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Seven Major Problems
this Project is Designed to Resolve
Problem 1: Mass killings
- 54,000 dogs, mostly strays, were hung to death in a single county in China. (The International Herald Tribune, 2007)
- 100,000 stray dogs were set to be poisoned to death in one month in Kashmir, India. (CNN, 2008)
- 40,000 stray dogs were poisoned in advance of a 2007 NATO meeting in Serbia.
- 30,000 stray dogs were killed in advance of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
- 40,000 stray dogs were poisoned in advance of the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece.
- 5,000 dogs were killed in May, 2008, near Fethiye, one of the most affluent cities in Turkey; hundreds of puppies had been buried alive.
In spite of mass killings, in much of the world most strays are never caught and thus die slowly from:
Untreated injuries
Diseases
Starvation
Man's best friend is in serious trouble. Despite progress in the U.S., globally on any given day there are as many as 600 million stray, homeless dogs in the streets and alleys. Many suffer from non-stop hunger, malnutrition, untreated eye and skin infections, parasite infestations and painful diseases.
In over 60 nations there are no laws against cruelty to animals, resulting in stray dogs being "disposed of" in a variety of inhumane ways.
The inhumane methods used to kill these one billion animals each year are many:
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poisoning,
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shooting,
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trapping,
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hanging,
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beating,
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drowning,
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electrocuting,
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throat slitting
Problem 2: 55,000 Needless Human Deaths Each Year
Globally, 55,000 people die needless and painful deaths each year from rabies. Most of the victims are impoverished children. Virtually all become infected the same way -- contact with diseased stray dogs. This is one reason why health departments worldwide spend tax money on animal control.
Problem 3: Billions of tax dollars lost each year
Dog bites, rabies, and other zoonotic diseases from infected stray dogs can pose such a health hazard that health departments in virtually all of the 3,000 U.S. counties and well over 600 cities spend, collectively, from
$2 billion to $8 billion each year on animal control departments to deal with this problem.
They capture, transport, temporarily house, attempt to adopt out, or other otherwise dispose of abandoned or stray dogs (and sometimes cats as well, depending on the local ordinances). This requires physical facilities
(a.k.a. dog pounds), trucks, personnel, etc.
Problem 4: Over $1.2 Billion in Private Funds Spent
In the U.S. over $1.2 billion in private funds are spent every year dealing with the overpopulation problem, through spay/neuter surgeries. The cost of a single "low cost" surgery for both male and female dogs, after being subsidized by a charity, is typically around $100 (cats cost less). Over 12.5 million spay/neuter surgeries are performed each year in the U.S.
If surgeries could be done for as low as $40 per animal, multiplied by the global population of 600 million stray dogs, the cost would be approximately $24 billion. As noted above, the true amount is easily $100 per dog, placing the true cost at close to $50 billion. Just as we cannot “drill” our way out of the oil crisis, we cannot “surgery” our way out of the global animal over population problem.
A pill would not need to replace these surgeries in the U.S., but a pill would be effective in reducing populations of free roaming stray dogs all over the world.
Because dogs often give birth to anywhere from six to eight pups per litter, every six months, stray dogs will always breed faster than we can capture them and perform surgery on them.
Problem 5: The Number One Problem and Cost for Animal Shelters
Overpopulation is the number-one problem facing animal shelters throughout the world. Dealing with it is also their number one expense.
In addition to the annual $1.2 billion allocated just to surgeries, a high percentage of the operational expenditures of the humane community are spent on these problems as well: capturing, transporting, treating, housing, feeding, adopting, euthanizing, educating the public on the need for spay/neuter surgeries, etc.
Both the thousands of tax-funded animal control departments, and the thousands of privately funded non profit humane societies are performing essentially the same work, on the same problem, in the same municipalities, at the same time ... yet the problem persists.
Tens of thousands of humane societies are simply overwhelmed by this problem. The costs add up: the New York City based ASPCA spends close to $50 million every year; the Massachusetts SPCA spends approximately $50 million each year; the Los Angeles SPCA, over $20 million every year; the San Francisco SPCA & Animal Care, over $15 million every year; Dallas, in the millions; Chicago, in the millions; Miami, Phoenix, Denver, Washington, D.C. -- all in the millions. Even a typical SPCA in a mid-sized city such as Ft. Lauderdale spends $5 million every year.
For decades, the animal shelters' number one solution to their number-one problem has been surgery. Paying for, promoting and/or arranging for surgeries – a solution too expensive for the majority of the world.
Problem 6: Killing does not solve the problem
Globally, over one billion wild and domestic animals are violently killed every year because of animal over-population. Because of population dynamics, killing does not work. The majority of the killing is not carried out in the mass killings cited above. Most of the killing is done systematically on a day-in and day-out basis, in relatively small numbers, through the use of inexpensive methods such as poisoning. For example, in Serbia municipally-employed garbage collectors are tasked with also "picking up" stray dogs, and killing them. The dogs are usually beaten to death by blows to the head with shovels, and they are often tossed into the back of the garbage trucks while they are still alive.
If killing worked, the problem would have been solved long ago, as killing has long been the standard method used to attempt to control the problem.
Problem 7: Globally the problem becomes worse each year – not better
Statistics show that on a global level the number of stray dogs increases every year as the human population increases. It is hard to visualize 400 or 500 or 600 million strays - practically twice the size of the human population of the U.S., lest we forget the estimated 30 to 100 million stray cats, in the U.S. alone.
Conclusion and Summary of the Seven Problems:
There Is No End In Sight
Billions in all directions
Billions in tax dollars
Billions in charity dollars
World wide, charities are overwhelmed by this problem
Millions of animals suffering and dying every single year
Killing does not solve the problem
Surgery does not solve the problem
Globally, the problem only gets worse every year, not better
Based on the methods used over the last 50 years, when it comes to this problem, there is no end in sight.
Clearly new methods are needed.
"The man who does things makes many mistakes, but he never makes the biggest mistake of all -- doing nothing."
-- Benjamin Franklin
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