Echo Opinion
| SECRET MILLIONAIRE |  | | | VIEW FROM THE HILL | | | | YOUR HEALTH | | |
|
|
|
Why we’re going to the dogs
WE'RE supposed to be nation of animal lovers as well as a nation of shopkeepers, but you'd hardly know it.
Thousands of cases of cruelty are reported every year for starters.
Last week, a BBC programme exposed the appalling scale of suffering among pedigree dogs bred with genetic diseases.
And today a charity has published a survey claiming that almost 100,000 stray dogs were picked up by local authorities last year. The Dogs Trust estimates that nearly 7,000 of that number were destroyed because of ill health, aggression or because a home could not be found for them. The good news is that the overall figure is lower than the previous year, down some eight per cent.
But, as the chief executive of the charity says in her report, the numbers are still far too high and show that in many cases, pets are being treated as throwaway commodities. The charity has shown a neat sense of timing, releasing its findings a few days after Martin Clunes' two part television programme One Man and His Dogs. As the economic situation worsens - the Chancellor has already told us it will - animal welfare groups worry that more people will dump their pets to save money. There's already some evidence this is happening and next year's statistics will probably reflect that.
Anyone looking for a dog, or any domestic pet for that matter, should visit a rescue centre or consider rehoming a stray, before going for a retail rover' as the Dogs Trust put it. Meanwhile more pet owners need to accept their responsibilities. Keeping an animal is a privilege, not a right. Quite obviously, not enough people realise that.
7:00am Wednesday 3rd September 2008
Print 
Email this 
Comment
What are these links for?
If you liked this article and would like to share it with others on the web who might be searching for good content we've made it easy for you to do it.
At the bottom of all articles, you'll see links to six sites. These sites - commonly called 'social bookmark' or 'social news' sites - have large communities of web users who share and rate interesting, useful and fun things on the web.
Clicking the links will automatically add the address of the story you are reading to one of these sites, letting you share it with others. Each site will ask you to register to share stories. Registration is free and once a member, you can store, recommend and search for stories that interest you.
More on Digg
More on del.icio.us
More on Furl
More on reddit
More on NowPublic/
More on Yahoo!
