A smart approach to pet overpopulation

Here’s a question: Why, when public and private animal shelters throughout Virginia euthanized 95,209 cats and dogs in 2007, do consumers create demand for more cats and dogs by purchasing them at pet stores?

Maybe it’s because they don’t realize the magnitude of the pet overpopulation problem. Maybe they don’t like visiting shelters. Maybe they think of shelter/breed rescue animals as defective castaways. Maybe they don’t realize the connection between their decisions and the deaths of thousands of dogs and cats.

While some local pet stores should be lauded for turning their backs on puppy mills to address the most egregious aspect of selling pets, there is one store that offers the best response to the issue of adding to the surplus of dogs and cats.

“We have never sold cats or dogs,” says Julie Schmaltz, adoption operations manager for PetSmart, the pet store giant. “One of our founders knew of the challenges of pet overpopulation. There is such a great need to find homes for these animals. It’s just the right thing to do.”

PetSmart has, since its inception in the mid-1980s, offered space to animal shelters and rescue groups looking to place cats, dogs and sometimes even small animals like gerbils in good homes. (In the interests of full disclosure, as a volunteer for the Bedford Humane Society, I should note that PetSmart Charities has given the Bedford Humane Society two grants.)

During the last 20 years, more than 3 million pets have found homes from these partnerships, Schmaltz says. PetSmart’s 1,000 stores see, on average, 7,000 to 7,500 adoptions per week, she says.
Locally, the humane societies in Lynchburg and Campbell County have teamed up with PetSmart to adopt out more than 1,600 cats and dogs since 2000.

Nationally, the program has been a boon to organizations with no viewing venues.

“About 65 percent of the agencies we work with have no shelters, so this program is a lifeline for them,” notes Schmaltz. “It allows them to get pets in front of a lot of people.”

Customers like the setup, too. Schmaltz says that many people feel uncomfortable going to shelters because they are often located in depressed areas, and potential adopters are overwhelmed and saddened by the number of animals housed there.

“Our environment is a lot more upbeat. The customers are still doing a good thing and are having a good experience, too,” she says.

All funds collected for adoptions at PetSmart go to the agencies, not to the store. The charitable arm of PetSmart also gives its partners money to help cover the costs associated with preparing the animals for adoption.

Schmaltz notes that one million of dogs and cats are euthanized annually across the nation, and their demises aren’t necessarily due to their temperaments or health, or the fact that they are mutts (you’ll find purebreds at the pound). It’s a matter of supply and demand.

As consumers, we can make choices that eliminate the surplus. The answer to the old tune “How much is that doggie in the window?” isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents. It’s a matter of lives.

More options
—The Bedford County/City Animal Shelter, with help from Bedford Humane Society volunteers, will hold an adopt-a-thon Aug. 9 at the Bedford Wal-Mart.
—The Bedford Humane Society will have some of its foster animals at Bedford’s Centerfest Sept. 27 for people to meet.Visit http://www.bedfordhumanesociety.petfinder.com.