dogs

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

For most of us, the unusually warm spring that much of the country is experiencing is a welcome relief from winter. But for people who work in animal shelters, it signals an early start to the most dreaded time of year: kitten and puppy season.

Dogs and cats reproduce year-round, but early spring through late fall is prime breeding time—especially for cats, whose heat cycles are triggered by increased daylight hours. People who thought they could wait “just a bit longer” to have their cat spayed are often surprised to find out their kitten has become a mother herself. Female cats can go into heat every two to three weeks and can become pregnant while they are still nursing kittens—which means that one cat can give birth to multiple litters over the course of a single season.

Where do all these kittens and puppies go? Some end up on the streets, where many die young and in pain after being hit by cars, succumbing to diseases, starving or crossing paths with cruel people. Others pour into animal shelters across the country, leaving them scrambling to accommodate the surge of kittens and puppies. One shelter near Atlanta reported that it typically takes in 400 to 500 stray kittens each month during kitten season.

Baby animals may be cute, but their overabundance leaves shelters in an ugly situation. With 6 to 8 million animals entering U.S. shelters every year, most are constantly filled to capacity. In order to accommodate the deluge of baby animals during kitten and puppy season, open-admission shelters (those that never turn animals away) must euthanize other animals who have been at the shelter for a while to make room for the newcomers.

Playful kittens and puppies tend to steal the show (and people’s hearts), making it even less likely that the gentle, affectionate adult animals who have been waiting in shelters for homes will ever be adopted. But with so many litters flooding shelters, not even adorable kittens and puppies are guaranteed a home. Every day, caring shelter workers are forced to hold animals in their arms and euthanize them—including those whose lives have just begun—simply because there aren’t enough good homes for them all.

This tragedy could end if we all spayed or neutered our animals. Sterilizing even one cat or dog can prevent thousands more from being born only to end up on the streets, in the hands of abusive people or in shelters. Without spaying, one female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 dogs in six years, and one unaltered female cat and her descendants can lead to a staggering 370,000 cats in only seven years. Male animals contribute to the overpopulation crisis even more than females do: Just one unsterilized male animal can impregnate dozens of females, creating hundreds of unwanted offspring.

Sterilization also has many health benefits for animals. Female cats and dogs who are spayed before their first heat cycle have one-seventh the risk of developing mammary cancer. Spaying eliminates female animals’ risk of diseases and cancers of the ovaries and uterus, which are often life-threatening and can require expensive treatments, including surgery. Neutering eliminates male animals’ risk of testicular cancer and reduces unwanted forms of behavior such as biting.

By having our animal companions sterilized and helping our friends, family and everyone we know understand why it’s so important for them to do the same, we can save lives and make spring a season of hope instead of sadness for animals and the people who care about them.

We usually don’t do this, but having had scores of cats, four dogs (including my present best bud, “Jett” the husky mix), three turtles, two newts, one guinea pig, two hamsters, two feral cat colonies (for 10 years!), and one very elegant grey and white mouse named ”GiGi,” we run these adorable photos.

Please boycott circuses, adopt homeless dogs and critters, go vegan or vegetarian (like I did – except for fish), and bug govt officials to change laws/enact better ones,  re: animals! Learn more at PETA.org!

- R. T.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2012/feb/03/unlikely-animal-friendships-in-pictures

By Heather Moore

2011 was tough—when people weren’t bemoaning budget cuts, lining up outside job fairs or fretting over the stagnant housing market, they were listening to worrisome news about the war in Afghanistan, political shootings and natural disasters. But things weren’t all bad. There were signs of progress and reasons to be positive, especially when it comes to issues that impact animals. As we head into the new year, let’s reflect upon some of the things that made 2011 memorable for animals.

Eight of the nation’s largest financial institutions, including MetLife, Goldman Sachs, PNC Financial and U.S. Bank, stopped using glue traps after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) explained that animals who get stuck in them often suffocate and die slowly. The Social Security Administration, Georgia Institute of Technology and Toronto District School Board—the fourth-largest school district in North America—also agreed to use more humane methods of rodent control.

While this is hardly revolutionary, it is indicative of a larger social movement to reform practices that harm animals. Many people are now less likely to accept activities that cause suffering—and it shows in our laws and business practices.

