Almost every week, somewhere in America, an animal collector/hoarder situation is raided, often requiring the rescue of hundreds of animals at a time. Often the media, the authorities, and the rescue community condemns and accuses. We are so accustomed to being betrayed by our society and government that we have little tolerance for being betrayed by one of our "own."
 
We tend to pity those who 'love' and/or rescue animals. “They must not have any friends” or “they can’t deal with life like normal people”. Well, no they can’t! They refuse to sit by and watch the rest of us abuse and neglect and give LIP SERVICE to  how much we actually care for the animals.   They are the ones doing the dirty work to clean up the mess that most of us caused out of our total lack of involvement, compassion or  proper information.
 
Why is it that our society thinks less of them if they are truly saving the animals we claim to love?  If we honestly loved them so much, there wouldn’t be the need for all these rescuers. They should be revered.
 
The biggest reason for being turned into the pound in America is because people didn’t do what was necessary to get the dog to be appropriately behaved. The second reason is that the humans were moving or found it inconvenient to live with the dog in their lives. This ultimately guarantees these dogs will die.  With the number of  unwanted animals our nation’s facilities are forced to accept, there is no alternative, but to kill up to 80% of all incoming animals.  Many within hours of their arrival.  Yet we continue to have litters and be unrealistic in our desires of how we expect our animals to behave with no professional training or even the appropriate care.   Is that a society who honestly loves dogs?
 
In Europe, with it's no-kill shelters, euthanasia is only administered by veterinarians and only by lethal injection. Their strict licensing, animal control and welfare laws, and national databases of convicted animal abusers and neglecters put American's  laws and actions (or lack there of) to shame.  There is no lip service there, but a genuine love and responsibility taught and expected from every citizen.
 
They don’t have collectors or hoarders.  There is no need for an overload of rescue organizations.  They truly understand their place and the animals’ place.
 
We cannot say that about North Americans. We’ve created a prevailing system of apathy and ignorance, where shelters and volunteer rescue efforts cannot possibly stem the tide, where government has mostly turned its back on animal welfare and control efforts, where anything "animal" is usually paid ‘lip’ service (always said softly, bottom lip protruding in that tone of voice that denotes sympathy or pity) and then, given the lowest priority, where animals often die horrible deaths, where local animal rescue organizations can barely fund the resources they provide to "crisis" situations, and where a lot of people, as well as the major humane organizations are making MILLIONS AND MILLIONS from animals.
 
Americans believe they can buy their way out of any situation.  “I’ll do what ever I please, then when it catches up to me, I’ll just buy my way out”.  That is exactly why the national organizations are rolling in the dough.  We send funds out of guilt and out of pity.  Then refuse  to do the right thing the rest of the year by speaking out, altering pets and helping the local situations that we can more closely monitor.
 
I get a lot of mail each week and often from rescuers who are out of hope and out of funds. They sometimes describe personal situations to me that worry me, and they ask me if I have any suggestions of help for them.  Then everything I suggest is something they just couldn’t imagine trying.  I've even angered some Rescue efforts with criticisms (largely borne of frustration), because their efforts and websites and fundraisers and other events include NO advocacy and education components.
 
That means we will always be forced to deal with the status quo, rescuing animal by animal, with no end in sight (and where I'm often "wrong" is that's still better than nothing!).  The next generation will be doomed to spending time and money rescuing to a similar degree.  We will NEVER save all the animals who need help.  There will be that given percentage which cannot be reached in time.  If each rescuer were to take 20% of their time and resources and went to the local schools, we could ALL see a reduction of the need to follow in their footsteps in our lifetimes!  So, for every rescuer who is spending all their time and resources on rescuing animals and not addressing the cause of these problems to their local ‘masses’, I ask you to view this more from the standpoint of a business. 
 
 For every "accomplishment" we cheer about, some other situation or decision by government seems to take us two steps backwards.  One more reason I added 'PROJECT VOTE SMART" to this site. You need to know where your representatives stand on the local and area animal issues, let them know you are voting accordingly and let your voice be heard.
 
For evil to prevail, good people need to do nothing.
 
Of course nobody wants to see the animals suffer.  No one adopts a pet for the fun of taking it to the pound to watch it die.  Yet, we watch and  still do nothing and we take nearly a thousand pets to the pound every day in this country - few for any justifiable reason.  (“moving”, ‘don’t have time”, not right for the kids”) etc.
 
With that said, education does make the most sense.  It changes people's perceptions of what is happening, what they can and can't do in order to prevent further pain and anguish and death among our animal friends. I've seen it change teen lives right in front of me.
 
If we could get America and Canada to "no kill" as soon as possible, if we could outlaw every method of "euthanasia" except by lethal injection (http://www.crean.com/kindness), if we could get every animal lover in the country to write a letter to an editor on an animal issue, and demand that our media report on those issues, and hold government at all levels accountable for, at the least, animal control and welfare issues - we could see such improvements,  stop creating "collectors" and maybe we could negate the need to rescue hundreds/thousands of poorly cared for animals at a time, who further deplete rescue resources.
 
Below are some additional resources on the issues. Please join the advocacy and educational effort as soon as you can.
 
"Killing With Kindness" - An Act of Compassion
One campaign. One goal: A U.S. FEDERAL law for the HUMANE euthanasia of surplus, homeless companion animals. One result: Putting an end to the cruel killing! For more information and a sample letter, please see:
http://www.crean.com/kindness
 
"Loving Animals to Death," a psychological profile on Animal Collectors from the Animal Protection Institute:
http://www.api4animals.org/areas.asp?c=4&ID=59
 
National Cruelty Investigation Schools:
http://www.missouri.edu/~letiwww/animal3.htm