Picking out an adorable puppy from a pet-shop window, plunking one's money down and carrying the furry bundle home is fun. It's easy. It's gratifying. Literally warm and fuzzy, it's a feel-good situation.
Caring for a pet properly, however, is a lot more demanding than most people realize, and as a result hundreds of thousands of animals are abandoned by irresponsible owners every year
Right at this moment, thousands of cats and dogs sit on death row at pounds throughout the country; nearly 40 percent of the dogs and nearly all the cats brought to Tokyo facilities in 1999 didn't leave them alive. "Put to sleep" is a sorry euphemism for the slow death by suffocation that awaits these animals.