12/19/11 Buying Animals Supports Killing Abandoned Dogs!
Animal Friends' reaction on the occasion of the campaign "You Buy One, You Kill One"
- Breeding, selling and buying animals is immoral, unethical and reduces animals to merchandise
Animal Friends campaign "You Buy One, You Kill One," created in collaboration with PETA, has caused numerous reactions and controversy. Billboards, which show a gun pointed at a dog, with the message "You bought an animal? You killed one animal's chances." and a clear slogan "Adopt. Never buy.", wishes to warn about the alarming problem of buying animals, and, connected with it, killing of abandoned animals.
Reactions Animal Friends has received emphasize the opinion that not all breeders are the same, that there are "good," "registered" and "bad" breeders, that people who bought an animal did nothing wrong because they care for the animal responsibly and that this campaign attacks owners of bought dogs. Animal Friends values feedback which confirms the justifiability of starting such a campaign and the gravity of the problem of buying animals. Buying animals and killing abandoned dogs are closely connected and inseparable.
The intent of a campaign against buying animals is not to shock, but to educate and incourage people to think. Anyone who has had the opportunity to see the brutal ways abandoned dogs' lives in cities and smaller towns end, and to face the consequences of breeding and selling animals, will find this campaign mild because abandoned animals in Croatia go through horrors which are not evident to general public.
Animal Friends is buried in calls, e-mails and demands to take care of abandoned animals citizens find in the streets. Associations, shelters and individuals in Croatia are making enormous efforts and investing financial resources to save dogs and cats nobody wants from being killed, and their capacities are extremely overcrowded. Many of these abandoned animals die a horrible death, of starvation, thurst, cold, severe abuse, hunting rifles...
Therefore the message "You bought an animal? You killed one animal's chances." is very mild in comparison with the reality animals go through. The number of dogs being bred exceeds the number of abandoned dogs, which says enough about the severity of this problem. Breeding, selling and buying animals, as well as everything related to the business, is immoral, unethical and reduces animals to merchandise. Female dogs are raped to cater human preference for puppies of a specific breed, colour, shape, etc. There is great exploitation and animal manipulation excusively for profit, and bred animals are also victims, as well as the abandoned ones who will be killed in shelters after 60 days because someone bought a dog or some other animal, instead of adopting an abandoned one. Although the painful truth is not easy to hear, it is positive that it encourages citizens to think and make ethical choices in the future.
The aim of this campaign is not to judge people who bought an animal and care for it responsibly, but to inform the public on the problem which is spoken of very little and which people who buy animals are not familiar with. The aim is to encourage everyone who bought an animal not to buy new animals in the future, not from certified breeders or advertisements or any other way, but to adopt, and to encourage those who plan to buy an animal to think well and give a chance to live to one of many abandoned animals.
Among abandoned dogs there are so-called pure-bred dogs, and some "guardians" illegally bring healty dogs of a certain breed to be euthanized because they no longer like them, or their character is not what they expected, or they are not prepared to spend money for their treatment and operations for diseases typical for certain breeds (e.g. hip dysplasia).
Every animal who comes into a new home is an individual, a living being with his or her personality and needs, and not a toy or occasional entertainment because he or she is sweet, charming or interesting for his or her looks and physical characteristics. Just like it is illegal and punishable to sell people, it is intolerable to make animals the object of buying and selling, and to heartlessly manipulate their reproduction, bodies, and lives for that purpose. Animal Friends does not only refer to bought dogs and cats, but also many other exotic and less exotic animals who suffer in captivity, as much as we try to give them good living conditions, while abandoned dogs and cats wait to be euthanized.
Puppies bought as Christmas presents, especially for children, most often end up as abandoned dogs before vacation starts. Animal Friends appeals to citizens to never, for any reason, buy any kind of animals, because buying supports humiliation, exploitation, animal suffering and death. Animals deserve consideration from people, understanding and compassion, which can best be shown by adopting abandoned animals.