Spay pets to reduce euthanasia need

I appreciate Dottie Darr's and other volunteers' efforts to save animals who are slated for euthanasia at southern Illinois shelters.

But I wonder what will happen to dogs like Lizzie, the shy, mange-infested black dog with heart-worm disease, who survived being chained and starved, losing all of her puppies and a terrifying fire at the Franklin County animal pound.

Will she spend weeks, months, or the rest of her life in a cage at a "no-kill" shelter because no one wants to adopt her?

As an animal shelter volunteer, I can't imagine a crueler punishment for social animals like dogs--who need and deserve steady companionship, exercise and mental stimulation.

While working to find homes for homeless animals is important and honorable, we can't "adopt our way out" of the companion animal overpopulation crisis, which results in three- to four-million animals being euthanized annually.

Please, if your heart breaks for Lizzie, Hobbs, Pumpkin and millions of other animals like them, have your own animals spayed or neutered and help everyone you know to do the same.

Lindsay Pollard-Post

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals

Norfolk, Va.