E D I T O R I A L
March 13, 2008
Forgotten Lives

By Lisa Chalian-Rock
staff graphic designer

Spay Day USA, Feb. 26, has come and gone with little, if any, fanfare in Darlington.

On Saturday at a visit to the Darlington County Humane Society off Harry Byrd Highway, I saw the effects of this lackadaisical attitude. Every dog kennel had two or more dogs crowded into each fenced area. There were at least three litters of puppies, and three dogs curiously located in one of the “Cat Habitats.”

The volunteers were busy cleaning, feeding, walking ... doing all they could do to keep up, but I could see it was wearing on them. As the Darlington County Humane Society said in two meetings last month, the shelter is in dire straits and needs community support.

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Darlington County Humane Society

The shelter is located off Hwy. 151, 0.5 miles west of Darlington Raceway. Turn beside the water tower. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.
Mail donations to P.O. Box 1655, Hartsville, SC 29551.
For more information, call 843-398-4402 or visit the shelter’s Web site here.
Everyone in this community needs to do their part. These animals are our responsibility.

The three litters of puppies at the shelter are a perfect example but only the tip of the iceberg. Two of my dogs (I have a total of eight) were from a litter of puppies dumped in a ditch on a country road.

How many other litters have been discarded that way?

I hear of people “taking off” their animals because they reproduced, and it sickens me. The owners punish these creatures, often with a death sentence, for something only the people could have prevented in the first place.

If you can only consider these animals as the property they legally are, think about this: Who pays to clean up the trash on the side of the road? The discarded property? The “litter”?

Everyone. And everyone has to pitch in to clean up this problem too. The cheapest and most effective way to head off this problem is to spay/neuter and to educate people about it.

Why do we have to let problems multiply before we do something about them?

Isn’t it more sensible to fix it before it spreads?

Please help build Darlington County into a better, more responsible community.

Donate. Volunteer. Adopt. Spay/Neuter.

Donate: A few extra dollars, bleach, paper towels, laundry detergent, heavy duty trash bags, hand sanitizer, heavy duty buckle collars, kitten and puppy formula.

Volunteer: Walk dogs, socialize cats, wash bowls, staff events and fundraisers.

Adopt: If you can afford a lifelong commitment to an animal, please choose a shelter pet. As a proud owner of three shelter pets, I can say that those animals are just as loving as pure-bred animals. Often, you can find pure-bred animals in shelters too if that’s your fancy.

Spay/Neuter: This is the key component to ending the vicious cycle where 600 to 1200 animals are euthanized in Darlington County each year and millions more are euthanized across the United States. One unaltered cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 animals in seven years while one unspayed dog and her offspring can produce 67,000.

EDITORIAL for the week of March 6, 2008