RICH from Dog Names and More Blog made an excellent comment today about Christmas and giving pets as Christmas gifts … Good advice and Thanks Rich!
And .. it also provides me with a great lead-in to an article published in today’s Winnipeg Sun, here in Winnipeg, about this very issue .. with words of wisdom from Alix Sobler, spokesperson for the Winnipeg Humane Society
Don’t consider pets Christmas gifts: shelter
By TAMARA KING, STAFF REPORTER
Puppies aren’t presents.
That’s the message Winnipeg’s biggest animal shelter is struggling with this holiday season as they try to find good homes for an abundance of puppies while simultaneously discouraging buying dogs as gifts.
“We don’t want dogs popping out of boxes,” said Winnipeg Humane Society spokeswoman Alix Sobler. “We don’t want you to think of a dog as a gift. It’s not an object. Getting a dog is not the same as getting a Nintendo.”
Even though it spoils the element of surprise, gift-givers should visit the shelter with their loved-ones, said Sobler.
“You can return other gifts. This one you can’t return.”
The shelter is looking after more than 20 puppies right now, with 30 others in foster care at volunteers’ homes.
They’re expecting another group of puppies next week from the Ebb and Flow First Nation, Sobler said. A vet and an assistant from the Winnipeg shelter are hosting a spay and neuter clinic this weekend on the reserve, located near Ste. Rose du Lac.
Many of the puppies come from northern communities that, without proper veterinary clinics, have long struggled to deal with dog overpopulation problems.
Spay and neuter clinics like the one at Ebb and Flow are one of the ways the humane society tries to reduce the dog overpopulation, Sobler said.
The humane society has done two spay and neuter clinics this year. In the past, they’ve visited communities like Churchill and Cross Lake.
Copyright © 2006, Canoe Inc. All rights reserved.
SOURCE: In today’s Winnipeg Sun, December 1, 2006
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