When thinking of a new pet for your family, most think of an adorable puppy you buy from breeding companies. Spending hundreds on month-old puppies that companies consistently breed. These puppies get a great life right on the spot, but what about dogs that did not get the same treatment?

Ever since 2021 and the entire pandemic turning the world upside down, sheltered animals have been at an all-time high. Although the idea of a shelter seems helpful as it provides a home for neglected animals, the living conditions are still severely lacking. With so many overcrowded shelters, providing the correct care for all individual animals there is difficult.

According to Michigan Live there are currently 187 animal shelters in Michigan alone, within these shelters, only around 64% of animals are released into homes. Although this percentage is high, the other 36% of those animals are either euthanized or still currently in those shelters. 

Not only is the statistics a crisis for these animals but so is the stigma surrounding them.

Most see shelter animals as dangerous and not a good pet choice, but that is not the only case. Michigan Pet Alliance explains that animals are sheltered for various reasons, including owners passing away, feral living, not being a correct fit in a home, the animal’s anxiety, and much more. 

There are a number of reasons for shelter animals’ positions in these homes, but there’s only one for animals in the shopping pools, breeding. Breeding companies have only one goal, producing more and more products. The more new puppies and kittens they have, the more money they get. But what happens behind the scenes of this?

In order to get their product, they have to consistently breed. The fertile dogs they use are almost always pregnant, making them money around the clock. They are used their entire life, up until they can no longer produce. Paws explains that once their “purpose” is used up, they are discarded like they are nothing. The companies never cared for them, they only cared for their reproduction ability. 

Don’t fuel these companies. The more money these companies obtain, the more adult animals are thrown away and abused for no longer producing what they want. Breeding pools need to be put to an end, this being where shelter animals come in.

With these reasons and knowing what these shelter animals went through, these animals will need more attention than usual. They need help to adjust to their new families and most likely go through anxiety and PTSD effects from their past. This could be a valid reason for most not to adopt due to the large amount of time and patience to care for these types of animals, but these very same qualities are needed to provide for a new puppy.

So much time and patience are needed to train a puppy, provide necessities for a puppy, and more. Potty training alone takes so much patience from the owner but from the puppy as well. Qualities needed for both adopting and buying a brand new puppy are quite similar, so why not go for the route that can save an animal’s life and well-being?

Interested in adopting or wanting to learn more? Check out https://www.michiganpet.org/ or email [email protected] for any questions or concerns.