Recently there was news of protest by some animal-welfare activists who wanted to prevent selling cats and dogs. According to these animal-welfare activists, if stores were stopped from selling pets it will help in preventing puppy-mill operations.
These protests by activist will definitely help in preventing the sales of pets at these stores but will not reduce the demand for pets. People who want to buy and sell pets will look at alternate ways of buying and selling pets. When people sell pets online, it will become extremely difficult to monitor their operations.
Today, the main problem is that economic recession is forcing people to abandon pets. For instance, in some places the average time that people have pets at home is just 18 months. By stopping the sale of pets at stores, animal-welfare activist are not dealing with the real problem. They need to find rational solution to the problem. They need to understand the larger problem rather than deal with minor issues that may not have any consequence on the well-being of the animals.
Animal welfare activist must also look at other issues that will help in improving the living condition of animals. They must try to set guidelines that will decide who can sell animals and the number of animals that live in a specified area.
Another important problem that they need to understand is that most people who buy and sell animals don’t require any permit. Also, some people don’t have proper training to handle animals. Therefore it is important that an authority is set-up that can control the buying and selling of animals. The authority must also have the right to decide who can sell animals and the space that must be given to each animal. The authority must also check if the pets have been vaccinated and they are not harmed by their breeders.
If you ask me, the animal welfare activist must not stop pet shops from selling pets. Instead, they should they to regulate the pets sold by them. These stores must be certified and regular inspection of these stores must be done by right authorities.
