Q: How many people does it take to euthanize a pet?

A: Two. One to give the injection and an owner not to care.

Every year, almost eight million pets are euthanized in animal shelters because pet owners don’t care.

Some pet owners don’t care enough to keep their animals safe at home. They let them roam the neighborhood without collars or tags. Many of those pets get lost or picked up by animal dealers who see them to laboratories.

Some pet owners don’t care enough to have their pets spayed or neutered, and their animals produce litter after litter of unwanted puppies and kittens that end up at the shelter because there aren’t enough homes for them all.

Some pet owners don’t even care enough to take unwanted puppies and kittens to the shelter. They abandon the animals to fend for themselves. The lucky ones end up at the shelter as strays. The rest suffer on their own until they meet an untimely death from exposure, disease, traffic accidents, or starvation.

Not caring about pets is costing tax-payers millions of dollars to care for the overwhelming number of unwanted animals. Not caring about pets is costing millions of animals their lives.

The veterinarian or shelter worker humanely takes the life of an unwanted, lost, or sick pet. But the uncaring pet owner is the real killer.

Provided by the Humane Society of the U.S.