Tag Archives: kittens

Human Kind – be both!

January 19, 2017 admin

Dorrie🐱🐶🐯🐰🐵🐻🐼💝!

By Dorrie Maynard

Here’s a feel-good story for you: It’s about a woman who helped save and trap two of the luckiest feral kittens in Worcester!

The woman’s name is Melissa and the two (twin?)sister kittens are named Daisy and Delilah. They are completely black and precious!

Daisy and Delilah!

They were born outside, in the elements, and now live the life of kitty royalty. Melissa had owned a cat years ago, but for a very long time, after it died, she never got another one until she saw these kittens, homeless and helpless, in her backyard.

She got in touch with me. We set live traps in her yard. There were originally four kitties: one must have been taken in by someone else, and one of the others had died right before Melissa was going to take her in. Melissa was devastated but determined to save the two remaining kittens.

Like all feral kittens – kittens born to feral cats and are unused to human contact – these babies were afraid of humans and being inside Melussa’s home at first. But Melissa showed them love, fed and cared for them. They came around!

Now they are HOME! They have complete run of Melissa’s house, every cat toy, cat comfort, the best of food and cat parents who couldn’t be happier with their cuties.

Not only did Melissa and her husband take in these two kittens, they helped me to trap and transport eight other cats in the neighborhood to be spayed/neutered and vaccinated and then to be re-released in the neighborhood, where they could be as healthy as possible and not reproduce, ending the cylce of that feral colony.

Feral cats usually live two or three years in outdoors, alone, exposed to whatever is out there: cars, poison, lack of food, sub zero temps – and die horrific deaths! When the cats came back after being “fixed” by the vet, Melissa hated the thought that they would be put out right away, so she made plans to keep them in her basement for a few days. That turned into a complete night-
mare. The cats (wild) were so freaked out they started jumping and breaking things. She said she could hear glass crashing down there! She and her husband went down to clean up the glass because they were afraid the cats would cut themselves and decided to let them run back outdoors through the bulk head door. They thought they had all run out until Melissa went downstairs a few days later and realized there was at least one or two cats still down there.

They let the bulk head open again, and finally the remaining cats made their way out. Melissa and husband Dan made a very lovely feral cat house for the cats – shelter, warmth – but the cats
have not used it yet, according to a neighbor who feeds them and allows they to hang out on their porch.

Hopefully, this colony of cats will figure it out and start to use it – especially now that the weather has turned bitter.

Melissa has already taken her two kittens to a wellness visit and has plans to have them spayed this month.

Daisy and Delilah hit the jackpot when they were welcomed into Melissa and Dan’s home and life!

Sometimes it does take a village to make good things happen! This couple and their neighbors cared enough to have the stray/wild cats in their neighborhood fixed so they will stop breeding. They set up housing for them and are committed to keeping the cats fed and watered.

Thanks to the Worcester Animal Rescue League (WARL) – they first got the phone call about the cats and then handed the kitty project over to Spay Worcester. Spay Worcester then asked for a volunteer to spearhead the round up.

And so the story goes…

Animal Issues

This holiday season, my love for animals shines bright!

December 16, 2016 admin

Go, wonderful Dorrie, go!!!

By Dorrie Maynard

People are always asking me how and
when it – my love for animals – began. I can’t remember a specific time or event that contributed to my passion, but I do know that it has awakened something inside of me.

If I see a dead animal in the street like a squirrel or raccoon, I alway say out loud: “Poor baby, rest in peace.” I feel like they should know that someone cares that they died.

I have been saving strays for a very long time. I think it started when I was little and would find cats that were sickly and abandoned. My dad hated cats and would always tell me that I couldn’t keep them. But he would take one look at them and say, Oh that thing will be dead in a day or two – you can keep it.

Low and behold, it didn’t die!

As an adult, my first dog came from the
Grafton Flea market. I called her Grafton. Unfortunately, when I got divorced from my husband he decided to keep her because I was moving into
an apartment that didn’t allow dogs. Eventually, my ex found her a good home with kids when he moved to Florida. I was heart broken that she wasn’t staying with him, but by that time I had moved to Maine and had to let her go.

I am still rescuing stray and feral cats! For one reason or another, they always manage to find their way to me! For instance, one morning I got up and there was a beautiful cat in a cat carrier left in my driveway. I think word got around that I was feeding strays and someone knew I would do the right thing by this cat. I would
have loved to keep the feline but I know my limits. I found the a great home through networking.

