how thorough do i need to be? just scoop up the big chunks? then hose out the rest? oh, that s a fresh one. mmmm .. what you can t really appreciate at home is just the rich, deep aroma that s coming out of here. shelter workers clean every tenl every day and give each animal fresh water, food and blankets. they also get two toys. on their beds. like candy at your hotel room. hi, puppy. hi, petey. i heard that petey seems to be improving and i m excited to keep working with him. i ll be back. but today, i m taking a quick break from the shelter just to
in most american house holds, it s a rite of passage to get your first pet. it helps teach us responsibility, they re your best friends and members of our families. as americans, we spend more than $60 billion a year on our pets, whether that be on the perfect pure bred puppy or a hypoallergenic designer breed or one of these adorable guys. most of these guys will likely find a good loving home. what about the millions of dogs every year who aren t so lucky? each year about 7 million cats and dogs end up in settlers across the united states, like this one, the animal rescue league of burkes county in redding, pennsylvania. so why are there so many homeless animals? and what happens to them once they re in a shelter. most of us don t want to think about it. but this week i m going to work at the arl and find out. hi. i m morgan. i m your new volunteer.
i m calling about the dog that you have in your basement. it s another day at the an ral rescue league shelter in reading, pennsylvania, and the constant stream of animals means it s another day at full capacity and petey is still on the gray list. let s go, buddy. so what do you think should be done about the whole overpopulation problem? obviously, people coming to shelters and adopting. yeah. people spaying and neutering is huge. i ll say to people, do you see all these animals that are homeless? some people still don t get it. you tell them, you know, we euthanize here. puppies are going to end up being here in a year or two when they re too big. and families that you think are great don t want them anymore. it s a cycle. you have to educate people. yes.
carlito. and you re taking him with right? he has to eat every two hours. so do i. it will be perfect. the never ending stream of animals can be overwhelming. overcrowding at the shelter is the direct result of animal overpopulation. think of it like this. just one dog can have up to 16 puppies in a year. and can have puppies for eight years. that s 128 pup pips a cat can have 24 kittens in a year. if that cat lives 10 years it can give birth to 240 kittens. and if their offspring reproduces, that s thousands of cats and dogs, every one of them in need of a home. this is carlito. whenever he s crying give him a 40? yeah. okay, come on. there you go. you re a good eater already. what are his chances of
conditions. stacked on top of one another, given dirty waters and covered in fe sees. feces. they have practically no human interaction until someone comes to take their puppies away from them. why would someone buy one of these dogs when so many adoptable ones are waiting in shelters? it s hard to say. but like anything else, animals are subject to trends. when a breed becomes popular, everyone wants one of those dogs. think of chihuahuas, dalmatians, bull terriers, and not so long ago, pit bulls. when that breed s moment fades, the animals are abandoned and shelters are called to pick them up. i went to take my dogs to the backyard and she was there eating from the garbage. good girl. so how many years have you been at the shelter now? 4 1/2 now. i only wanted to work with cats.