is not having unwanted litters that you can't or won't keep. Dogs can breed twice a year and have 1-7 or 8 puppies per litter. What would you do with all of those puppies? You can only give so many away and dumping them at a shelter is not a solution. Shelters are overrun with good dogs looking for a home of their own, often puppies from oops litters because the owners didn't spay/neuter. While the one time cost is $100-200, the lifetime of benefits is well worth it. Reduced behavioral problems is another benefit to spay/neuter. Many places have low cost clinics so the one time cost is much less. Remember, this is something you do once and it's done, no lifetime of dealing with a dog in heat (NOT FUN) or a male trying to bust out and get to the female down the street. No worrying about when the heat cycle will be and trying to keep your female contained. It's just a non issue if the dog is spayed.
Preventive medication, heartworm and flea/tick, is given one time per month and takes about 5 mins. The cost is minimal at $6 for each per month, less than most people spend on lunch at McDonald's.
Containment. This is the one thing that could be a big one time cost, installing a sturdy fence. The ability to let your dog play safely, securely, and without fear of finding him dead on a road is well worth the initial cost. There are ways to make it cheaper, too. Install it yourself, for one. Fence installation labor is much higher than the materials. Or make a deal with an installer, barter and trade if you must. Just figure out a way to get a fence so your dog is safe from harm, including from those who might come into your yard to harm your dog (people and dogs included in this). When not contained in a fence, the dog should be on leash WITH you. If you simply can not afford a fence, just no way to do it, then leash walk your dog. It's not that hard, will get both you and he into great shape, and prevents alot of unwanted behaviors due to too much energy and boredom. Living in an apartment had me leash walking two dogs every day and we had such fun. If you're in the market for a new house, stipulate that there must be a fence. Then it's done and everyone is happy.
Training is important but doesn't have to be a headache. All pet dogs don't need to know 100 tricks. Most dogs and their people can happily co exist with just a few tricks and rules. Dogs need to know "sit" very well. Sit is a behavior you can ask for in many situations and one that will reduce other poor behaviors. Dogs can't jump on guests if they are sitting. Mostly, dogs just need to know the rules of the house. Do you allow them on furniture? If so, that's fine, if not, you have to teach them they aren't allowed. Teaching that sort of thing isn't all that hard when you live with your dog and have a good relationship. Just remember, if you don't teach your dog how to behave in your home with your rules, no one else will and he doesn't speak human so he's not going to intuitively know what to do. Some training will keep them safe and healthy and keep you from wanting to get rid of the dog. The majority of training only cost the price of some doggie biscuits (or cheese!) and a few minutes a day. No need for a big time commitment, just live with your dog and ask for behaviors a few times a day. They'll get it faster than you think.
Healthy (yearly vet visits, monthly prevention, spay/neuter) and safe (contained and trained) is all it takes to have a wonderful pet and to live happily together. Pets bring so much to us that we owe it to them to keep them healthy and safe.

Incentives to Spay/Neuter

With millions of dogs and cats euthanized in this country every year, we have to do something to encourage people to spay/neuter. While puppy mills and backyard breeders contribute to the problem, the largest numbers of dogs dying in shelters every day are mixed breed dogs. Suzy Q lets her poodle go into heat, doesn't keep her confined, and John Smo lets his lab knock up the poodle. Now we have Labradoodles. Guess what, folks, these designer breeds are mutts, pure and simply. Someone just decided to capitalize on a stupid mistake. These dogs are not part of responsible breeding programs that track temperament and health and only let the best specimens breed. They are quite the opposite. And then the mutt isn't fixed and gets knocked up by a shepherd. Now the pups are impossible to place and end up at the shelter, dead before they have a chance. This mess must be stopped. Education is the biggest part and those in the rescue community work tirelessly to educate the public but we can't reach everyone and not everyone is willing to listen to the health and monetary benefits of spay/neuter. So, I am looking for other incentives to promote spay/neuter.
Mandatory spay/neuter laws do not appear to be the answer. There is evidence that those actually cost the municipality much more money and compliance is very low. How does one enforce such a law? You have to go to every house and inspect the pets or wait for someone to complain or for a dog to be picked up by animal control. None of these is workable. People need to do things of their own volition, but we can entice them through incentive programs.

Idea #1--As part of a pet retention program, people who spay/neuter could receive a discounted or free obedience training. This would serve multiple purposes, promoting responsible pet care and well behaved dogs. Dog trainers could volunteer their services. Even training enthusiasts who are not "professional" dog trainers could volunteer. The idea is to teach people that dogs are not humans and communication with them is different

Idea #2--as seen in the Caribbean, people can be bribed.
http://www.hsus.org/hsi/local_empowerment/hsi_animal_advocates/hsi_animal_advocates/aarf_and_snip.html
This organization actually gave people $10 for every dog and cat they brought in to be altered. They've reduced the unwanted animal population by 75%. That's good progress. If a non-profit could receive funding to offer such an incentive, along with free spay/neuter surgery, this might work well.