In 2011, West Hollywood became the first city in the U.S. to ban the sale of fur. City council members in Toronto and Irvine, Calif., banned the sale of cats and dogs in pet stores. Rodeos and circuses that feature exotic animals were also prohibited in Irvine, and Fulton County—the most populous municipality in Georgia—banned the use of bullhooks, sharp steel-tipped devices that are commonly used to beat, jab or yank on elephants.

The American Zoological Association (AZA) announced that bullhooks will be forbidden at all AZA-accredited zoos by 2014. The Toronto Zoo decided to close its elephant exhibit and send its remaining elephants to a facility that does not use bullhooks. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture slapped Feld Entertainment, the owner of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, which routinely uses bullhooks to “discipline” captive elephants, with a $270,000 fine—the largest settlement of its kind in U.S. history—for repeated violations of the Animal Welfare Act.

Also in 2011, eight top advertising agencies pledged never again to feature great apes—who are often torn away from their mothers shortly after birth and beaten in order to force them to perform on cue—in their advertisements. Capital One pulled an ad featuring a chimpanzee and pledged not to use nonhuman primates in its advertisements again. The blockbuster film Rise of the Planet of the Apes featured CGI animation to create realistic-looking apes without exploiting and abusing animals.

U.S. Army officials announced that monkeys will no longer be used in a cruel chemical nerve-agent attack training course at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The University of Michigan, Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City and Naval Medical Center San Diego began using sophisticated simulators instead of live cats for intubation training. And the world’s largest tea-maker, Unilever—maker of Lipton and PG tips—stopped experimenting on pigs and other animals just so that it could make health claims about its tea.

Aspen, Colo., became the first city in the U.S. to launch a comprehensive Meatless Monday campaign—local restaurants, schools, hospitals and businesses are now promoting plant-based meals on Mondays. The board of commissioners in Durham County, N.C., also signed a “Meatless Mondays” resolution, and several more celebrities, including Russell Brand, Eliza Dushku and Ozzy Osbourne, went vegan in 2011. The Rev. Al Sharpton also ditched meat from his diet.

Many of these developments were brought about, at least in part, by PETA, but everyone can bring about change simply by resolving to be kinder, greener and healthier in the coming year. By taking simple steps such as buying cruelty-free products, choosing meatless meals, wearing animal-friendly fashions and enjoying animal-free entertainment, we can all help make 2012 even better than 2011.

Heather Moore is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation.

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

Peeking out from under the tree with a bright red ribbon around his neck, he was their favorite present on Christmas morning. The kids threw the ball for him until he flopped down in happy exhaustion, tongue lolling and tail whipping wildly. They paraded him around the neighborhood every day and snuggled under the covers with him at night. But as the weeks passed, it wasn’t long before he went from adored to ignored. His family was too busy playing video games or dashing off to their next appointment to bother with him.

One day, the man clipped a leash to his collar. A car ride! He paced in the backseat in excitement. But when they reached their destination, he tucked his tail between his legs in fear. The man led him into a building full of barking dogs. “He’s getting too big. We just don’t have time for him,” the man said, handing the leash over to a kind-looking woman. He tried to follow the man out the door, but it closed in his face. The man left without even saying goodbye.

This is the sad story of countless dogs and cats who are given as “gifts” for Christmas, only to be tossed out like stale fruitcake after their novelty wears off. Every year following the holidays, shelters across the country scramble to accommodate the surge of abandoned animals. Yet animals who end up in shelters are the “lucky” ones: They will be cared for and have a chance at being adopted by a different family, one that will love them for life—not just for the holidays.

Less fortunate dogs and cats are banished to backyards and chained up like old bicycles, with nothing to do but shiver and watch the snow pile up. Others are driven “out to the country” and dumped, where they starve, get hit by cars or freeze to death. So much for happy holidays.

This is why, even if you’re certain that your loved one wants and is prepared to care for an animal companion, it’s crucial to resist the temptation to give him or her a living, breathing “present.” Adding a cat or dog to the family means making a 15-year-plus commitment to love and care for the animal, for better or for worse. It also means finding an animal who is a good match for one’s activity level, experience, abilities and personality. These aren’t decisions you can make for someone else.

