Each year in America, 4-6 million animals are euthanized in our overcrowded shelter system. There just simply is nowhere for them to go. They die from no crime, but are kept like prisoners until their final day. Very few make it out, and will never know what it is like to run and play in the grass or be cuddled by an owner who loves them. A few lucky dogs get out alive, and are then adopted out to families. Unfortunately this is not always a happy ending either. Some return to the shelter to never be adopted again. Many of these animal's lives could be saved if the shelter systems and the governing cities put into effect a mandatory spay and neuter law. Which upon enacting such a law, it would also have to be greatly enforced. Breeders are fighting these laws, but our overcrowded shelters are also due to breeders. Many breeders do not take their dogs back if later in life the people cannot keep them, or there are discipline issues. Hence the dogs wind up in a shelter. There are many pure bred dogs in the shelter systems, and most come from breeders, and puppy mills. The only way to make a change is to enact such laws across America.
             The single most important thing that we can do to save cats and dogs from all the suffering and death that their overpopulation causes is to spay and neuter them. Spaying and neutering are routine, affordable surgeries that can prevent thousands of animals from being born, only to suffer and struggle to survive on the streets, be abused by cruel or neglectful people, or be euthanized in animal shelters for lack of a loving home. Spaying and neutering does not change your animal in any negative way. It can actually affect them in a very positive way. Spaying and neutering can make your dog or cat more calm, and it will in fact make them want to stay in your yard or home, and you will have less of a chance of them running away. Spayed and neutered pets are better, more affectionate, companions. It can...