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“No Pet Store Puppies” Campaign Launched

Published August 15, 2011 in Love For Earthlings, What's New |
Tags: Adoption & Services, ASPCA, conscious consumer, dogs, pet stores, Pets & Animals, puppy mills, Singapore SPCA

While trying to cope with an increased number of pets being surrendered at the Mount Vernon premise, The Singapore SPCA has been advocating against pet abandonment, with efforts being focused on educating the public against impulse buying, encouraging adoption rather than purchasing a pet and that pet-owning is a lifetime commitment.

However, the source of the problem has been left untackled. Uncertified and inexperienced farm and home breeders have been left unchecked, being allowed to continue breeding animals even though they do not have proper understanding of bloodlines and canine genetics. We have come across numerous dogs (products of puppy mills) who are prone to developing respiratory ailments and pneumonia, cardiac problems as well as hereditary defects such as hip dysplasia. In addition, mill dogs are more prone to have problems with their temperament. Such dogs usually end up in shelters or are surrendered at the SPCA, rendering them difficult to re-home.

The Singapore SPCA may want to take a cue or two from ASPCA’s campaign against puppy mills; nipping the problem at its root may well be more worth the effort than educating the populace.

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) has just launched a new part of the No Pet Store Puppies campaign to raise awareness about cruel practices in puppy mills. Many pet stores and websites selling pets get their puppies from puppy mills.

While the stores and websites themselves may not be treating the puppies cruelly, they are supporting the puppy mills where such abuse is taking place. It does not take much to understand the bigger picture, and yet there are still some consumers who refuse to inform themselves accurately about where many puppies come from, or are simply oblivious.

For example, in the area where the campaign was launched a recent poll found 86 percent of local residents would not buy a puppy if they knew it was from a puppy mill, 74 percent were unaware of the fact that most puppies sold there do come from puppy mills.

‘Those adorable puppies in the pet store window are hard to resist, but, unfortunately, shopping at pet stores that sell puppies only serves to support the puppy mill industry,” said Laurie Beacham, Senior Director, ASPCA Strategy & Campaigns.

One of the issues is that the purchase of a puppy is often done on a whim, without careful consideration of where the puppy comes from, and how buying one from a puppy mill unintentionally supports cruelty to them, because puppy mills put profits over proper care.

At a pet store, the cute factor appeals to many and they find the purchase nearly irresistible, meaning they have not done any research about where the puppies come from, and probably do not ask in the pet store. Also, puppies for sale are often separated from their litters and mothers, and then are uprooted again if their new owner tires of them quickly, and dumps them at an animal shelter. This fickleness also is cruel to a young dog, because they are very social creatures and social bonds are critically important.

The best consumer choice is to inform oneself before making a decision, and not make a purchase without doing so. Buying an animal is not like shoe shopping, but some treat it as the same, or a similar experience.

The ASPCA was founded over 140 years ago, and continues to be a leading advocate for animal welfare.

Adapted from an article by Jake R.

Eat Less Meat For Greener World

Published August 2, 2011 in Love For Earthlings, We Love Gaia |
Tags: conscious consumer, Environment, Healthy Neighbourhood, Make a Difference, Vegetarian

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) released a reported titled A Meat Eater’s Guide to Climate Change + Health: What You Eat Matters. Their main point is that the production of meat for mass consumption contributes very much to climate change. It also creates large amounts of pollution and consumes vast stretches of land that used to be part of the wild, but were converted to factory farming.

Beef, cheese, lamb, pork and farmed salmon generate the most greenhouse gases, according to EWG. They also have the largest environmental impact, other than farmed salmon.

“Producing tremendous quantities of meat and dairy requires large amounts of pesticides, chemical fertilizer, fuel, feed and water. It also generates greenhouse gases and massive amounts of toxic manure and wastewater that pollute groundwater, rivers, streams and, ultimately, the ocean.” (Source: EWG)

The amount of faeces and urine generated by factory farms is huge. As it was reported on this site recently, they generate 100 times the waste of human sewage plants. Excess manure generates methane, a greenhouse gas, and factory farming is the fastest growing source of it, according to Mercy for Animals.

Dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico where there is no, or virtually no, marine life are created by excess fertilizer on crop fields that are grown to feed factory farm animals. The runoff of animal faeces and urine also contributes to these dead zones. 607 028 square kilometres of land in the U.S. is used just to grow food for farm animals.

In a sense, the connection between meat and dairy consumption and climate change has already been covered by a United Nations report from several years back. The UN report stated agriculture contributes more to climate change than all transportation combined. (One might have assumed emissions from cars, trucks, buses, trains and planes, etc. were the greater contributor to climate change.)

The EWG report contains some shocking statistics, such as this one: “From 1971 to 2010, worldwide production of meat tripled to around 600 billion pounds while global population grew by just 81 percent (US Census Bureau, International Data Base).” (Source: EWG) They also say by 2050 if the rate of production remains the same, the total globally could be 1.2 trillion pounds per year.

Each one of the above factors should be a compelling enough reason to reduce meat intake or stop altogether, but there is still another major issue with mass meat production. Most antibiotics in the U.S. are used on factory farms, and they wind up in the environment where they could create resistance in bacteria that eventually could make people sick.

The global human population is also steadily increasing, a trend that will undoubtedly make climate change worse. Our food choices on an individual level do make a big difference collectively.

Image Credit: H2O

Adapted from an article by Jake R.