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_ Prof. Jonez _

> Is there really a pet overpopulation problem?
>
> The number of healthy dogs, cats, kittens, and puppies that are
> euthanized (killed) each day in the United States is almost too big
> for the average person to comprehend. The estimates range from source
> to source, but mid-ranges are roughly between 6 to 8 million pets
> euthanized each year. This translates to 16,438 to 21,917 pets
> euthanized each DAY. Some annual estimates are as high as 12 million.
>
> (Figures are from various sources, including, but not limited to:
> Cornell University, PetSmart Charities, and the Humane Society of the
> United States.)
>
> HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) -- Pets are being slaughtered for meat in
> shortage-stricken Zimbabwe and record numbers of animals have been
> surrendered to shelters or abandoned by owners no longer able to feed
> them, animal welfare activists say.
>
> A man feeds scraps to his dogs in Harare, Zimbabwe, on Thursday.
> People are barely able to feed their pets.
>
> The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals said it
> could not feed surrendered animals or find them new homes and was
> being forced to kill them and destroy the corpses.
>
> Animals, like people, are being hard hit by Zimbabwe's economic
> meltdown, with official inflation of more than 7,600 percent, the
> highest in the world. Independent estimates put real inflation closer
> to 25,000 percent and the International Monetary Fund has forecast it
> will reach 100,000 percent by the end of the year.
>
> Vets have run out of the drug used to put down the animals and are
> relying on intermittent donations from neighboring South Africa. One
> veterinary practice was waiting for supplies to destroy about 20
> animals, and on Friday could neither feed them adequately nor fatally
> inject them.
> In its latest bulletin to donors and supporters, the SPCA said it
> launched an awareness campaign on "the ethical and moral issues
> regarding the killing and consumption of trusted companion animals."
>
> "But in the face of starvation and the burgeoning number of stray and
> abandoned animals, the moral issues become far more complex and we
> should not be too hasty in our condemnations when animals and people
> are suffering equally," it said.
> One animal rights activist, who asked not to be named out of fear of
> arrest, called the situation "too ghastly for words.
>
> "We are accused of giving the country a bad name," the activist said.
>
> Zimbabwe's and international human rights groups accuse the
> government of intimidating, threatening, harassing and physically
> attacking critics or those seen as casting the government in a bad
> light.
> Sweeping media laws have brought the closure of independent and
> opposition newspapers, speech and gatherings are tightly controlled,
> and President Robert Mugabe has applauded police for beating
> opposition activists.
> Animal activists say they have been threatened with arrest for
> speaking out and SPCA offices were raided by secret police agents of
> the Central Intelligence Organization on Thursday. SPCA inspectors
> said they were ordered not to release details of surrendered,
> abandoned, slain or eaten pets.
> No comment was immediately available from the government.
>
> Mugabe's critics say corruption and his stewardship of the economy
> have led to the crisis. They point to the often-violent, government
> seizures of thousands of white-owned commercial farms that began in
> 2000 and disrupted the agriculture-based economy in what was once a
> regional breadbasket.
> Meat, cornmeal, bread and other staples vanished from shops and
> stores. A government order to slash prices of all goods and services
> in June worsened acute food shortages and has left stores virtually
> empty of basic foodstuffs.
> Food shortages have also emboldened rats to forage for scraps in
> homes and far beyond their usual hideaways, pest control specialists
> said.
> Leftover food that would have been discarded has become too precious
> to throw away, said a rat catcher in western Harare.
>
> "We are getting rat problems where we never saw them before," he
> said, asking not to be identified in the mounting climate of fear of
> the authorities. "Please, I don't want any trouble."
>
> Illegally slaughtered meat sells for more than 10 times the
> government's fixed price on the thriving black market. It comes in
> plastic bags of 22 pounds and more, containing bone, fat and offal
> and no indication of types or cuts of meat.
> "You're getting brisket, shin, flank, rump and anything else that's
> available, all lumped together. It's meat, take it or leave it," the
> animal protection activist said.
>
> "It is not illegal to eat dog meat in this country, but we have laws
> on how animals must be humanely slaughtered," he said.
>
> A court case is pending in the eastern city of Mutare, where a pet
> dog was butchered and eaten.
>
> Police and SPCA inspectors were called to a shopping center in Harare
> earlier this month, where a man was offering frozen dog meat for sale
> from the back of a pickup truck, activists said.

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