No Home for the Holidays

Over the years here, supper has often been a science project. With recipes ... as with everything else in life ... my first thought is always ... now wouldn't that be better if.....? When it was good, it was very very good .... and when it was bad my daughter and her friends went to McDonald's.
If things were never meant to change, we would still be migrating after the herds and living in caves. Change will come, whether we wish it or not, because the desire to move forward and create a better world for our children is as natural as breathing. Whether one initiates it, embraces it or is dragged along kicking and screaming .... the wheel of change keeps rolling along.
At one time, I definitely supported the practice of not adopting pets out over the holiday season. The animal rescue community refers to the month of April as Christmas in the shelters... because that is generally when the Christmas Pets would start flooding the animal rescue groups and shelters.
But hold on just a minute. Were those pets adopted from a rescue or shelter? Didn't they all have a firm no Holiday Adoptions rule? Why yes they did! So all the kind hearted people who might have used the adoption of a homeless pet to teach their children the spirit of compassion went to the pet store or the backyard breeders and puppy brokers instead.
A friend of mine works at a shelter in Nfld and they used to turn away adopters over the holidays .... until they realized that was cutting off their nose to spite their face. They now see holiday adoptions as being part of the solution instead of sending people away to become part of the problem.
Are people more sentimental at the holiday season? You bet. That is why every charitable organization with an advertising budget steps up the commercials at this time of year. At any time of year, it is an act of love and compassion to adopt a pet .... so it should be no surprise that the holiday season might inspire a surge of applications.
Its important to remember that each adoption saves more than one life:

• first and foremost of course is the actual pet being adopted,
• which in turn provides room for another good pet in need, and last but not least
• every adopted pet is an ambassador who will spread the good word about pet adoption to the adopters family, friends, neighbours and coworkers ... not to mention the casual acquaintances met out walking the dog or visiting the vet

Granted, the ones with the 'No Kill" groups or shelters are safe for the season. But when there is 'no room at the inn' until someone is adopted, No Kill is really more of a safe haven, hmmm? Refusing applications or adoptions during the holidays simply means that other pets needing rescuing will not be safe. Sending potential adopters elsewhere only perpetuates the Christmas in April cycle.

What time is it? Until there are no waiting lists for admission, until pet stores and breeders are regulated with mandatory standards .... until it is illegal to traffic in living, breathing sentient beings on the dreaded free online ad sites .... it is time to revisit the "No Home for the Holidays" policy still in place with some rescues and shelters in this province.

The heresy of one age is the orthodoxy of the next. Helen Keller