As President-elect Obama said in his acceptance speech on Tuesday night, he and his family will be bringing a new member with them when they settle into the White House-a dog. And, news stories report that the dog will be lovingly adopted from a shelter. How great is it that the Obamas are already making an exemplary choice as the soon-to-be first family by adopting a dog? Hopefully this will spurn national interest by families across the country to skip breeders and puppy mills and instead choose a beautiful mutt or pure-bred from a local shelter or animal rescue group. Coincidentally, this happens to be National Animal Shelter Week and the Obamas’ choice is probably the best PR ever for this movement. I don’t need to remind everyone of the millions of dogs and cats that are annually killed by shelters because of the unmanageable number of animals they receive. TakePart by visiting the Humane Society’s Animal Shelter site today to find your local shelter to adopt a pet or volunteer.






