Did you ever think that many stray dogs are full-breed dogs, with owners? It’s a common misconception that only mixed breeds live on the streets and contribute to the ranks of homeless dogs. The perfect example is the story of a beautiful female Labrador.
He forgot the gate was open…
She was found on the streets by an AMP employee, wandering disoriented one rainy afternoon. Gentle but scared, she was taken to the AMP office, where she was given food and attention. The next day, the young female puppy, who was barely seven months old, was spayed and microchipped. Later the same day, we managed to find her parents, who had been looking for her for more than 24 hours. ”The gate was open,” said the owner, seemingly unaware. A story with a happy ending, but not all stories end this way. Most of the female dogs who wind up on the streets, even by mistake, mate before they’re found by their owners. After just two months, the yard or apartment will be filled with puppies that aren’t full-breed dogs so can’t be sold. So people end up discarding them.
These are the puppies thrown away in dumpsters or left in cardboard boxes at the edge of streets or forests; puppies abandoned at landfills, or left near busy roads, where they can be hit by cars at any moment.There are also old dogs on the streets, chased away by their owners, and dogs who are abandoned by their “parents” after going to work abroad.
Really, street dogs are our dogs.
Never say never! Most times we think it can never happen to us—we’ll never lose our dog. The owners of a young Labrador puppy thought so, too. But it happened! This puppy ran away from the yard after a family member forgot to close the gate. In a matter of seconds she disappeared, and if she hadn’t been found in time, her first-born puppies, future strays, would probably have been born in about two months. If it’s a male dog that goes missing, the situation is the same— no, the story can be more tragic. A male dog can mate with several female dogs on the same day, which makes for many, many more dogs on the streets.
Street math
Take two dogs that haven’t been neutered or spayed, one male and one female. Whether they’re in a backyard or on the street, a simple calculation shows that in a single year they can produce 30 other dogs. If half of those dogs are female, next year there will be another 450 dogs on the streets who belong to nobody. By the third year, the number becomes alarming: over 3.300 more stray dogs, with their numbers increasing exponentially. The only solution is to spay and neuter dogs, whether they have a home or they’re strays.
BENEFITS OF NEUTERING
A neutered dog will spend more time with you—he won’t leave home every time a nearby female is in heat. He can be healthier, too—he won’t develop tumors because he doesn’t have a female near him whenever he wants and can live up to two years longer as a result.
