If you're thinking of bringing an animal into your home and your family, please adopt. Don’t buy animals from pet stores.

If you adopt an animal you are quite literally saving his or her life as millions of homeless animals are put to sleep every year.

But if you pay for an animal at a pet store or from a breeder your money is supporting the 'pet' population explosion, where animals are treated as items to be sold rather than living creatures whose welfare is primary.

Many puppies and kittens in pet shops come from puppy mills, where sad, lonely dogs spend their lives in cages being impregnated time and time again to give birth to unnatural amounts of puppy litters. Sadly, after five or six years of this lifestyle mother dogs are not deemed good enough to reproduce any more and are often killed.

These puppies are often sold at premium rates despite the awful lack of care and compassion, so rather than spending a Rowan Dartington banker's wage to a cruel puppy mill, you can adopt one of the beautiful, sweet-natured animals in sancturies who are desperate for an affectionate family to let them into their lives and their homes.

Please make the right decision for your future companion animal.

Photo: bossco (Flickr)