New Hope for Animals in the New Year

We hope that the new year proves to be better for animals worldwide and brings more happiness and peace to them. Animals are fighting a hard battle for their existence and we need to work harder for them. With too many abused, homeless and abandoned animals and not enough money to care for them, they are living a miserable life. More and more trees are being felled everyday and the animals are losing their habitat. They are forced to come out of their natural environment and risk captivity, torture and death.
Animals are just like people, full of life and emotions. They all have their own personality and deserve to be treated respectfully. This world belongs to them as much as it belongs to us.

People, who buy animals from a pet shop, should rather adopt a stray or abandoned animal so that it gets a new home. They should also spay/neuter their pet to control their breeding. The money that they would have spent on purchasing a pet, could be spent for the animal they adopt, or for charity. This will be a great help for animals.

Homeless and abused animals need a second chance. They need to be given shelter, food, love and warmth. They need to be given medical care. They need everything human beings need. To treat animals with love and respect, we need a greater level of awareness in people about animal welfare. We also need more people to extend a helping hand to the cause of animals. We all have to realize, that ultimately, for the earth and life to be saved, the animals and the forests need to be saved. Apart from all the good work being done by individuals and organizations for animals, we also seem to need the support of the Secret Santas who could come forward and lend a hand in the campaign of saving animals. We must help animals because adopting or helping an animal is like helping a friend for life.

Tigers May Become Extinct Soon

It is a matter of great concern that wild tigers could become extinct in next 12 years if action is not taken by countries where they live, to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching. According to the World Wildlife Fund and other experts there are only about 3200-3500 tigers left in the wild, which is a dramatic plunge from an estimated 100,000 a century ago. It is believed that if the proper protective measures are not taken, tigers may disappear completely by 2022.
Tigers are mostly located in Asia. The reason why tigers are becoming endangered is because of the loss of their habitat due to the spread of man, and because of poaching. Places that were once covered with vast forests have been cleared for agriculture. As forest space diminishes, tigers can't find the prey they need to survive. As a result, tigers have begun to eat the livestock belonging to villagers who live near what's left of the forests. In retaliation, tigers are getting killed by villagers protecting their families and their livestock.
Tigers are also killed because tiger skins and body parts are considered valuable as medicines and fashion accessories. Every part of a dead tiger is valuable. A tiger's coat sells for as much as $20,000 on the black market. An intact tiger forearm can bring in hundreds of dollars per pound. Tiger penis soup sells for $320 a bowl in Taiwan. (Some people actually believe that tiger penis soup will increase their sexuality!) Tiger bones, claws, eyes and even the whiskers command high prices for use in Eastern potions and elixirs. To fulfill the demand, the world's last tigers are being illegally trapped, poisoned and shot, then smuggled across international boundaries. Forestry and wildlife departments don't have the resources to fight against the poachers and the brutal killing of the tiger.

 

However, there are many things happening to stop the killing of tigers. A wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world’s tiger population has been approved, and will be backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger population. These countries are Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia.  It is estimated that these countries will need about $ 350 million in outside funding in the first five years of the 12-year plan. We hope donors from all across the world will come forward to help the governments of these countries to finance conservation measures and save the majestic tiger from becoming extinct.

Neuter/Spay – No More Stray

Stray and abandoned animals live a miserable life and suffer violent torture and death. They wander around the streets and fight a bitter battle with humans and other animals for survival. These animals do not live in the wild, they live with people and their growing population only brings great suffering to them. According to a research, in a period of seven years, just one cat and her offspring can give birth to 400,000 kittens, while just one female dog and her offspring in the same period of time can give birth to 66,000 puppies. These figures are nerve-wrecking and stray animals have their problems only increasing as their population increases.
It is not possible to get a shelter or a home for all of them and the best way to save them from the miseries of everyday torture is to control their population through a neuter/spay program. By neutering/spaying them, we can save them from being unwanted and homeless any further. Dogs do not lament their lost capability to reproduce as they are a different species than ours and reproduce only to ensure the survival of their kind. Besides controlling their population, neutering/spaying has many other advantages. It prevents diseases such as breast or uterine cancer, sepsis and prostate or testicular cancer.

Male dogs are usually better pets if they are neutered. They may have less desire to roam and to mark territory. If they are neutered before sexual maturity, they may be less likely to exert dominance over family members. They may also be healthier pets as they will have no chances of a testicular cancer. The fact that spayed/neutered animals also live longer has been established.
Females also tend to be better pets if they do not experience oestrus every six-to-nine months. Heat cycles bring hormonal changes that can lead to personality changes, and oestrus females must be confined to prevent unwanted pregnancies.