Approximately 7.6 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.9 million are dogs and 3.4 million are cats.
About 2.4 million healthy, adoptable cats and dogs—about one every 13 seconds—are put down in U.S. shelters each year.
In 2010 More than 100,000 animals were put to sleep at Michigan shelters.
About a handfull of them are strays picked up from the streets but majority of them are surrenders. Some use the excuse "I got a new job and don't have time for him/her" or " I just had a baby" .
But the most common excuse is " I had to move and my new landlord doesn't allow pets."
Our shelters are overflowing. If you look up Michigan animal shelters you will see in big bold letters on a lot of their pages " not accepting any surrenders at this time".
In my opinion- I believe if we started an act that prevents landlords from discriminating against pets, those large numbers could drop drastically as well as clearing up some space in them shelters.
Does anyone else see it the same way I do? I understand landlords might be leary about possible damages animals might cause. But is that not what the security deposit is for?
Please, it has to stop somewhere ! Why not start in Michigan ?
