Bravo, Oprah

I'm really not a big watcher or follower of Oprah, but I heard she was doing a show on puppy mills and pet overpopulation, so I made sure to tune in. Two boxes of tissues later, I'm really hoping the Oprah magic touch holds true.

The episode began by exposing puppy mills, at which female dogs are kept in tiny cages 24 hours a day and continually bred throughout their entire lives, churning out puppies that are sold at pet stores and, these days, on the Internet. Sometimes, when rescued, they can't even walk because they have been confined for so long.

As a contrast to shady breeders that continually produce puppies, the show put the spotlight on shelters, which can't keep up with the number of unwanted pets discarded at their door. About 4 million dogs and cats are euthanized EVERY YEAR in this country, many because the shelters simply don't have the space to hold them.The segment featured a shelter in Fort Worth that is only able to find homes for four out of every 50 animals it gets – it sometimes euthanizes dozens of animals in one day. The video of piles of garbage bags, filled with the bodies of euthanized dogs, being forklifted and dumped into the garbage was particularly heartbreaking.

Much of this senseless cruelty and killing could be stopped if people would just do these simple things: get their pets spayed and neutered, and never buy pets at pet stores, from unlicensed breeders (even if they are friends), or online. I used to work with a woman whose parents let their cat roam free outdoors but never bothered to get her spayed. Every year that cat got pregnant, and my co-worker kept coming to the office with boxes of kittens needing homes. Wouldn't it just have been easier to bring her to the vet one time for an operation?

And those people who think their dogs are so cute that they should breed them because "all their friends want one just like it," well, they're the reason we need stricter breeding laws in this country.

Bob and I adopted all three of our cats at shelters, and we vowed to never adopt kittens or puppies because they always get adopted first. Older pets are the ones that languish in shelters and are more likely to get euthanized. The last cat we adopted, Cleo (pictured above), was 12 when we got her. The sign outside her cage said, "Old in years, but young at heart." Today she is 17 and still giving us so much joy.

When Oprah recommends a book, it becomes a best seller. When she recommends a clothing item, retailers can't keep it in stock. Let's hope she has as much influence when it comes to serious issues, as well. If nothing else, I applaud her for throwing her weight behind an issue that deserves attention.