Stray animals on the streets
Free roaming dogs and cats on the streets is not a specific problem to Taiwan alone. On the contrary, almost every country in the world has this problem. These stray animals are mostly former pets, some probably got lost, but most of them were abandoned. Currently, most of the governments take the extermination approach to deal with this huge amount of animals. However, the extermination approach should be taken as the second resort because for humane reasons; this approach is also ineffective, and the only method is through public education.
It is cruel for both people and animals to exterminate stray animals. In the U.S., more than ten thousand healthy puppies are put to death through euthanasia every year at public shelters. In the public shelter, veterinarians feel guilty and sorry when they are killing healthy animals. Just before the moment that the veterinarian gives the dog the injection with poison, the dog who is going to die may still wave his/her tail toward the veterinarian. Mercy killing should be used with people who get serious cancer, but not healthy animals who can be human companions.
In addition, the extermination approach can not effectively control the abandoned pet population, especially for dogs or cats. According to biology researches, the size of a species’ population in an area depends on the amount of food. Whenever the dogs’ community in an area is decreasing due to catching, which will then send these dogs to public shelters, dogs from other areas will occupy this place, and they will thrive because they have fewer competitors. The dogs’ reproductive ability is very strong. A female dog can produce a litter twice a year, and there are usually more than eight puppies in a litter. As a result, no matter how much the amount of abandoned pets gets exterminated, there will be still many abandoned pets on the streets because their source is pet abandoning.
Finally, the public education is very important for stray animal control. If there are more than 75% of domestic pets that get spayed or neutered, then the stray animal amount will soon begin to decrease. This is the reason that California has legislated laws that the owners of the pets must spay or neuter their pets. Moreover, implanting chip under the skin of pets can effectively distinguish the ownership of an animal on the street, which can help to prevent malicious abandoning of pets. Most important of all is the concept of responsible pet ownership. A responsible owner should not only feed their pets but also acquire a lot of knowledge of their pets, from training tips to medical issues.
In conclusion, although the extermination method is currently the most popular method among many countries, it should not be taken as the main way to deal with this problem. Because of the reasons of humanity and effective control, the government should distribute more money to educate their citizens about responsible pet ownership instead of killing more stray animals on the streets.
