Argument of Fact

There are a lot of things people do not know about animals, shelter overpopulation and euthanasia. I think some people are even unaware that this is an issue and if they do not know that they definitely do not know that companion animals are being killed. To provide new information I am going to try and find the most recent stats, charts and information about animal euthanasia in the United States and maybe Texas. I found out that tax dollars sometimes have to be used to pay for the housing and killing of companion animals, which is information that some people may be unaware of. I am actually having trouble formulating a hypothesis. I always get confused doing papers like this. Once again I am going to get facts from scholarly articles to prove my case. I have a feeling I am going to need a bit of help on this paper.

Synthesizing

I tried to find three articles that had somewhat of a solution or new experiments that organizations and groups were trying to help animal shelter overpopulation. I was pleased when I read the article about the experiment in Florida and how even though it took some time, like all good things, they were really able to make a significant difference in the number of euthanized animals. I learned that overpopulation in animal shelters affects more than just the animals. I want to learn more about what veterinarians do in this situation. I want to find an article of a vets story or someone who has been impacted by an animal that has been euthanized because there were too many animals in the shelter. There are so many different views and ways to show that this is a problem and I want to find them. I do think I need to look other places than the library data base because most of the articles I find there are not very helpful. I do not know where I am going to look for my other two sources because I have gotten some good information. I want to find more recent articles, statistics and facts about overpopulation. I enjoy learning about this and I hope to find new, better, up to date information!

Finding Sources

I searched different combinations of  animal, euthanize and companion when I was looking for scholarly sources.  The most useful results were when I searched "companion animal euthanize." Most of the articles I found were about horses and rats. The articles about rats were talking about experiments where they used carbon to euthanize them. There were also debate type papers weighing the pros and cons of having to euthanize companion animals. Another debate was whether to treat or euthanize. When an animal gets a disease or gets hurt there is the question to euthanize or treat the animal for the existing condition. Although, my initial topic was about animals getting getting put down in shelters there wasn't very many articles about that specifically so I may have to gear my topic in a different direction. I was thinking about doing ways to prevent the illnesses and injuries that are cause for an animal to be euthanized. I haven't quite made a decision yet. There are also articles about the cost of such procedures. Whatever I choose I want to make sure there is more than enough information on the topic.