A teeny tiny little black doll baby of a Chihuahua, Lady Love should have NEVER gotten pregnant in the first place... And whatever male she bred with was much larger than she was... In turn, she carried and then tried to give birth to puppies that were much too large for her...
Dumped in a shelter because she was pregnant, Lady Love MUST have been someone's loved and treasured pet at one time in her life... She's 'maybe' 4 pounds when not carrying pups, and just as friendly and cute as can be...
Not one person comes into my nursery and does not comment on her beautiful appearance and personality... She has such a winning smile and is always SO glad to see you... Friendly as can be, Lady Love is a jewel and her owner should have spayed her so she would not have had to go through this...
She began the birthing process EARLY in the morning on Saturday and struggled, struggled... FINALLY the first pup was born, and with due diligence, she immediately broke the sack, breathed life into her and cleaned her up... When the second pup began its way down the birth canal, Lady Love struggled once again... I could clearly see that this pup was far too big for her to birthing...
I did everything I could in my 'experience rescuer tool box' and was seconds away from rushing her to the ER for an emergency C-section (a $1200 - $1800 procedure even for a rescue)... Lodged in between, I was not sure the pup and Lady Love would have survived the 12-minute race to the facility, so I did my very best... Once born between the two of us, Lady Love did her part with the placenta and I did mouth-to-mouth without success... A little boy, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge with supreme effort by all of us to no avail...
And I pushed aside the anger I felt towards the owner for not taking better care of this lovely female Chihuahua... Not the time nor place - the puppies' lives were at stake along with their mom's life... The anger could come later, so here it is... Black dogs are the last to be adopted and the first to be killed in our shelters - it is our mindset about what colors are good and which are 'evil'... If you want to know more about this phenomenon, Google "Black Dog Syndrome"... We deal with it every day in rescue and at TLC offer a discount every Friday on the adoption donation in the hopes the black dogs find furever homes faster...
And then...
We kill an estimated 8 million pets in this country each year because we have an epidemic of unwanted homeless pets... Simply going and spay/neutering your pet will stop countless unwanted litters that have high mortality rates and moms that suffer unwanted pregnancies and deliveries... In my 36+ years of rescue work, I have bottle-fed countless litters whose mom has died, trying to give birth... Orphans without a mom, sometimes we save a majority of them - sometimes we lose the entire litter through nights and nights of 3-hour, round the clock feedings...
I have taken on moms with prolapsed uterus issues, giving birth in fields where the pups and mom's uterus is loaded with grass clippings and fleas... We have taken in moms and dads plus the litter when the two pets were not spayed & neutered and the inevitable occurred... An unwanted pregnancy and an unwillingness to raise the puppies...
If you cannot do the 'right thing' in regards to your pets, you really should not have them at all... And the 'right thing' is to spay or neuter your pets unless they are show dogs and have legitimate waivers to remain intact... I doubt few reading this blog post have a $6,000+ show dog but many do have pets that are still intact...
There are SO many low cost spay and neuter options available to all of us... And if you allow your pet to remain intact, you GREATLY increase their chance of testicular or ovarian cancer, cutting short their life... Because you could not afford the $60 to do the 'right thing'?
Are you aware that conservative estimates now state that for every 10 puppies born in this country, only 1 will live out its normal, healthy life into old age?... The other nine will die early because of illness, neglect, car accidents, lack of yearly veterinary care, etc... What gives us the right to kill like this - intentionally or accidentally?
Before you believe you are not part of the problem because you do not have a pet, please allow me to share this fact with you... If you are a taxpayer in California, 8% of what you pay in taxes goes to the care, feeding, housing and eventually killing or adoption of unwanted homeless pets... Whether or not you own a pet... And until we as voters and taxpayers say, "Enough is enough" (whether you are talking to your legislators or to your neighbor who just HAD to buy that puppymill puppy that is still intact and will produce more unwanted offspring), we are ALL a part of the problem...
Unwanted homeless pets and their offspring is everyone's problem and until we are ALL a part of solution, it is not going to go away, folks... Whether you have an intact male who is not neutered, or a female who is not spayed... Whether you do not own a pet but are not speaking out to those pet owners who leave their pets intact...
We cannot sustain No-Kill here in Ventura County and across the State of California unless we all get behind the efforts to stop unwanted homeless pets from entering our shelter and rescue systems... Please think of Lady Love and the struggle she had to bring these puppies into the world...
I am overwhelmed with sadness.
ReplyDelete