There is a bill that has been recently introduced into the Alabama Legislature that deals with the humane treatment of animals, something I’m a big supporter of.

The first bill, named “Beckham’s Act” after a little dog of the same name that survived a euthanasia attempt in Cullman, would outlaw the euthanasia of shelter animals by placing them in a gas chamber.

The fact that any animal has to be euthanized really breaks my heart (unless it’s vicious and has been known to hurt people or other animals, of course). And it really breaks my heart that the Colbert County Animal Shelter reportedly puts down an average of 200 animals a month because there simply isn’t enough resources to house all the homeless animals that wind up at the shelter an a regular basis.

I realize I’m going to sound like Bob Barker right now, but people don’t realize the importance of spaying and neutering their pets. If pet owners did the responsible thing and had these procedures performed on their animals, there wouldn’t be cats and dogs running all over creation in mass numbers.

The overpopulation of cats and dogs is definitely a current problem, and there isn’t much that can be done to stop it now besides euthanasia. We have about five stray cats that roam our neighborhood and hang out around our house. There are several dogs that run up and down the road. I don’t know who these animals belong to or if they even have owners. They’re just there.

When the animal population is what it is today, euthanasia is just inevitable. If the homeless animals weren’t put down after a certain time, we wouldn’t be able to walk or drive because there would be so many of them all over the place.

But if people would take steps now to prevent the problem from getting worse (or even staying the same), we wouldn’t have these kinds of issues in the future.

Animals are, in my opinion, an important part of society and anyone who has a beloved pet probably feels the same way.

I had a brindle cat for 17 years named Simon, and that cat was seriously my best friend. He was part of the family.

Pets are a source of comfort and companionship for people who truly care about them, and that’s definitely what Simon was for my family and me.

Each pet deserves to fulfill that same role for some other family out there who will love it, care for it and give it a good home.

At the end of the day, animals are animals and people are people, but animals don’t deserve to be mistreated for simply being animals.

So, as Bob Barker would say, “Help control the pet population. Have your pet spayed or neutered.”