Cassie, thank you for bringing this topic up. I can't speak for others but I do have to admit, until only 5 or so years ago, I didn't know much about what went on at shelters and pounds and how bad the pet overpopulation, abuse, abandonment rate was. For some reason, I always thought that SPCA's were where one took their pets to be neutered or was the place responsible for picking up strays who would shortly be found by their owners
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It was only when we had a truly awful experience did I begin to do some research, and it wasn't even related really but, one topic led to another and I just happened to fall on all sorts of information by 'mistake.'
I think that unless someone is looking for particular info, it's really not that readily available to the general public as we'd like to think. I often wonder how many of "us" had come here for one reason or another and learned so much more by accident? I know I sure am one of them.