The Internet and Facebook have become a great resource for animal lovers and rescuers: there are many sites and groups that help you find homes for homeless animals. There are many, many people who are involved! I find it heartwarming that so many people care and go above and beyond to help animals and place them in forever homes!

Penny at Dorrie and friends’ Spa Day for pups! She got a bath! photo by Dorrie Maynard

We have to be their voices and their earth angels, as it usually isn’t their fault that they are being re-homed. I live in a college neighborhood, and I believe students get cute little kittens and then when they start to grow or go into heat or their landlord finds out, they just let them go in the neighborhood to fend for themselves.

Last year I met one of my “rescues” because his owners got a new kitten
and this cat, named Buddy, didn’t like the kitten. So he started spending more time outside and eventually warmed up to me. He was sleeping on my porch one
day when the owner walked by and rang the bell.

He said Buddy was his cat.

I said great, feel free to take him
home because it is going to start to get cold. Well, Buddy never went home and made his way into my house for the winter. He had his own suite – I would let him roam when I was home but he never warmed up to my cats. So I eventually put him in rescue. He has
found a perfect home of his own with no
other cats.

This year’s project is a beautiful black
cat with a white tuxedo and paws. He always ran away when I approached him, but I started feeding him canned food every time I saw him. Now I can pet him and he talks to me all the time! I thought he was feral, but now I believe he either belongs to someone who doesn’t feed him canned food, and he comes to see me daily for his “meal” – or he lives outside.

I worry about him come the freezing cold nights …

I will get Mr. Tuxedo fixed and vetted through Spay Worcester and put him into rescue. He deserves a home of his own as well. I have several insulated cat houses throughout the neighborhood but not sure he would use one.

My neighbor and I have a feeding station where there are two set ups of dry food and water for the neighborhood strays, as there are several that come to eat on a regular basis.

I volunteer with Spay Worcester, trapping and then having the feral cats spayed or neutered by a vet. I have met some wonderful people who have become interested in saving strays through this
great program. Recently, I met a woman and helped her trap two kittens that are now living in the lap of luxury in her home! She has become obsessed with kitties, and I consider her a member of
the crazy kit kat lady club! I guess we are all kindred souls when it comes to saving animals.

Cece in her play-room! “Auntie Dorrie” gave Cece kitten food and three fun kitty toys! Another Auntie gave Cece a bed, a bunch of adorable kitten toys and cozy blankets! We are all in this – rescuing and caring for homeless animals – together! pic:R.T.

With the holidays upon us, please keep in mind that homeless animals are in need at local shelters and rescues. “Fostering” them is a way that you can keep an animal out of the shelter and provide a space for them in your loving home until they find their forever home. It is also a great way to decide if the baby could possibly be the pet for you and your family.

And please remember that shelters and rescues are always in need of pet food, litter, gently used towels and blankets in clean condition, or in kind donations.

Worcester Animal Rescue League

Central Mass Kibble Kitchen

Buddy Dog

Big Hair Rescue

New England All Breed, just to name a few!

I can be contacted at djmbytheelm@aol.com if anyone would like further information!

Happy Holidays to all and to all the fur babies out there!

Fashion

Animal rights! – always in style!

September 6, 2016 admin

Rosalie’s mom loved cats! When she died Rose “inherited” April (pictured above), a homeless kitty Mrs. Tirella had made her precious own – for a decade+! pic:R.T.

A heartbreaking fate awaits homeless cats, as I learned firsthand

By Colleen O’Brien

I met Big Show nearly five years ago, when I moved into my new house. At the time, he was one of three feral cats who were fed and given outdoor shelter by a kind neighbor. He was a beautiful boy, with long, fluffy orange hair and big golden eyes.

One day, one of the cats, whose name I never knew, appeared injured, so I took her to the vet. She couldn’t walk and had a number of injuries to her hindquarters, and the vet recommended euthanasia to end her suffering. That left Big Show and Smokey, a black cat who was Big Show’s best friend.

Each summer, we’d see Big Show and Smokey looking for shade to keep cool. We put up a big umbrella on our porch for them to lie under. In the winter, I put straw in the houses and shelters that my neighbor had set up for them so they had something to burrow down into to fend off the cold. Still, these shelters couldn’t keep them as warm as a home would have. Every time a winter storm came through, I worried that they would freeze to death. During sweltering summers and bitterly cold winters, life must have been miserable for them.

