EDITORIAL: Don't litter - spay/neuter

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” – Mahatma Gandhi

The Humane Society of the United States held its 16th annual Spay Day on Tuesday with events and activities in honor of Spay Day taking place throughout February. The annual campaign tries to inspire people to spay or neuter pets and street animals.

Four million cats and dogs — about one every eight seconds — are put down in U.S. shelters each year, and we are part of that figure. In Darlington County, the shelter takes in 3,000 to 4,000 unwanted animals each year and euthanizes around 75 percent of them.

The staff and volunteers at the shelter can’t solve this pet overpopulation problem for us. They make valiant efforts through rescue and education, but there are far too many animals for them to find loving homes for, and we cannot afford to continue on this path.

We have to act. We have to be responsible for our pets, keep them healthy and keep them from having litters we cannot support financially or physically.

You may think having a few puppies would be fun until the dog has 10 that are constantly underfoot, crying, barking and pooping.

You may think that you can find homes for a few kittens if your cat becomes pregnant, but in reality it takes time and effort to do so. Time and effort many aren’t willing to exert for an animal.

You may think dumping a box of puppies on a vacant lot or in the country is okay, but it’s not.

Those dogs grow up; they destroy nearby property; they don’t get socialized to people properly and end up causing more problems either in property damage or actually biting someone.

These animals can catch and spread disease to people and pets they encounter, creating a major quality of life issue.

Then they have a litter themselves, and the problem multiplies quickly since the gestation period for cats and dogs is not the long nine months of humans. Pets can have two or three litters a year.

Even feral cats or roaming dogs that are captured, fixed and released, pose less of a threat to our community’s well-being.

Ask anyone living in South Hartsville how they enjoy the packs of dogs that run through that area of town, and you might begin to understand the problems you release into the world when you just “take off” a litter of puppies.

So, instead of “taking them off,” you drop those pups at the shelter, which is already overwhelmed with the number of animals in its care.

The volunteers must raise more and more funds to feed, medicate and house those pets. All the capital improvements to Darlington County’s shelter have come only through the generosity of local residents and businesses, not taxes, and in these economically challenging times those dollars are even scarcer.

Some may say, well just euthanize more of these unwanted animals.

The shelter is closed one day a week now for euthanasia, how many more days do we need? How careless and irresponsible are we?

Euthanizing the animals still costs money too, for the drugs and for the administration, not to mention the psychological strain on the volunteers and staff who have connected with these animals, must see them be “put down” and must dispose of those remains.

These are living creatures we are called to care for, and we have a duty to treat them, and those who care for them, respectfully. Killing more of these animals is not the answer.

Spay/neuter is.