Act of Resistance

Patti, Kristin, and I all love animals, and we are very concerned about animal rights. Both Patti and Kristin have dogs, but I really want one, if that counts. We wanted to perform an act of awareness that would alert people to mistreatment of animals. Shelters often have to kill unwanted dogs that they can’t afford to keep alive, and puppy mills are partly to blame. They breed dogs for profit, so lots of puppies don’t get enough to eat and they can become physically disabled from being forced in small cages for so long. All three of us found this very sad, and we wanted to raise awareness to help save the unwanted puppies that often get stuck in shelters. 99% of the puppies sold in pet stores were born in puppy mills, so if you are considering getting a new pet, we want you to make sure you know where the dog came from. Buying a dog from the Humane Society or adopting one from a shelter may be more expensive, but you could be saving that dog’s life and telling the companies that breed dogs simply for profit that they are involved in a cruel, unwanted business and you as consumers are standing for animal rights. To spread this message, we decided to take my neighbors’ dog on a walk while informing people about buying puppies. They came over to my house, and we made a sign for Trent (my neighbor’s dog to wear). It said “Adopt a Puppy.” We figured we’d get some questions and maybe convince people to adopt more wisely. Trent was adopted from a shelter, and his first home was pretty abusive. We wanted to tell the people that we passed while on the walk that they could save another dog like Trent. There weren’t too many people walking around this morning (it hadn’t started snowing yet but it was pretty cold), but a few of them seemed interested. I know not too many people are trying to get a new puppy right now, and we weren’t lucky enough to run into someone actively looking for a dog to adopt, but we spread the word, and hopefully convinced someone to save a puppy that really needs it.