National puppy day celebrates the joy puppies bring and also adopting puppies from shelters.
March 23 is a day set aside to appreciate the tiny tail wags and pitiful whimpers in our families, and maybe add another one.
Colleen Paige, a celebrity pet and home lifestyle expert, as well as author, founded National Puppy Day. This day allows puppy owners to celebrate the unconditional love their puppy brings them and non-puppy owners to save a life and adopt an orphan puppy from shelters, according to its website.
The website also mentioned this national holiday is to help educate the public about the horrors of puppy mills.
Puppy mills contribute to pet overpopulation and lead to many dogs living in cages for the rest of their lives, according to humanesociety.org.
Paige first created the holiday, National Dog Day, which falls on August 26. She said in an email,because of National Dog Day’s success in saving dogs, she wanted to create National Puppy Day to bring awareness about the trouble of puppy mills and the need for adoption from shelters and rescues.
“I think one of the best sayings in the world is ‘Adopt! Don’t Shop!’ and I have dedicated my life to saving as many animals as I possibly can,” Paige said in an email. “And everyone should do the same. Saving even just one life is the most important thing a person can do, and that includes saving people [sic] (lives) as well.”
Kami Perritt, the adoption coordinator for Friends of the Shelter Dogs, said it may take some time and patience but eventually you can find any breed that you’re looking for at a shelter.
“Adopting from a shelter saves two lives, the dog being adopted and the one that is able to take that space in the shelter,” Perritt said. “Many people don't realize that those cute purebred puppies they buy from the pet store, or a breeder, often come from puppy mills.”
The Athens County Dog Shelter, 13333 OH-13, Chauncey, Ohio, often gets litters of puppies and they can be adopted for $65. Friends of the Shelter Dogs doesn't often have puppies for adoption but it supports local adoption of puppies, and dogs, from the local shelter.
Ashley Ward, the kennel keeper at the Athens County Dog Shelter, said adopting a puppy or dog from a shelter is providing it a new chance at a better life.
“A lot of shelters, if they get too full, have to put (dogs) down like we would if we were to get too full,” Ward said. “Luckily with Friends of the Shelter Dogs, we haven’t had to do that in years.”
Ward expects to see some people adopting puppies on National Puppy Day.
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