Idea #3--offer prizes. Bring in your pet for a spay/neuter to the low cost clinic (Alabama has atleast tw0) and be entered into a raffle for really good prizes. This would require very good donations but it could be done.

Idea #4--Free vaccinations when animals are altered. Again, this would need financial backing, but for atleast the mandatory rabies vaccination, it could be promoted as a tangible incentive. For the health benefits as well, other vaccinations could be given for free.

Idea #5--free pet items, like food. With donations, people could receive a free bag of food when they bring their animal in for spay/neuter surgery. With this, other items could also be offered, like nice (Lupine or Bison) collars and leashes or Kongs or Nylabones. All of these items would promote responsible pet ownership and might entice people to alter their pets. People like free stuff!

A combination of these ideas would appeal to a larger audience. If a non-profit organization was begun with the idea of promoting spay/neuter through special incentives and it was available throughout the state, would this work? Would more people spay/neuter? Advertising would be key. Well done PSAs could help. Flyers in grocery stores, Walmarts, etc would be very useful in letting people know about these incentives. Once the ball gets rolling, people will spread the word on their own. "Hey, Lucy, did you know that clinic down in Irondale will give you free food if you go get your dog fixed?"

What do you think? What tangible incentives would get people into the clinics and get the animals altered?

Shades of Gray

The world, it is full of shades of gray. There is nothing that is "always" or "never". Every person, every animal, has their own view based on what they have experienced in life. It is a rather useless mindset to make an opinion to be "NEVER, NO HOW, NO WAY, NEVER". I see this all of the time, however. I have even been guilty of it myself. I do try, especially the older I get, to see both sides, to see why something may or may not be valid in a given situation.

I saw a post today about a study that found some dogs who have "aggression" issues, those dogs that snap/snarl/bite, suffer from low serotonin levels. The idea is that these animals could be helped with an antidepressant medication. Response to these posts were varied but many were "don't drug the dogs, that's wrong, never, never, never". This knee jerk response is useless. Out of the millions of dogs on this planet, I imagine there are some who have medically low serotonin levels and that makes them feel rather surly. (Serotonin is like nature's feel good drug) Does that mean that all surly dogs should be on medication? Of course not. The causes for low serotonin are varied, just as they are in humans, and may be a symptom rather than a cause. Multimodal treatments are often needed in these instances. However, some of these posters went on to say how people take too many antidepressants, children take too much ritalin, etc. In some ways, they are correct, but that is then to the opposite extreme of drug help. Drugs don't solve underlying issues so those issues need to be addressed BUT they can make a person, or dog, functional until those issues are addressed. Moderation is key, moderation in all things.
My high school honors english teacher always taught us that moderation in everything is the way to go. I am coming more and more to agree with her.

In other examples, I know many rescue people who are completely against breeding. That is not reasonable either since that would eventually eradicate all pet animals. Now, being against irresponsible breeding, that is a stance I can get behind. I prefer to allow the professionals, who actually try to prevent genetic abnormalities from continuing, to breed and not allow the backyard breeders to continue. But, most importantly, the ones who need to be required to spay/neuter are those that never intend to breed and end up with "oopsies". Those are the mixed breed dogs dying in shelters every day. Yes, there are plenty of purebred dogs in shelters but many of them make it out through rescue or adoption because they are purebred. The mixed breeds don't have a chance and those animals come from irresponsible people too lazy, stupid, uncaring, or just plain ignorant to spay/neuter. That is where our stance should lie, in the middle ground. Rescuers and responsible breeders (hell, even backyard breeders) should be able to unite on this.

Another example, all scientists are not crazy Einstein people who torture animals for kicks. If we do animal research, it's because we must, not because we want to cause them pain. The extreme animal welfare people are always screaming about what we do to animals in research but none of them are scientists nor do they work in animal research so they don't really have any idea. They assume all scientists who use animals in research are hard-hearted, terrible people but I'm here to tell you, we aren't. Many of us long for the day when animals will only be needed for the rarest of occasion, when we will have reliable means to test drugs without animals. That day has not come nor is it likely to come for many more years since we have such an incomplete understanding of the fundamentals of physiology. We do, however, follow the Reduce mentality in that we try to use as few animals as possible to give the statistical power required. I understand animal welfarists who are concerned about the use, and yes, I agree that we need stringent regulations (and we have them but some are not always enforced as they should be) but I also understand the scientists who have to use animals in order to obtain FDA approval for a clinical trial. There are both sides to this issue and a moderate approach is the only way to have drug development for human health that is efficacious but does not kill more animals than necessary.

Our lives are full of experiences, every day, that shape and mould our thinking. None of us can know the life of another, the mind of another, even the closest of beings will never truly understand one another. We can only try to see both sides, to be moderate in our opinions.