When a pet is no longer wanted, many owners turn towards their local shelters, hoping a better home will be provided for their animal companions. Some animal shelters are marvelous places, while others are absolutely dreadful dumps. Mistreatment of animals are common, as well as the horrendous environment our beloved pets are put through.

What I look for in an animal shelter is a safe home for the abandoned and unwanted. Supposedly, it is an environment for animals to stay settled, and perhaps to even be adopted by loving owners. Instead, the reality of it cannot be more different. From what was expected to provide spacious indoor/outdoor housing, filthy cramped cages are the general environment animals face today. Proper medical care and nutritious food are a constant lack. This brings on a negative impact on animals both emotionally and physically - depression, antisocial behaviors, and a bottomless number of possible diseases are common, eventually reducing the chances of any possible adoption (“Animal Shelters”).

Animal rights needs to be taken more seriously. Even shelters established to rescue animals are in fact, making the situation much worse. In many owner’s eye’s, these animals are more than simply just pets - they are your lifetime companion, and such abuse like what these shelters have done is unacceptable.

Each year, up to three million dogs and cats are killed in shelters, frequently caused by their crucial health conditions, cases where it was impossible for them to be saved. Ironically enough, some are occasionally killed in order to provide space for other animals (“Pet Statistics”).

If this was their living condition, these so-called “rescued” pets are better off homeless.

In recent news from Telegraph, Vu Van Chinh, a Vietnamese animal shelter owner, has confirmed to have killed and sold unwanted dogs to local restaurants for his own benefits (Sherwell).

“I could not afford to cover the medical expenses for all the sick animals,” he admitted, “I had to give some of them injections to help them die. I sold some valuable ones for people to raise as pets. I had to push some into dog meat restaurants after I waited too long and no one adopted them.”

This brings me to my original point, pet shelters are continuously mistreating and harming pets. Something must change.

Numerous attempts were made in order to improve the horrendous chaos of common pet shelters, although not much improvement succeeded. One method includes putting a “no-killing” label on some animal shelters. At first glance, this sounds like a possible solution since shelters are not allowed to directly kill animals, but in fact, this really is just killing in a different form. When no-kill shelters are filled, they are left with two options: warehouse animals, usually in filthy conditions up to several years, or reject pets, leaving the owners with no choice other than abandonment.

Last month in January 2017, there has not only been one but three serious cases involving animal shelters in just the US alone, all caused by no-kill shelters’ constant rejection of unwanted pets. In one of them, ABC6 had reported a woman charged for abandoning two cats locked in carriers near a drive-thru lane, left in critical health. She mentioned that she has contacted several animal shelters, but none had been able to accept them (“‘No-Kill’”).

Pets are both your companion and your friend. Some may even view them as a family member,  therefore their health and conditions are all in your hands, as your duty, your responsibility. Is having pets live in such dreadful state continue to happen? Should having them live in such condition be supported? Or having them suffer from an infinite amount of diseases, or possibly worse, being sold off to restaurants? Help raise awareness for animal rights, otherwise this situation will only carry on.