My family and I started feeding them regularly, putting out food when we got home from work. Initially, they took only food that was placed at the end of our yard. But after more than four years of this routine, Big Show became a bit more comfortable around us and began timidly making his way onto our back porch for food. Once Smokey saw that his friend was safe, he joined him.

Eventually, Big Show began watching for the kitchen light to come on, signaling that I was home. Then he’d venture onto our back porch and call out until I fed him. As always, Smokey would join him once he was sure there was no danger.

One night, during one of our feedings, Big Show finally let me pet him. From neck to tail, there was not a spot on this poor cat that wasn’t covered with matted knots. They were so tight against his skin that I knew it must be uncomfortable, even painful, for him to move. I tried to pet mostly his face and head and to avoid touching the knots and hurting him. He loved it. I think this was the first time in his life that he’d been touched. After that night, he began visiting not only for food but also for affection. I decided to give him just a couple more days to learn to trust me, then I would take him to the vet and have the knots removed.

But I never got the chance.

Not long after that, Big Show was lying on our porch late one night. He didn’t get up to greet me, which I thought was odd, but I ignored the voice in my head telling me that something was wrong. Smokey, as always, was nearby, watching. I petted Big Show for a while and then went inside. That was the last time I saw him.

The next day, I thought about his behavior the night before, and I just knew something was wrong. I called my neighbors, but no one had seen him. My fiancé and I went out looking for him but to no avail. When we saw Smokey lying all alone in a neighbor’s yard, my heart sank.

I believe Big Show came to my house the night that he was dying. Then he went somewhere and died alone.

I can’t forgive myself for not taking him to the vet that night. I failed him. And whoever dumped him on the street and left him to fend for himself—they failed him, too. I hope I made his life a little better while I knew him. And I’ll try to do the same for Smokey, who is alone now, and for any other cats who show up homeless in my neighborhood because their “owners” refuse to spay or neuter their animals or don’t recognize or care how dangerous and miserable it is for cats who are forced to live outdoors.

Animal Issues

I visited the Worcester Animal Rescue League today! They have the cutest tees!

July 5, 2016 admin

Buy one today and help Worcester’s homeless pups and kitties!

They’re located at 139 Holden St., Worcester!

Open 7 days a week from noon to 4 pm

Phone: (508) 853-0030

Long-sleeved, too, for chilly summer eves:

These babies need homes:

Please! Open your heart – to all animals, great and itty bitty!

Visit WARL’s website: worcesterarl.org

Pics/text: Rosalie Tirella

Fashion

Spaying/neutering your cat – always a fashion-must: Snip ‘kitten season’ in the bud this spring!

April 12, 2016 admin

Chef Joey’s beautiful kitties are “fixed”! (He also owns three dogs and feeds/cares for various and sundry feral cats in his big backyard.) Go, Joey, go!!!!

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

As surely as April showers bring May flowers, spring’s longer days bring kittens—lots and lots of them. Animal shelters from the Carolinas to California brace for what the sheltering community calls “kitten season.” It’s the time of year, starting in early spring and extending through the fall, when litter after litter of homeless kittens and pregnant cats come pouring in, and shelters scramble to accommodate them all.

Kittens may be cute, but the consequences of their overpopulation are anything but. Many are born on the streets—behind dumpsters or in dirty alleys—while others get their ill-fated start in life in rural areas. Unless they are rescued, most of these kittens will suffer and die young after being hit by a car, getting attacked by predators or cruel people, succumbing to weather extremes, contracting deadly diseases or suffering some other cruel fate. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 75 percent of free-roaming kittens disappear or die before they are 6 months old. The 25 percent who manage to survive to this age will likely have litters of their own, creating even more kittens with nowhere to go.

Some lucky kittens end up in animal shelters, but often this means that older cats who have been there for a while must be euthanized in order to make room for the newcomers. Limited-admission shelters avoid this scenario only by turning animals away when they reach capacity, leaving it to open-admission shelters to accommodate the overwhelming influx.

Neonatal kittens who come in without mothers must be bottle-fed around the clock—a demanding task that most shelters can’t manage without help from volunteers. Some shelters hold training sessions for foster families who take kittens home and care for them until they can be adopted. Others even throw “kitten showers” to stock up on kitten milk replacer, cat litter and other necessities. But the most important thing any of us can do to alleviate kitten season is to prevent more kittens from being born in the first place by making sure that our own cats—and the cats of our friends, family members and neighbors—are spayed or neutered.

