This is a great article written by Sac County Volunteer, Stephanie Cooper that will run in the Pet Gazette. It is posted here with her permission. Anyone who has helped animal in need, rescuers or caring individuals, will relate.

"IT'S not my problem"

That's the problem

Last week while driving home from work I received a call from a friend telling me that she had found three abandoned kittens in her yard. She was feeding them cow's milk and wanted to know what to do with them, as she currently had them outside in a cardboard box. As a long time animal shelter volunteer, I have fostered my share of kittens and know two things: keep them warm and do not give them cow's milk. My first instinct was of course to go get the kittens and raise them until they could be adopted. That would after all be the right thing to do – wouldn't it? I then realized that I no longer lived alone and could therefore not make that decision without asking my husband, who did not share my intense passion for animals. Don't get me wrong he loves animals, just feels that we do not need anymore in the house!

I frantically called him and explained the situation—assuring him that I would have the kittens out of the house the next day. Surely I would be able to track down a volunteer, rescue, shelter, someone to take them. It was a brilliant plan—save the kittens, do my part, and not annoy my husband to much. Of course there is no such thing as a perfect plan and as anyone who has ever worked in a shelter or with a rescue knows everyone is always full.

I figured, what the hay, a few weeks with three adorable kittens who could resist that? No one right? Wrong. My husband could. After about three days with the kittens in one of our spare bathrooms he let me know just how unhappy he was. Despite his requests that I bring no more animals home (we have two cats and two dogs) I brought three kittens into the house. I tried to explain that I had promised that I would not bring any shelter animals home and that these were yard cats – figuring humor would be the way to go. I was the only one who laughed. Then he said something to me that I could not believe. He told me that when I got the call I should have said that "it was not my problem."

Not my problem?! Whose problem was it? Isn't that what is wrong with this world? That too many times too many people do not do the right thing because it is not their problem? I had an opportunity to do my part to save three little lives how could anyone not do that? Considering we have three bathrooms and only use one what was the harm in housing three kittens?

That got me thinking. Knowing that 5-8 million animals are killed in shelters across the United States every year, the "it's not my problem" mentality is not only insane but inhumane. That means between 11,000 and 16,000 pets are euthanized every day simply because they are homeless. To break things down further, every 1.5 seconds an animal in a shelter is killed and only one animal in 10 gets a forever home. The fact that so many people view animals as disposable, as something that they do not have to take responsibility for is outrageous.

Rescue groups, shelters, and volunteers see, on a daily basis, the cruelty, the heartlessness, the brutal way animals are treated and just discarded. They see how ruthless people really can be. I have seen parents rip the family dog out of their crying child's arms and stuff him in the small night drop box before speeding away in their Cadillac Escalade. I have seen animals come in with broken bones, skin infections, starved to death, beaten, and neglected. We all have and we, sadly, probably always will see these horrors.

How then can anyone justify "it's not my problem"? When you get any sort of pet they are your problem. If for some reason you can not keep your pet you owe it to them to find them a home. Discarding them as if they were an old sweatshirt is atrocious. Since one female cat and her offspring can theoretically produce 420,000 cats in seven years and one female dog and her offspring can theoretically produce 67,000 dogs in six years, I would say that this is everyone's problem. We have all said it before and we will continue to say it SPAY AND NEUTER YOUR PET! Shelters get to stop killing these animals when they stop getting so many in. It is that simple.

Maybe if more people started to make things their problem we would have less heartache, less suffering, less sadness, less despair. Don't get me wrong, I know that saving the lives of three kittens does not promote me to saint, but it does mean that they will have a chance at life and that is a beautiful thing.

As I write this they— lovingly named Bella, Nala and Gizmo—are still in my bathroom, playing, eating, and growing like weeds. One day I hope to see them find a wonderful home. I pray that mine is not the only home that will show them love and I have faith that they will make someone smile as they have done for me.

We all have responsibilities in life. We all get pulled in a million different directions. At the end of the day, however it is our dog that greats us as if we were royalty and it is our cat who cuddles with us as if we were their favorite thing on earth. We owe it to the furry ones that we love, and those that have yet to find a forever home acknowledgement their worth.

The next time you see something or someone in need instead of convincing yourself that it's not your problem, stop and ask yourself, if you don't help who will?

Stephanie Cooper