Top Ten Things Animal Rescue Groups Won't Tell You

As more Americans crowd into cities and suburbs, we're pampering our pets in ways no known human society has ever achieved before. At the same time, we're becoming more aware of dog and cat haters, and unfortunately we're letting them control our urban and suburban environments. Animal shelters were meant to be sanctuaries for injured and abused animals; instead, they're becoming prison camps for any animal found guilty of existing inside the city limits.

If your pet manages to get outdoors and follow its instincts to hunt or socialize, you may not even be allowed to pay an exorbitant fee to reclaim it. Depending on the degree of insanity that's developed at the local animal shelter, it may be resold to someone else who can promise that it will never see the sun again...or, failing that, it may be "humanely" destroyed.

It's time for people who care about animals to stand up to people who hate animals. Even if your own dog or cat is fifteen years old and perfectly content to sleep its last days away beside your bed, you have to be alarmed by the mentality of people who assume that all dogs and cats are going to have rabies or harm the environment.

Sooner or later, those people are going to notice the statistics. About one out of six cats has a natural tendency to chase things in the air rather than things on the ground. About one out of six male humans has, at some time, felt some interest in a homosexual relationship. Of cats who hunt in the air, about one out of ten may actually catch flying birds (mostly they catch undesirable insects). Of male humans who are attracted to other male bodies, about one out of ten may actually molest a little boy. If we try to confine all cats at all time to protect birds, shouldn't we confine all men at all times to protect little boys?

Personally, I believe in freedom for humans and animals, so I offer animal lovers ten things to keep in mind when we try to do nice things for wild or domestic animals: