The state of Georgia's city and county animal shelters euthanize over 50,000 animals each year. Current state laws do not provide a statewide formula for attacking this horrendous problem head on. Shelters overflow and licensed rescue groups cannot pull them quickly enough, given the lack of homes available to adopt them. Nationally, 3-4 million animals are euthanized each year. Owners are allowing their pets to roam and breed or they breed them for profit from their backyards and sell on social media platforms. Animals are discarded like trash at dumpsters and populate the rural areas and city streets. Often owners want to do the right thing to spay/neuter their pets but cannot afford to do so. Others refuse to do so for religious reasons. Over 500 licensed rescue groups across the state of Georgia continuously pull the most adoptable ones from shelters, hoping to save their lives. Thousands of volunteers spend countless hours nurturing them back to a socialized and healthy state after being abandoned, some for weeks. They place them in a wider net of foster homes that show them to suitable home either locally or to be shipped north where northern laws have managed to lessen their own stray populations. In counties where the population of humans is less dense, pets roam freely and often lone volunteers are tasked with being the sole guardians of homeless abandoned pets found by county dumpsters, often half starved and ridden with parasites.

I care not only for the  number of unwanted animals that suffer and die, the risk to public health and safety, the unnecessary labor of volunteers, caused by the reckless selfish behavior by humans, but also for the cost to local governments (taxpayers) for impounding and destroying the remaining 50,000 unwanted ones.

The solution: Mandatory state law requiring licensing of dogs and cats, micro-chipping, and spay/neuter. Identification of a pet, who it's owner is would eliminate the "not my dog" excuse for the reckless owner and return a pet to a distraught owner who acted carelessly. Spay/neutering percentages have increased nationwide but not in the most  under served parts of Georgia. In Georgia the rate is only %13. There is a direct correlation between increasing spay/neuter rates and decreasing euthanization rates along with governmental supportive expenses.

Freeing up the "workload" of volunteer groups from less rescue to more prevention and education would continue to reduce the number of animals from shelters, city streets and rural areas and improve the quality of life for animals and humans.

I care because I stand beside dozens of volunteer organizations who can barely keep up with the volume of homeless pets that come to them every single day. The problem of changing attitudes from treating pets like disposable property is not being solved fast enough. The current system is not sustainable. What falls outside the circle of sustainability is 50,000 lives caused by human neglect and abuse. Homeless animals and volunteers are being victimized by cruel and irresponsible citizens of our state. Enough is enough! Too many lives and productive hours have been wasted, due to our acceptance of the past behaviors of those who continue to deny their proper responsibility to their pets. Increase the value of domesticated animals by forcing owners to admit to ownership and responsibility. Until we do that, owners will continue to deny ownership and responsibility. It is just that simple. Demand the state of Georgia pass laws that require spay/neuter, licensing and micro-chipping and hold owners accountable. Owners will think twice about how they treat them and why they "own" them. Demand this change by the State of Georgia and for the betterment of companion animals and the people of Georgia!