Animals: Adopt Instead of Buying A Pet From The Store

I have a kitten, named Leia. I love her to pieces. We adopted her last summer from my husband's coworker who couldn't keep her. She is my baby girl and although she can distract me from homework, it's worth all the cuddles. I believe having a pet makes your life my joyful and full of love.

Leia, not wanting her picture taken
Photo Credit: Marissa Coyle

We had a few animals growing up, but by the time I moved out, my parents nearly had a petting zoo. They have 2 dogs, 3 cats, 3 bearded dragons, 2 turtles, 2 tortoises, a mouse, guppies, hamsters, and previously guinea pigs (who have since passed). Since my mom is a science teacher, she occasionally brings home Madagascar hissing cockroaches, and now has a tarantula (not necessarily by choice). They even thought about getting a snake at one point. My parents adopted many of our pets from Topeka's Helping Hands Humane Shelter or from people who were unable to take care of the animals. In fact, the only pets they bought from the pet store are the bearded dragons. So what has this all taught me? I have developed a value of animal life. Don't get me wrong, I still love to eat meat and seafood, but I believe that domesticated animals deserve to be loved...even animals I do not like or am scared of.

This is why it makes me, and most people, sad when they see animals that are without a loving home. I believe that animals who have been brought into shelters, either from previous owners or from the street, should be given homes before animals in pet shops. This does not mean that a puppy from the pet store is any less worthy of a home than one from the shelter. That puppy from the pet shop, however, is much more likely to be taken home than the one in the shelter? This is partly because shelters tend to be more crowded than pet stores in terms of animals. Some breeders that pet stores use are cruel to the animals, and those people don't deserve your money. And as sad as it is, some shelters have to euthanize animals that aren't adopted within a certain amount of time to make more room.

By adopting from a shelter, not only are you potentially saving an animal's life, but you usually save money. It is possible to spend hundreds on a cat or dog from a pet store. My local shelter does charge a fee for animals (to recoup some medical costs, etc), but these fees can be waived thanks to generous people who sponsor certain animals.

So I encourage readers in northeast Kansas to visit Helping Hands Humane Shelter in Topeka or to adopt from someone you know (i.e a friend whose cat just had a litter). The Petsmart in Topeka even has rescued cats that you can adopt.

Do you have a pet? Where did you get it from? Please comment below!

For more reasons why you should adopt from a shelter
For more information on Helping Hands Humane Society