It is said that man has dominion over animals. If man wields this kind of power, then in my opinion it must be used responsibly, respectfully; and with compassion. I feel that even animals raised to be slaughtered should be treated with dignity and respect; and when the time comes, it should be done as quickly and painlessly as possible. Dogs are senselessly slaughtered every day via euthanasia, for population control. This is a man made problem. These are not wild animals, but domestic. Therefore, every single dog meeting it's cruel fate can be traced back to a human. Irresponsible over breeding, often financially motivated, or fickle dog buyers who change their mind account for some of them. Then there are those of us who try hard and want to help but are in the middle of losing their homes themselves, and their future accommodations forbid pets. There are also cases of allergies, divorce, illness, or the death of the animal's owner. Either way it all ends the same. The premature, undeserved death of our "so called" best friend. This is a societal problem that ultimately we are responsible for.

What can we do about it? Unlike the animals, we have the power of choice. If you are looking for a dog please consider stopping by your local shelter. If you are partial to a specific breed there are many rescue organizations that are breed specific. There are also great tools on the Internet such as Petfinder (www.petfinder.com) that can aid your search.

A note about the dog in the background photo: That was Sashsa, our Doberman. She passed away in 2009. She had health problems (thyroid), but we tried to give her the best life that we could. She was a good friend and we will always miss her. R.I.P. Sasha. After her passing, and some time to heal, we wanted to open our home to dogs that needed one. Using Petfinder, we found Jolie and adopted her through Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA (www.caspca.org). Later that year we adopted Buddy through the American Black & Tan Coonhound Rescue(www.coonhoundrescue.com). Buddy and Jolie never cease to make us smile.

I do other things aside from making videos, however you will not see them here because YouTube is for videos and not those other things.
These are some charities near and dear to my heart, in no particular order:
http://www.coonhoundrescue....
http://hypoglycemia.org/
http://www.cff.org/
http://eakfest.com/default....