Helping You Live a Happy, Healthy Life with Your Forever DogWorld Spay Day: Worldwide Issues and How to Help

World Spay Day: Worldwide Issues and How to Help

by Lynn Stacy-Smith

Two years ago my foster dog Destiny changed my life forever. She did it in small ways, by letting me teach her to trust people, to transitioning from being terrified of anyone touching her anywhere other than under her face to being the type of 60 pound lap dog who sprawled across your entire lap in a deep sleep. She did it by letting me rehab her from a terrified former stray into a beloved and happy dog headed into her forever home.

One of the most noticeable thing about Destiny was that her nipples were extended as if she had had puppies recently or just so many litters of puppies that they never went back to normal. When found as a stray, tied to a tree and left to die in a wooded area of Puerto Rico, she was around six or seven years old and un-spayed. Like many rescue dogs, she was promptly spayed before making her journey from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Chicago, Illinois.

Destiny crashed out after a game of ball

Because of Destiny, I began following the work of the non-profit organization Love Puerto Rico Goldens on Facebook. Because of Facebook translations I was able to learn about their near-daily task of rescuing purebred Golden Retrievers and Golden Retriever mixed breed dogs and puppies who have been abandoned and left entirely homeless. Because most of them are intact and able to reproduce, they do, in plentiful numbers.

A few months after Destiny found her forever home a friend of mine went to Puerto Rico for a wedding. “You can probably bring a few puppies back in your carry on,” I joked, although it was a joke with a wish that she could save a few dogs while down there. She texted me from there and said, “Oh, Lynn, it’s so heart breaking, there are dogs and puppies everywhere, just wandering along the streets.”

According to an article on CNN Money, “People are literally fleeing Puerto Rico because the island’s economy is so bad. One in 10 people is out of work. The island’s government has run out of money and is $72 billion in debt. Over 10% of the population has booked a one-way ticket out (mostly to Florida, Texas and elsewhere in the mainland U.S.) in the past decade. Sometimes people just leave their homes and lock their dogs inside, never to return.”

The same CNN Money article includes ways to help with dogs in Puerto Rico: http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/20/news/economy/puerto-rico-crisis-stray-dogs/ . You can also donate directly to Love Puerto Rico Goldens, which is 100% dependent on donations: http://www.lovepuertoricogoldens.org/.

Even more heartbreaking is that this issue is in no way unique to Puerto Rico. If you remember leading up to the Sochi Winter Olympics there was a massive culling of stray dogs and the despicable and inhumane term “biological trash” used to describe the innocent dogs who are a victim of irresponsible humans. These situations happen all over the world.

How can you help?Donations, spreading awareness, volunteering and spaying or neutering your own dog(s) are important things that you can do to help with pet overpopulation problems both here and around the world.I found three web sites with important information on how you can make a difference.