By: Allison Wang
Stray Animals
Stray animals are domestic pets, such as dogs and cats, that live without human care or a permanent homes, often as a result of being abandoned and/or born on the streets. Unlike wild animals, strays live and interact among human society. They include cats, dogs, and other animals that face many problems, like hunger, disease, and harsh weather conditions. Stray animals often rely on the people for food and shelter and are often found wondering around. Many are at risk of overpopulation, leading to health issues and problems within society. Each year, around 70 million stray animals, including both dogs and cats, are living in the United States. This number can change due to factors like abandonment, overpopulation, and community efforts in trapping, fostering, and returning. Many animals are delivered to shelters annually, with around 3.3 million dogs and 3.2 million cats being taken in. By managing the needs of stray animals not only improves their lives but also creates a more compassionate community.
Wide Ranging Impacts
Stray animals face numerous hardships, from health risks like malnutrition, disease, and injury to the dangers posed by extreme weather. Many strays carry zoonotic diseases which are diseases that can be transferred from animals to humans such as rabies and leptospirosis. Stray animals also pose a threat to pets like fights. Loud disruptive noises, scavenging on trash, and urine spraying are problems too. Overpopulation too, among stray animals can lead to competition for resources for food and shelter. Strays can significantly impact local ecosystems; for example, stray cats often prey on birds and small mammals, contributing to biodiversity loss. Strays themselves go though stress from constant survival struggles which lead to trauma and behavioral issues that make recovery difficult. Addressing these issues requires support and dedicated efforts to rescue and responsibly manage strays, creating a safe environment for both animals and people.
How To Get Involved
Many people think of strays as annoying nuisances that steal your food and follow you around. But they haven’t thought of the hardships many of these animals face like abandonment, injuries, illnesses, abuse and more. Millions of pets are delivered to shelters each year. You can help end and become a pet friendly community. If you are looking to expand your family consider adopting from rescue centers or shelters. You could also foster pets and provide temporary homes without permanently adopting. If you ever find a pet that looks like it belongs to a family try looking for its owner or owners before leaving them at a shelter. By doing this you can help an animal find is family and not crowd the shelter even more. Many communities and organizations are working together to decrease homeless animal population. Animal shelters or rescue groups often need help with tasks like walking, cleaning, feeding, and many more jobs. By doing something small like volunteering you can still make a positive impact on your community.
Stories
Hamlet The Blind Guardian Hamlet was adopted by a breeder that discovered he was blind and had HD. When the rancher realized that Hamlet was unable to gard his livestock he reached out to the National Anatolian Shepherd Rescue Network for help. At first while in rescue Hamlet was unable to walk due to the pain. His foster mom Tara took him to the vet. After he started rimadyl and his pain level was under control, he started walking and following her dogs around, soon after he was adopted by a loving family.
Fezzik After a couple moved into a house they found was a young cat living under their deck. After checking with some neighbors, they found out he did not have a home and was living under the deck because the man who lived in the house before them occasionally put food out for him. It took some time and patience, but he eventually grew to trust the couple and let them pet him. After a few weeks, they taught him how to go inside their house. They couple checked with the nearby shelters which were already pretty full with cats so they decided to add a new member to their family. Since then the Fezzik has been living a happy and healthy life with his family.
Learn More
To learn more about the struggles of a stray animal https://www.fourpawsusa.org/campaigns-topics/topics/help-for-strays/stray-animals-pets-without-a-home#:~:text=’Real’%20stray%20dogs%20and%20cats,scavenging%20for%20food%20and%20shelter.
More on the impact of strays https://www.hsi.org/wp-content/uploads/welfareresources/regional_realities.pdf https://noahsarktx.com/from-stray-to-loved-the-transformative-impact-of-animal-shelters/
How to adopt or foster https://www.laanimalservices.com/about-fostering