What a strange thing to say. Happy UN-Mother’s Day. Guess you gotta be in this animal rescue field for a bit before you can understand the magnitude of dislike one can have for the idea of cats and dogs having babies. Knowing all that will be killed this year alone just in our state of Michigan. Imagine multiplying that by 50. The average number of cats (I don’t even have the dog statistics) killed in the United States is astronomical. Want numbers? In 2010, Michigan shelters reported the euthanization of 50,549 cats and kittens. And that’s ONLY the shelters that REPORTED their statistics. And again, that’s just MICHIGAN.
It’s disheartening really. To think of all those mothers, who went through birthing of kittens only to have them killed in shelters. I know the nice term is to be PTS (Put To Sleep) or euthanized. But that’s not what it is. It’s KILLING. Euthanizing is for sick and suffering animals. It’s humanely ending the life of an animal in desperate circumstances. We don’t have to KILL cats or any other animals. We need to be proactive and make strides toward a solution that is NOT SIMPLY SNUFFING OUT LIVES!
So I say Happy UN-Mother’s Day because I long for the day when there are no kitty mamas out there risking life and limb to protect their litters born in sheds, under wood piles, in boxes of rubbish and in abandoned cars across this country. I long for the day that a litter of newborn kittens isn’t in eminent peril because Mom was just hit by a car foraging for food to support her delicate system so that she can provide adequate nutrition for her offspring. I’d like for no cats to be mothers for some time.
Can you imagine the joy of a cat having a litter of kittens when none are being killed needlessly in shelters? Can you imagine a day when cats are prized for being the amazing creatures of God that they are and not discounted as vermin simply because there are too many of them? Can you imagine the day when people aren’t “solving the problem” by giving FREE KITTENS away to anyone who wants them? I CAN imagine this day. I can imagine a day when I’m not thinking UN-Mother’s day, but HAPPY DAY!
But we’re not near there yet. We have a long way to go. A long way till my dreams of county animal control officers across America sitting at their desks with feet up like the Maytag Repair Man. Bored because there are no animal cruelty calls and no dogs to catch or animal hoarding situations to uncover.
If you long for this day too, please do what you can to help us realize the day when kittens are born, it is joyous. Do your part to stop people from giving away FREE KITTENS, discounting them as if they were the junk left over from a garage sale, discarded on the side of the road.
Encourage your friends and family to fix their intact animals. Demand it actually!
Educate those who don’t understand the need for TNR and the benefits to both animals and humans by adopting humane feline population control.
Take time to advocate for those without a voice.
Please do what you can so that one day, we might be able to celebrate a Happy Mother’s Day.
For those of you Mamas who love your furry children as you do or would your own flesh and blood, I wish you a beautiful, blessed day.
~Carol
