Local Resources to Help You Spay, Neuter, and Care for Your Best Friend

On my way to work this morning, I saw a seemingly stray dog wandering around the neighborhood. I hoped it had a home, but where were the owners? It's hot today so I wonder where it will find water and shelter from the sun. And there's lots of traffic nearby so hopefully it will not get hit by a car. And with the cold, rain, and ice, wintertime is even worse on stray and abandoned animals.

This is a sad state of affairs. Every day in the US 70,000 puppies and kittens are born (compared to 10,000 human children). There are not nearly enough homes for all those animals. Consequently, 10-12 million animals are euthanized in shelters every year for lack of available homes. 30% of those are purebreds.

Spaying or neutering your pet is one way to help solve the problems of too many animals, not enough homes, animal cruelty, and overburdened shelters. Here's how you can help:

* Learn more about why you should spay or neuter your pet at Human Society of the United States. Remember, Spay Day USA is the last Tuesday in February. 2008 will be the thirteenth year.

* Find a place to spay or neuter your pet. Spay USA is a nationwide network and referral service for affordable spay/neuter services in your area. Call 1-800-248-SPAY (1-800-248-7729) for more information. If your pet is already spayed or neutered or if you don't have a pet, consider making a financial contribution to help others who love their pets, but can't afford spaying or neutering costs.

* Spay or neuter your rabbit. Learn more at rabbit.org.

* Learn more about what happens to abandoned pets from petrescue.com.

Want some other ways to take care of animals?

* Visit pets911.com and enter you zip code to find shelters, fostering opportunities, vets, pet friendly rentals, spaying and neutering resources, pet sitters, community events and more.

* Here's a small, but fast, free, and easy way to feed abandoned animals: just visit theanimalrescuesite.com and click the big purple button. Click daily to help even more. Every click buys food for stray and abandoned animals.