A woman’s maternity photo shoot of her pregnant dog has gone viral, but the photos aren’t “adorable”—they are irresponsible, and promoting dog maternity could add mightily to the fatality rate for dogs in shelters.
This girl held a maternity photoshoot for her pregnant dog https://t.co/XY5cbGM56Q pic.twitter.com/SYMcZCqwT8
— BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) June 28, 2017
Elsa Veria-Means of Olympia, Washington, posted the photos to her Twitter account with the blasé caption “My bestfriend is 8 weeks pregnant so we decided to do a maternity photo shoot.”
The dog—two-year-old Fusee—gave birth to eight puppies. Eight more dogs in the world who may well each go on to sire or give birth to more and more. So, while people gawked at the “extra-ness” of this photo concept, many were left wondering, “Why bring more puppies into a world overflowing with homeless pups?”
By failing to spay Fusee and glorifying breeding, this woman just made it that much harder for dogs already in shelters to find loving homes.
https://twitter.com/xkidinthedark_x/status/879764147717545984
That's a shame. Hope her puppies already have homes that other dogs could've gone to.
— Teddy, ready w/ the 1, 2 checka (@TeddyFresh13) June 28, 2017
please tell me you plan on fixing your dog after this
— ❄️ frozen lettuce ❄️ (@spooky_vegan) June 28, 2017
Okay, but why are you breeding more mixed-breed dogs when shelters are full of them already?
— A Blog of Their Own (@BlogOfTheirOwn) June 28, 2017
Really wish I could appreciate this for how cute it is but the euthanization of ~700k dogs per year because of overpopulation is not cute.
— absent from class (@kount_mc) June 28, 2017
More than 6 million dogs and cats enter U.S. animal shelters every year.
Millions of dogs and cats who find themselves in U.S. shelters are destroyed each year because there aren’t enough homes for them. Others are abandoned to die badly on the streets. Overpopulation and homelessness of dogs and cats can be prevented through spaying and neutering.
Let’s place the blame for animal overpopulation on those who deserve it. Thoughtless people like Ms. Veria-Means, as well as greedy breeders and pet stores who churn out animals while wonderful, deserving cats and dogs sit in animal shelter cages right now, desperately needing homes.
So next time, why not save the photo shoot for capturing the excitement of a newly adopted animal?
Save a shelter dog or cat—spay and neuter now, adopt from an animal shelter, and never breed or buy from a breeder or pet store.