If you’re thinking of getting an animal as a “gift” to yourself, hold off until after the holiday hoopla is over. Animals require vast amounts of time, attention, patience and money—all of which are in short supply during this season. With parties, events and shopping filling up most families’ schedules around the holidays, new animals’ needs are often neglected, and the animals suffer. Left for hours with nothing to do and no one to play with them or take them outside to relieve themselves, animals are likely to chew on furniture, scratch up curtains and carpets and have “accidents” in the house—and then be unfairly punished for it.

Putting a puppy or kitten under the tree isn’t a “gift” for anyone. If you’re certain that your loved one is prepared to give an animal an excellent home, consider wrapping up a dog bowl or a leash and offering to accompany him or her to an animal shelter after the holidays to choose a loving animal companion for life, not just for Christmas.

Lindsay Pollard-Post is a staff writer for The PETA Foundation.

By Deb Young

In recent years, a strong connection has been documented linking domestic violence, child abuse and animal abuse.

Nationwide, professionals in such fields as law enforcement, child protection, human and veterinary medicine, domestic violence intervention, education, and animal control — among other fields — are beginning to realize that they need to know more about the many connections between animal cruelty and violence against humans.

In a number of studies , one national and the others statewide, 71% to 83% of the women entering domestic violence shelters reported that their partners also abused or killed the family pet.

Women who do seek safety at shelters are nearly 11 times more likely to report that their partner has hurt or killed their animals than women who have not experienced domestic abuse.

When an abuser threatens, abuses, or kills an animal, several messages are being relayed to the human victim.
The abuse, or even threat to abuse the animal, displays the domination and control the abuser has over the victim.
The abuser often is successful in getting his message across through abuse of the pet. Click to continue »

By Karen Porreca

I was recently walking my dogs at the beach when I came across a woman with a puppy wearing a shock collar. Appalled, I asked why she was resorting to such harsh measures with this seemingly normal, sweet-tempered puppy. As it turned out, a “trainer” had told her to punish the puppy for “bad” behavior with shock because he was part pit bull. I spent the next 20 minutes trying to undo the harm caused by that so-called “trainer.”

In July, a man in Wales was fined for putting a shock collar on his collie; they’ve banned shock collars there, and for good reason. I look forward to the day when shock collars are banned in the U.S. too.

Shock collars are uncomfortable to begin with because of the prongs that protrude into the dog’s neck. Add an electric current to that, and dogs can suffer from pain and psychological stress, which can lead to severe anxiety, displaced aggression and changes in heart and respiration rates. Click to continue »

By Kathy Guillermo

In our work to replace the use of animals for experimentation with superior non-animal methods, we at PETA often say, “If what happens to animals inside a laboratory happened outside the lab, it would be a crime.”

This month, a grand jury agreed with us.

Fourteen felony cruelty-to-animals indictments were returned against four former employees of Professional Laboratory Research Services (PLRS) in North Carolina, which was investigated and exposed by PETA last year. Indictments and charges against those who abuse animals —wherever the cruelty occurs — should happen more often.

For decades, PLRS was hired by big pharmaceutical companies to test the pesticides in flea and tick products on dogs, cats and rabbits. Last year, a PETA investigator worked undercover in the facility and caught these employees on video kicking, throwing and dragging dogs; hoisting rabbits by their ears and puppies by their throats; violently slamming cats into cages; and screaming obscenities and death wishes at terrified animals. One worker can be seen on video trying to rip out a cat’s claws by violently pulling the animal from the chain link fence that the cat clung to.

The indictments follow citations by federal officials for serious violations of animal welfare laws, the laboratory’s closure and the surrender of nearly 200 dogs and more than 50 cats just a week after we released our findings. Laboratory staff reportedly killed all the rabbits, but the dogs and cats have been placed in homes.

I know one of the rescued dogs, a small terrier-hound who looks a little like the beleaguered but hopeful pup in the animated version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” She was known only by the number tattooed in her ear. Bone-thin, terrified and infested with worms, she was pulled from her cage and began a long journey that ended in the home of one of my colleagues.

At first Libby, as she was named, cowered in fear and crawled on her belly rather than standing upright and risk being noticed. I visited her recently. She is a joyful little dog today who loves her person, her canine friends and her happy life. Imprisonment in a laboratory has been replaced by long walks in the mountains, where she darts up and down the trails, her tail wagging.