Putting off spaying and neutering can result in “oops” litters: Kittens can become mothers themselves when they’re as young as 4 months of age. And even if they are kept indoors (as all cats should be, to protect them from the many dangers that lurk outside), their raging hormones can compel even the most docile among them to bolt through an unattended doorway in search of a mate.

One unspayed female cat and her offspring can lead to a staggering 370,000 kittens in just seven years. Guardians of male cats aren’t off the hook, either: Males can become fathers at just 5 months of age, and one male can impregnate countless females.

Many communities operate low-cost or free spay/neuter clinics that make it easy to do the right thing. Having cats “fixed” also has many health benefits: It eliminates females’ risk of uterine cancer and greatly reduces their risk of mammary cancer, and it prevents testicular cancer and reduces the risk of prostate cancer in males. Sterilized cats are also much less likely to roam, fight or spray.

So this spring, let’s make sure that every cat is spayed or neutered before those May flowers start blooming—and snip kitten season in the bud.

Animal Issues

Elegy for Mollie

March 21, 2016 admin

By Edith Morgan

She passed away quietly, after a shudder, several raspy breaths, and a faint “meow.” And so Mollie, my cat of more than 10 years, gave up the last of her nine lives, cradled in our arms and kept warm and stroked for several hours.

I have always been “a cat person.” Working full-time teaching, caring for a house, and mothering numerous foster children, I could not realistically care for a dog who would have needed daily walks. So cats always seemed the perfect companions for us.

I never went out looking for a cat – they always seemed to come to me; usually it was someone who had had to move to a new place that did not allow pets. Once I received two stunningly beautiful pure Persians, who came to me in a duffle bag, cuddled up together and zipped up, for the trip from Manhattan to Worcester. They seemed to be very comfortable in their new home with me, and spent most of their waking time arranging themselves and posing at the head of the stairs. They spent several happy years here, but as they were already older, I did not have them too long.

So I have over the last few decades been home to Siamese, long-haired orange cats, alley cats, and strays of various hues and dispositions – some sleek, some more rotund (like the one the kids called “fat cat”).

But the one that was with us the longest was Mollie. We did not name her – I would have hoped for a more interesting or unusual name, but we stayed with the name she had when she arrived here, in the company of a long-haired orange cat – who was a hunter and outdoor roamer. But right from the start, Mollie was an indoor cat – and definitely NOT a hunter. She spent the first two or three years here confined to my niece’s bedroom, out of the mainstream.

But when my niece moved out, Mollie suddenly found herself with the run of the whole house: three floors, a basement, and several adults who could pick her up, pet her, speak to her and provide lap space whenever she wanted it.

It took a long time for Mollie to warm up to other people: having spent so much time with just one person, she had to have time to get used to the stream of visitors to her world. But she eventually started to come down and “mix” and even selected her special visitors who were to be graced by her deigning to sit in their laps and allow them to per her.

There was not a question in our minds as to who owned the house: Mollie’s attitude was always that it was hers, and she allowed us to stay there, feed her, clean out her kitty litter box, and tend to her needs as she made them known to us.

This past year she developed an exploratory yen: she found her way into the space between the bathroom ceiling on the second floor and the kitchen ceiling on the first floor and spent several days in that space, refusing to come out. After we finally coaxed her out of there, didn’t she do it again TWICE!!! She also sniffed out where our kitchen mouse used to run across the floor, but of course it was below her dignity to chase it.

Mollie loved to sit on our shoulders when we watched TV or perched on my neck when I was reading. She always knew where I was trying to read the paper and plunked herself right down on that page. But she always rewarded our efforts with purring loudly and steadily!

We will sorely miss her – she was really a family member, independent and full of surprises.

Sleep in peace, Mollie.

Animal Issues

Keep your cat indoors on Halloween! … and all year round!

October 26, 2015 admin

By Alisa Mullins

When my mom was a little girl, she had a favorite black cat named Midnight. He was one of more than a dozen former strays who had wandered into the family’s life, drawn by the abundance of cat food that was always set out on the front porch. Occasionally, one of the cats would mysteriously disappear, and my mom and her sister would comfort themselves with the unlikely scenario that the cat had “run away.”

But when Mom’s favorite, Midnight, went missing on Halloween, she knew in her bones that something terrible had happened to him. She searched for him for days, but it was no use—he was already dead. She finally found his body under the front porch. He had been tortured—probably by neighborhood boys up to “mischief”—and had dragged himself home to die. My mom learned a valuable lesson that day, and when she grew up, the handsome brown tabby our family adopted was kept indoors at all times.

