Why I Support Adopting vs. Shopping

Editor’s Note: Please welcome our newest intern, Marissa Battaglia! Marissa is a student at the State University of Fredonia where she is studying journalism with a minor in French. 

That moment when you want to buy an animal, think about where you are buying the animal. Is the animal coming from a safe, welcoming environment or not? There are many things to consider before buying a new pet. Typically, if you buy an animal from a pet store you’re supporting puppy mills. A puppy mill is an establishment that breeds puppies for sale, typically on an intensive basis and in conditions regarded as inhumane. If you would like to learn more about puppy mills and what they are really like I recommend the documentary Dog by Dog. It gives people more insight on the topic and it’s very eye opening.

Instead of buying a pet from a store, considering adoption is a better option! By adopting an animal from a shelter you are able to save the animal and give it a better life. Some other pluses of adopting the animal from a shelter rather than a pet store include:

• It’s usually a lot less expensive to adopt rather than buying a dog from a breeder or pet store.
• Most shelter dogs have lived in homes so the dog could already be potty trained.
• Shelters and rescue groups often include vaccinations, micro chipping, and spaying or neutering in the adoption fee.

There are so many animals waiting to be adopted, in fact, 6 to 8 million dogs are waiting in animal shelters to be adopted. Every person has the capability of saving an animal and you can really change an animal’s life!

My best friend adopted a cat from a shelter just last year. Her cat, Skylar, is one of the nicest cats I’ve ever met. She loves to play and she loves being outside. Just because the animal you adopt isn’t from a pet store doesn’t mean it’ll be mean or a bad pet. The experience of seeing her adopt a pet and making it so happy made me want to adopt an animal. From her experience I have learned that happiness can go both ways when adopting an animal. It brings the animal happiness as well as the human. Knowing that an animal’s life has been saved made me feel warm inside and it made me realize how lucky I have been in my life. I don’t know the experience of not being wanted and I feel as if for anyone it would be hard to go through, therefore helping the animal and making it feel wanted is an amazing thing.

While my family has never adopted any animals, in the future I plan on adopting animals from a shelter. Helping animals is what motivates me to support animal adoption. Humans have the capability of helping animals and I think because we are able to help, we should.

There are many different ways you can help. If you aren’t able to take care of an animal at this point in time you could always share on social media about the animals that need to be adopted. One of your friends might share it and spread the word even more. Someone is bound to see it and adopt an animal. Even if it seems like a small action it could make all the difference. You can also volunteer at your local shelter. Shelters are always looking for people to help and you get to spend your day with animals all day so it’s pretty much a win-win. Additionally, shelters always need new toys, towels and other supplies so donating is always another option. Even helping in small ways will make a big difference.

You can’t buy love but you can adopt it from an animal shelter.