This is Champ, a 2 yr. old neutered Retriever from Springdale Animal Shelter located in Arkansas. He is currently up for adoption. Champ is not the dog who wouldn’t leave the baseball field but a former Springdale shelter dog was.
Mona is her name. And the baseball field was her game. Mona was at a minor league baseball game as the Iams Adoptable Pet of the Game.
You can catch Mona’s appearance here. You really need to watch this!
While this video is guaranteed to put a smile on your face, the bigger picture for me was all to real. Shelter pets that get attention via the television or newspapers tend to get adopted more easily. I should know. That is specifically what I did for an animal shelter for years and am still involved in helping animals find forever homes.
The sad reality is that more shelter animals should be seen like Mona. When people see these same pets outside of a kennel, people tend to want to adopt them more often. I know it isn’t feasible.
Then what does it take for the public to see that animal shelter pets are not inferior? I don’t understand that argument from others. What makes them inferior? NOTHING! They were someone’s pet at some point. Many are purebreds but I personally don’t care about that.
Millions of dogs and cats and other critters die in animal shelters all across America each and every year. This is deplorable to me.
Both of my current dogs are from shelters and so have my previous dogs. And they have been the best pets someone could ask for.
Please give a shelter pet a second chance. Just look at Mona. By the way, because of that tv exposure, Mona found a home. And to top it, another person who had been second in line to adopt Mona adopted two other dogs from the same shelter. See what I mean.
Mona was lucky. There are more animals waiting in shelters at this very moment looking for a new home.
Adopt, Don’t Shop for your next pet!