Day 5 #100DaysOfThoseDays

Today is World Spay Day

Dog and cat spaying wasn’t as common back in the 70s as it is now. I remember in those days, dogs roamed the streets and puppies and kittens were born in the hedges on the back lane. Not all the time of course, but sometimes!

Once, my father found a bag of newborn kittens at the foot of a steep hill. The person who got out of their car and threw the bag across the hill was aiming for the river, but they missed!

I remember we fed the kittens – three of them – with spoons of warm watered milk. If I remember rightly, only two survived. When they got a bit older we fed them bread soaked in the milk. Probably not the ideal diet for a kitten, but we knew no better.

Drowning was unfortunately a common way of getting rid of unwanted kittens and puppies in those days.

Stray dogs on the streets were a common thing. Some were fed by random people and if they hung around long enough they were taken in. Others would turn up out of nowhere looking malnourished and scabby. Looking back now, these strays either ran away, got lost, or were thrown out by their original owners.

The awful thing is… similar things still happen today regardless of the common practice of spaying. Already this year, Dogs Trust Ireland had 397 people surrendering their dogs since Christmas. Some of these people have no choice because they have moved to accommodation where they’re not allowed to keep pets. It can happen too that a dog turns out to be a wrong fit for a family, especially if it becomes tempermental among young children. There are many reasons. And some people should never have owned a dog in the first place!

I think the majority of pet owners are responsible enough these days to spay their dog or cat, but we have the huge problem of puppy farming. When will that problem disappear?

Thank you for reading!

I enjoy writing about times gone by. My daily posts are written off the cuff and just for fun.

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