Dear future president,

Did you know that nearly 8 million dogs and cats enter U.S shelters each year but more than half of them won't make it out alive? The reason this is happening is pet overpopulation! Breeders are over breeding their dogs/cats which can cause major health problems not only to the mother but all the puppies or kittens. When these dogs/cats go to their new families and the families notice these health problems most families can't afford them, just don't want them anymore, or can't handle them so they end up bringing them to a shelter without thinking if its a kill, low kill, or no kill shelter. That's why we need to have a law on how many times a dog/cat can be breed and put a stop to kill shelters!

Out of the estimated 5,000 shelters for cats and dogs in the U.S, it's divided into three different types, kill, low kill and no kill shelters. Kill shelters are open administration, and has no requirements but the dog has limited time there before it will be killed due to to many animals in the shelter and it was not adopted. Low kill shelters is limited admission, requires appointment before being dropped off, and may be euthanized due to health problems. No kill shelters are shelters that has lots of requirements such as health concerns, age, etc., limited admission, an appointment before being dropped off and must save 90% of the pets to be considered no kill. This shows how people could get mixed up with what shelter is what and need to know the difference of what shelter is what so their pet gets the best care it can get.

According to The Dog Rescuers in Los Angeles, Ca, each day an estimated 10,000 humans are born in the U.S and an estimated 70,000 dogs and cats born each day in the U.S. This shows how much pets are overpopulating. The average litter of puppies is 6-10 with the female being able to have puppies about 3 times a year, for life, that is if they are not spayed or neutered. That's about 180 puppies in 6 years. Overbreeding causes many health defects like reduced kidney function, malnutrition, and behavioral problems. The breeders don't care about the dog/cats health it's about the money, leaving customers with unhealthy puppies or kittens. This helps resemble why most dogs going into shelters are 18 months and under.

According to Aspc, there's an estimated 10,000 puppy mills across the country, with less than half of them being licenced. The number of dogs in puppy mill normally ranges from 10-1000 breeding dogs. Puppy mills are unsanitary, keep dogs in cages, and rarely feeds them. Once a dog has been breed multiple times they will normally kill the dog because its too sick to be breed again. There is 21 states have no law on the books regulating commercial dog breeders. This shows how puppy mills don't care about the state of which the dogs are at and just want the money.

Pets not only bring joys to many people but help humans out in so many different ways. In order to stop kill shelter there needs to be more money from the government given to the shelters than there already is. Successful shelters need plenty of food, a large space, water supply and much more. Community volunteers is a good way to start, most people would help out if they knew how much they need it so we need to start informing the everyday people on what shelter are actually like and we need tons of organisation that go rescue dogs from kill shelters, and foster the dogs. Another thing we can do to help this problem is have a law on how many times a dog can be breed. If we had a law that a dog couldn't be breed more than 4 times we would see a significant change in the population and maybe not need that many shelters so we can get rid of kill shelters and still have plenty of dogs in the U.S for everyone to enjoy.

Thanks for your time,

Melissa Rucinski