Some abuse in laboratories has the approval of oversight committees and is funded by the federal government with our tax dollars. They don’t call it abuse of course—it’s “research” when someone gets paid to collect data on suffering animals. But forcing mice to fight with each other until they’re bloody, keeping monkeys constantly thirsty to coerce them to cooperate in brain experiments, torching sheep over two-thirds of their bodies, force-feeding chemicals to dogs, electrically shocking the sensitive feet of rats, cutting off the tops of cats’ skull to insert electrodes in their brains—all this is legal.

Many state anti-cruelty laws exempt experiments on animals. Wisconsin, where the mice-fighting experiments occurred and were in apparent violation of anti-animal fighting laws, just passed such an exemption.

As Libby shows, the animals are the same whether they’re inside a laboratory or outside it. They feel pain when they’re hurt. They want their own lives, even if some humans think these lives are of no value. Thank goodness the grand jury in North Carolina saw the appalling treatment of animals for what it was and refused to give the laboratory a free pass. Let’s hope it’s a trend.

Kathy Guillermo is vice president of Laboratory Investigations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

No one in their right mind would ever put a beloved animal companion in a hot oven, but every summer, people literally bake their dogs to death by leaving them in parked cars. Already this season, at least six dogs have suffered agonizing, panic-filled deaths inside hot vehicles. Many others have been rescued in the nick of time because a passerby cared enough to intervene.

In Ontario, Calif., a 19-year-old woman is facing cruelty charges for allegedly leaving her 1-year-old golden retriever in a hot car while she shopped at a mall. The dog was euthanized after veterinarians determined that she had sustained brain damage and heart and lung injuries. A Parma, Ohio, woman was recently sentenced to jail time after her dog was found suffering from heatstroke in a car in a bar parking lot. The temperature inside the car had reached 129 degrees. And in London, a police officer reportedly tried to commit suicide after two dogs whom he had left in the back of his patrol car died from the heat.

Each of these tragedies could have been avoided if the people responsible had simply left their dogs indoors with air conditioning or fans running. But every year, countless dogs pay the ultimate price because their guardians underestimate the danger of leaving a living being in a parked car. It doesn’t matter if it’s only slightly warm outside, if the windows are partially rolled down or if the vehicle is sitting in the shade: Parked cars are death traps for dogs.

A parked car can reach deadly temperature extremes faster than the time it takes to pick up a loaf of bread or dash into the bank to cash a check. On a 78-degree day, the temperature inside a shaded car is 90 degrees, and the inside of a car parked in the sun can reach 160 degrees in a matter of minutes. Click to continue »

By Paula Moore

Several years ago, I added a Siamese cat to my family. Mochi had been picked up as a stray by a local animal control agency. When no one claimed him, he was turned over to a Siamese cat rescue group. The first time I took him to my veterinarian, a man at the vet’s office peeked into Mochi’s carrier and then said to his wife, “He’s a Siamese.” “I just adopted him from a rescue group,” I explained. Incredulous, the man responded, “Siamese cats don’t need rescuing!”

June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, and for people with the energy, resources, patience and love to devote to a feline companion, it’s the perfect time to save a life by adopting a cat from an animal shelter or reputable breed-rescue group. Whether you have your heart set on a rambunctious kitten or a more sedate “lap cat,” a regal Persian or a sassy tabby, animal shelters are overflowing with cats of every stripe. Click to continue »

By Deb Young

Winter time can be a fun season for you and your pet. But with the snow and cold weather comes dangers as well.

1. Honk your horn or pound on the hood before starting your car on cold days. To a cat, a warm engine block can seem like a nice escape from cold winter winds.

2. Keep your pet away from antifreeze with ethylene glycol. It’s sweet and extremely lethal, even in small doses.

3. If it is colder than 20 degrees your pet should only go out for short bathroom breaks.

4. Protect your dog from road salt which can become lodged in the paw and cause a painful infection, make sure paws are free from salt after being outdoors.

5. You might think it’s silly but a sweater or coat is necessary for small dogs, old dogs, dogs with short fur or dogs with a combination of these characteristics.

6. Even outdoor cats should be given a break in winter and brought inside Day/night. Felines can freeze, become lost or stolen, injured or killed.

7. Never leave your dog or cat alone in a car during cold weather. A car can act as a refrigerator in the winter, holding in the cold and causing the animal to freeze to death.

8. Even out outdoor chained dogs should be brought inside , even in garage or heated basement.