Nowadays, most guardians know to keep their cats—especially black ones—inside on Halloween. Many animal shelters refuse to allow the adoption of black cats in the days preceding it, for fear that cruel people would acquire them with the intent to do them harm.

But the danger doesn’t pass once the last Twizzler has been handed out to the last Elsa or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Cats who are allowed to roam outside unattended are in danger every day of the year. The threats range from speeding cars and spilled antifreeze to stray dogs and cruel people who don’t like cats digging in their gardens or sitting on their cars. Recently, a Mississippi woman posted a photo on her Facebook page of a cat she had allegedly burned, threatening to “burn them one by one if I have to.”

Even in this day and age, there are people who think killing cats is “fun.” They brag and even laugh about it. They use cats for target practice, shooting at free-roaming cats as if they were clay pigeons rather than living, feeling beings. Just a few recent cases include cats who were shot with guns or crossbows in Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. A cat in Massachusetts who was shot with a steel broadhead arrow (designed to inflict the maximum damage) was so badly injured that he had to be euthanized. He was just a year old.

In fact, the average lifespan of a cat who goes outside is just 2 to 5 years, a fraction of the 14-year average lifespan of an indoor cat.

Today’s concrete jungles are far too dangerous for such vulnerable little beings. Don’t learn a tragic lesson at your cat’s expense: Keep your cat indoors where it’s safe—on Halloween and every other day of the year.

InCity Voices

PLEASE! Don’t declaw your cat! Train him to use a scratching post!

February 13, 2015 admin

ICT editor Rosalie loves her cat April’s big, beautiful, oven-mitt paws! She gets April’s nails trimmed at the Worcester Animal Rescue League on Holden Street.

By Paula Moore

New York state could one day be cats’ favorite place to live. That’s because New York Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal has penned a bill that would ban declawing statewide, except in those rare cases when it’s truly necessary for medical reasons, such as to remove a tumor.

And it’s about time.

Declawing is a painful mutilation that should be illegal—and not just in New York.

This cruel procedure is almost always performed for the owner’s convenience, not for the cat’s health, and it often causes far worse problems than a shredded sofa. As veterinarian Jean Hofve says, “It’s a surgical solution to a non-surgical problem.”

Despite what some cat owners seem to think, declawing is not a “quick fix” for scratched furniture. It’s a crippling surgical procedure that robs cats of their natural ability to climb, balance, scent-mark with their paws, stretch their shoulder muscles and, of course, defend themselves.

And it doesn’t just remove cats’ nails. Declawing involves 10 separate painful toe amputations that sever the entire last joint, including the bones and cartilage. Veterinarian Louise Murray explains, “If you look at your fingers, declawing would be like amputating the last section of each finger. If you were declawed, you would have 10 little short fingers. It’s amputation times 10.”

Complications from declawing can include gangrene, hemorrhaging, permanent nerve damage, chronic pain and bone splintering (which requires additional surgery). It can also result in a gradual weakening of leg, shoulder and back muscles, and because of impaired balance caused by the procedure, declawed cats have to relearn to walk, much as a person would after losing his or her toes. After declawing, the nails may even grow back inside the paw—which is extremely painful for cats but invisible to observers.

Declawed cats may also begin to exhibit behavioral problems that are far more troublesome than wayward scratching.

According to Dr. Hofve, the top three reasons why cats are taken to animal shelters are house-soiling, biting and aggression—the same problems that many cats (33 percent, according to one study) develop after declawing. My cat Romeo developed two of these three: He’s a biter, and his litterbox habits leave something to be desired.

Trust me—training your cat to use a scratching post is a lot more pleasant than cleaning up cat urine on a regular basis.

One study found that house-soiling is twice as common in declawed cats as it is in intact cats. Declawed cats are also more likely to be surrendered to shelters. Coincidence?

Romeo had been declawed before he was found as a stray by PETA fieldworkers and I adopted him. My guess is that after he was declawed, he started urinating outside the litterbox and was summarily dumped by his previous owner. It doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to imagine that people who would willingly have their cat mutilated for convenience’ sake would then abandon that same cat when he or she became even less “convenient.”

There are simple things that you can do to protect both your cat’s health and your furniture. Trimming your cat’s nails regularly will curtail the damage that they can inflict. You can also teach your cat where to scratch and where not to. Give him or her several scratching posts, and make them fun places to be by sprinkling them with catnip, attaching toys to them and playing games around them. Placing your cat’s paws directly on the scratching post and gently moving them will scent the post and encourage exploratory clawing.

