KNOW WHAT TODAY IS?

National Adopt A Shelter Pet Day! I have championed adoption over purchase for decades now, but see more and more "designer mutts" wherever I go. What I mean are the "doodles" of many sorts and dogs whom you can see were purposely designed the way they look. People don't know that many, many of these come from the horrendous puppy mills I keep talking about. Again, unless you actually go to the breeder's place and see the setup, you'll never know where the puppy you get really comes from.

Another of my pet peeves is the ASPCA. I tell people repeatedly that if you want to help homeless animals, short of adopting them, please give to your local shelters and rescue groups. The ASPCA produces those very expensive commercials that do close to nothing for animals but produce a lot of "guilt checks" for them. And by them, I mean the people, enormously overpaid, who run the organization. Less than 2% of their revenue goes to the actual homeless pets. Even worse, is that those ads which are not accurate about the shelter or rescue pets, actually keep people away from the shelters because they think they'll see the dogs in the condition of their ads. People want to stay away from such sadness.

For a more realistic view of shelter pets, please watch "Shelter Me," a show about the wonderful shelter dogs and what they're up to. Even better, go to your local shelter and adopt, volunteer or donate. You'll be so glad you did.

Please tell me about your own experiences at the shelter. See you soon.