To the Editor:

My name is Hallie Bardani and I am a seventh-grade student at Hollis Brookline Middle School. I believe that adoption from shelters can help with how animals are treated. I have had two cats, and a dog in my life and have known many others, but I noticed one thing with shelter adopted pets they have less problems (physically and emotionally). People should adopt from animal shelters instead of other sources.

When pet buyers adopt a pet from an animal shelter, the shelter will talk about the pet’s health concerns with the buyer. The person adopting can also spend some time with each pet getting to know which one they would like to buy. Mixed breed dogs are the most common at animal shelters because they tend to have less inherited health problems and people can still find purebreed dogs at shelters it is just a little sparser. Most dogs and cats will have vetting completed, some will have a microchip, most will be potty trained and spayed/neutered already done before they get their future pet. More to add on that is from Victoria Stilwell an English dog trainer, author and television presenter, who said “If adopting from a rescue group, they will be able to tell you all about the dog’s personality so there are no surprises when you bring the dog home.”

By adopting a pet from an animal shelter people are unknowingly discouraging animal cruelty. Yes, breeders and pet stores have mostly purebreds but as it said above they are the ones that have more health problems.Would someone really want to deal with that after paying the high price that pet stores, breeders and other sources sell their animals at? Then on top of that the buyer has to pay for all the vetting their self because it usually isn’t already done for them. All of these big network breeding operations put profit ahead of the animal’s health. By adopting a pet from an animal shelter, people are unknowingly discouraging animal cruelty. Most stores get their puppies from puppy mills and that is never a good thing because female dogs are forced to produce litter until unable to. Those dogs that are only there to produce litter and have probably never been let out of their cage. That means no feeling grass on their feet and no feeling of being cared for.

After reading through this email I hope and strongly suggest for you to have one of your journalists research this topic or to edit mine so that it can be shared. I sent this to you because you can spread the cause with your newspapers and outstanding articles and with that animals can be treated better when adopted from the right places.

Thank you for your

consideration,

Hallie Bardani