This Is Why You Should Always Adopt

After working at an animal shelter for a year I can say with confidence that the math is very simple -- there are too many animals chasing far too few permanent homes.  The problem with breeders and commercial dealers is, simply, they don't fucking care, and economic hardship also plays a role:

"Pet food costs have outpaced general inflation by 0.6%, and a single surprise veterinary bill can launch 42% of pet owners into debt, according to a recent Forbes study. As a result, shelters around the US are seeing an increase in owner surrenders and a steep decline in adoptions with no sign of improving.

'We’re packed right now. We’re putting animals in cages in the hallways,' explains Katy Hansen, director of marketing and communications at New York’s Animal Care Centers (ACC), a no-kill shelter that has seen a 25% uptick in surrenders this year over last. 'It’s really sad, people crying, it’s a part of their family. But if you’re choosing between feeding your family and feeding your pet, your choices are limited.'” 

It's impossible not to moralize here, but taking on a pet as a family member really is a life-time economic commitment. 

Relevant To My Current Job!

I'm finding that the world of pets and animals is filled with a lot of good intentions that can go wrong, eventually -- to wit, service animals.  It's very complicated, to say the least!

"While pets inarguably provide emotional support simply by being themselves, they are not trained to help someone with a disability navigate life, or taught how to behave appropriately in public. And since anyone can get an ESA certificate – all it requires is a note from a doctor, though buying them online is easily done – good dogs and bad dogs, sweet dogs and aggressive dogs all qualify for the title.

The problem became so severe that in December 2020, the Department of Transportation (DoT) stiffened their rules to allow only trained service dogs on planes, stating that it no longer considered an emotional support animal to be a service animal.

Dishonest pet owners were not deterred. Instead of declaring their animal to be an emotional support animal, they now fully lie and call it a service dog."

If every dog is a support animal or an Emotional Support Animal, then no dog is either.

It's come up a few times at work and I'm sure it will again, usually in the context of "My animal couldn't have attacked another animal or person because it's an E.S.A.!"  It can become a shield, basically, and a far cry from what it's supposed to accomplish in the first place.

"something of a taboo"

South Korean president Moon Jae-In is asking people, maybe, to give up dog meat:

"The meat has long been a part of South Korean cuisine with about 1 million dogs believed to be eaten annually, but consumption has declined as more people embrace the animals as companions rather than livestock.

The practice is something of a taboo among younger generations and pressure from animal rights activists has been mounting.

'Hasn’t the time come to prudently consider prohibiting dog meat consumption?' Moon asked the prime minister, Kim Boo-kyum, during a weekly meeting on Monday, according to the presidential spokesperson.

South Korea’s pet industry is on the rise, with a growing number of people living with dogs at home – the president among them. Moon is a known dog lover and has several canines at the presidential compound, including one he rescued after taking office.

Adopting Tory was one of Moon’s pledges during his presidential campaign and the pooch became the first rescue dog to make its way into the Blue House."

I've done a ton of posts like these over the years, but never has a prominent South Korean official come out and suggested a straight-up ban.  I'm very happy to see he's adopted a rescue animal as well.

Animal Welfare In South Korea Is (Hopefully) A Growing Trend

I'll be blunt -- one of the worst things about living in Korea is the lack of awareness surrounding issues of animal welfare.  Obviously debates about dog meat are a thing (IMO it's a bad thing, but relatively minor compared to large-scale factory farming in America) but I'm talking more about the common treatment of pets.  I've seen dogs kept on extremely short leashes for entire weekends, all alone.  I've seen poodles tied by the collar to the door handles of chic cafes, having to stand on their toes just to breathe properly.  And if you think that's bad for the puppers, stray cats are treated with the same level of contempt as rodents here.

Anyhow, things might be changing for the better as "Animal Rights" are a growing concern, especially with younger South Koreans:

"In many cases, the organizations or police are sent away from the abusers’ homes as they remain adamant, arguing for the ownership of their pets. But the organizations persist until they relent.

'Taeyangi’s owner was indignant because he really didn’t think there was anything wrong with abusing his dog, as it is his property,' said Ahn. 'So we had to guide him along a step-by-step process to rationally convince him that what he did was wrong. I asked him, "If I slap you on the face, would that be right? and he said No." So I told him that’s basically what he did to his dog, and that he abused Taeyangi.'

'The number of tips about animal violence are increasing day by day,' said Ahn. 'Based on our experience, the reason behind owners abusing their animals lies in the fact that they resolve their rage upon a weaker being, not because they hate animals.'

The animal rights organizations are all calling for one thing: stricter enforcement of the legal punishments for animal abuse so that abusers will face a degree of punishment that correlates to the level of their cruelty. Moreover, they want the law to become stricter so that people will recognize animals as living beings instead of as their property."

Obviously, this is a trend that I can only hope will continue to grow.