And for those who still insist that they’ll allow only declawed cats into their house: There are plenty of them languishing in animal shelters, abandoned by their previous owners when the “quick fix” didn’t work out.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

This Saturday! Celebration at WARL! … and … What’s the best way to thank an animal shelter worker?

November 5, 2014 admin

Before we get to the InCity Animal Times column …

Calling all animal lovers!

This Saturday!

November 8

2 pm to 4 pm

At the Worcester Animal Rescue League

Holden Street, Worcester

Join us as we honor National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week with a family-friendly celebration of pets!

(Rain date Sunday 11/9)

Featured in this first-time event is a treasure hunt for kids, interactive demonstrations on how to care for a pet, dog safety and bite prevention and more!

RAFFLES!

PRIZES!

GAMES!

Suggested Admission is a donation from our wish list. Our top needs are pup-peroni treats, toys, paper towels and blankets.

Treasure Hunt Stations Include:

How to care for a dog and cat

Pick the right treat for the shelter pet

Build a banner of caring – tell us why you appreciate the animal shelter

Puzzles and crafts

Doggone Safe presentation!!
**************

WHAT’S THE BEST WAY TO THANK AN ANIMAL SHELTER WORKER?

By Lindsay Pollard-Post

National Animal Shelter and Rescue Appreciation Week runs from November 2 to 8, and the dedicated people who work in our country’s open-admission animal shelters—shelters that welcome every needy cat and dog who comes through their doors and never turn animals away—deserve our thanks and support for the difficult work that they do.

Working in a shelter is physically demanding: Employees heft heavy dogs onto examination tables, unload vans full of 50-pound bags of kibble, scrub down soiled kennels and launder load after load of blankets. They get scratched—and sometimes bitten—by animals who are confused and terrified on arriving at the shelter. Many shelter workers wear scrubs because there’s a good chance that they will be covered with slobber, muddy paw prints, cat hair and some even less appealing substances by the end of the day.

Their work also takes an emotional toll. Shelter staffers assist animals in every condition—from strays who are screaming in pain because they’ve been hit by a car and orphaned newborn puppies and kittens who must be bottle-fed every few hours to bone-thin dogs who are aggressive after being kept chained outside their entire lives and bewildered, frightened cats who have been removed from the only home they’ve ever known after their elderly guardian has passed away.

Shelter workers also have to hear the many excuses that people give for surrendering their animals: He barks too much. He doesn’t bark enough. She’s too friendly. She isn’t friendly enough. We’re moving, and it’s too much trouble to bring him with us. He’s getting old, and the kids want a puppy … and on and on.

People who work in shelters handle all of this because they’re committed to providing a safe haven for cats and dogs who have nowhere else to turn and because they love animals. That’s what makes another aspect of their job so wrenching: the need to euthanize animals in order to accommodate the never-ending stream of cats and dogs who pour through the doors day after day.

It takes a brave and selfless soul to feed, walk, play with and love a dog or a cat for a short time, knowing that you may soon have to give that same animal a painless release from a world that has no decent place for him or her to go. Until breeders, puppy mills and pet stores stop pumping more puppies and kittens into a world that’s already short on homes and until spaying and neutering are the norm everywhere, euthanasia will remain a sad—but merciful—necessity for open-admission shelters. It’s painless for the animals, but for the workers who must perform it, it’s anything but.

On top of the heartache of having to euthanize animals, workers at open-admission shelters are increasingly attacked by anti-euthanasia campaigners and put under tremendous pressure to end euthanasia at all costs. But the alternatives—keeping animals caged indefinitely, turning them away to suffer and die slowly on the streets or handing them over to anyone who will take them (including hoarders)—leave animals in peril.

As much as they might wish for one, shelter workers have no magic wand that they can wave to create homes for all the animals who need them. But each of us can save lives—and make life a bit easier on shelter workers—by preventing more animals from being born in the first place.

Spaying and neutering our animal companions—and encouraging and helping our friends, family, neighbors and coworkers to do the same—is the key to ending animal homelessness and the resulting need for euthanasia. It’s also the best way to say “thank you” to the kind people who care for our communities’ lost and abandoned animals every day.

InCity Letters, InCity Voices, Uncategorized

Animals are for life, not just for the holidays

December 22, 2011 admin Leave a comment

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.