Written by PETA
Today was a lucky day for black cats: PETA's mobile Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please (SNIP) clinic got into the spirit of Halloween and "fixed" 44 of the black beauties for free. What a way to wrap up Cat Week!
If there's one thing scarier than armies of the undead, it's the animal overpopulation crisis. Every year, millions of unwanted kittens are left at crowded animal shelters, where many of them must be euthanized for lack of suitable homes. Others are casually passed around from one temporary home to the next or are dumped on the roadside.
Just one unaltered female cat can lead to 370,000 feline descendants in only seven years; an unneutered male cat can help create limitless litters of kittens. PETA's mobile clinics have sterilized more than 75,000 animals since the program's inception in 2001, preventing the births of hundreds of thousands of unwanted kittens and puppies.
Black cats are often the target of cruel people who torture or kill them around Halloween. Keeping cats inside is the best way to keep them safe, and if you have an unaltered cat of any color, make an appointment today to get him or her sterilized. In addition to preventing unwanted litters, spay and neuter surgeries eliminate the risk of certain cancers of the reproductive system. It is the best treat that you can give your cat—any time of year.
If you've already "fixed" your cat, you can make a donation to help others do the same and to help keep our SNIP clinic going.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
After reading the last few posts about animal homelessness, euthanasia, and hoarding, some people might be wondering what they can do to help. Perhaps a few of you have even considered starting your own animal rescue group. If so, thank you for caring so deeply, but please—help us focus attention on stemming the flow.
Think of it this way: The animal overpopulation crisis is like water flooding into a sinking ship. We don't need more people bailing; we need to fix the gaping hole in the bottom of the boat! When it comes to ending animal homelessness, the most humane and sustainable solution is to pour our time, money, and effort into having animals spayed and neutered. Preventing more animals from being born stops the problem at its source. Here are some creative ways that we can work toward a no-birth nation:
Another crucial component of ending animal homelessness is educating the public about why it's so important to adopt animals instead of buying them from pet shops or breeders. If you are considering adding a cat or dog to your family, your decision will literally mean life or death for an animal waiting in an animal shelter. If you choose to buy from a breeder or a pet store, an animal at the local shelter must be euthanized. Please, always choose to save a life by adopting your animal companions from animal shelters or reputable adoption groups.
PETA has teamed up with dozens of celebrities—including Justin Bieber, Yvonne Strahovski, Lance Bass, Kellan Lutz, Joanna Krupa, Audrina Patridge, Patricia Arquette, and others—for pro-adoption public service announcements (PSAs). You can help encourage people to adopt animals, never buy, by sponsoring or obtaining free placement for one of these PSAs in a newspaper or magazine.
Thank you for caring. Animals like these are counting on compassionate people like you:
Like so many other rabbits, Bobbi was acquired on a whim and surrendered after her owners discovered how much time and effort are required to care for a rabbit. PETA found Bobbi a loving home, and she now enjoys playing with three other rabbits and sleeping in a bed with her new family.
Julie was once trapped at the end of a chain—one of the worst punishments possible for a dog, especially a collie—but PETA's fieldworkers convinced her owners to surrender her and helped place her in a wonderful home with a family who adores her.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, and nowhere is this truer than when it comes to spaying and neutering dogs and cats. That's why I'm so excited to announce that 2010 was a banner year for PETA's mobile clinics, which spayed and neutered a record 10,683 animals. That includes 919 feral cats and 478 pit bulls (135 of whom were sterilized at no charge to their guardians). In addition, 1,372 surgeries were performed on the animals of indigent families. Our clinics have sterilized more than 69,000 dogs, cats, and rabbits in the last decade!
All those spay/neuter surgeries will prevent the births of hundreds of thousands of kittens and puppies who would have otherwise likely struggled for survival on the mean streets or been euthanized simply because there aren't enough good homes.
PETA's clinics also provide spay/neuter services to local animal shelters and rescue groups to ensure that none of the animals who are adopted contributes to the overpopulation crisis by having puppies and kittens!
2010 was a booming year for PETA's clinics, but I know already that 2011 is going to be even better, because PETA has secured funding for a third mobile clinic! The yet-to-be-named state-of-the-art clinic will join PETA's SNIP and ABC clinics, which work around the clock to fight the overpopulation crisis in PETA's own backyard.
Want to help? Check out PETA's ABC pages to learn how to promote animal birth control in your own community and reduce the number of homeless animals who need to be rescued in the first place. Please also join PETA in calling on elected officials to pass mandatory spay/neuter laws in your state, county, and town. Together, we can become a no-birth nation—which is the only way to become a "no-kill" nation.
Today, PETA released its statistics on the number of animals it took in, found wonderful homes for, and had to euthanize in 2010. The number of animals who are discarded by people each year is staggering, and that won't change until our laws do, so PETA is once again calling on governors across the U.S. to end animal homelessness by pushing for laws that would require dogs and cats to be sterilized unless their owners purchased an annual breeding permit, the cost of which would fund low-cost spay-and-neuter services. Would you join us by asking your governor to join this effort?
Numbers can't begin to tell all these animals' stories. Have a look at just a few of the animals we've helped, and then read about all that PETA does to end the suffering of animals in its own backyard in southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina.
PETA's fieldworkers are on duty around the clock, often getting up in the middle of the night and driving for miles to respond to emergency calls about suffering, abandoned, neglected, and abused dogs and cats. On weekends, PETA's volunteer winter "straw teams" comb neighborhoods looking for dogs who are kept chained or penned outdoors in bone-numbing cold. They urge the dogs' guardians to take their forgotten companions indoors. If they refuse and are not in violation of current cruelty-to-animals laws, PETA's fieldworkers begin a long-term commitment to improving these neglected animals' lives. They provide the dogs with doghouses; straw bedding; food; clean water; lightweight tie-outs to replace heavy, tangled chains; deworming medicine; flea, tick, and fly repellent; free veterinary care; spaying and neutering surgeries; and priceless moments of love and companionship.
PETA also coordinates the rescue of dogs like Rambo, who was left without food or water and was horribly emaciated and starving inside his filthy pen, and Sheba, who was found suffering from severe wounds caused by a metal chain that had become deeply embedded in her neck. In these cases and many others, PETA saw to it that cruelty charges were filed against the animals' owners.
Who knows how much longer poor Sheba would have suffered had it not been for PETA's intervention?
Many of the animals who are signed over to PETA, such as this poor dog and cat, are at the end of their lives or have suffered long-term neglect:
Turning away cats and dogs like these just to avoid having to euthanize them doesn't help unwanted, suffering, and dying animals. If PETA, like a disturbing number of shelters today, valued its statistics more than the well-being of individual animals who need help, animals like Tupac would be left to endure slow, agonizing deaths instead of being gently released from suffering in the arms of those who were probably the first and only people to ever truly care about them.
When PETA received Tupac, he was about 20 pounds underweight, and his ribs and spine were protruding. His head was swollen to twice its normal size from a massive growth that reeked of infection and was oozing with sores and maggots. A vet recommended euthanasia, which was, without a doubt, the most merciful thing that anyone could have done for him.
While a disturbing number of animal shelters are turning their backs on animals so that they can call themselves "no kill" shelters, PETA will always do what's best for animals who need help—even when doing so is difficult and unpopular.
Check back tomorrow to learn about the amazing strides that PETA is making to reduce animal homelessness. I can't wait to share it—PETA's mobile clinics sterilized more than 10,000 animals in 2010 alone!
Amid laughter and high-fives, two PETA members dressed as giant condoms reminded people in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, that cats and dogs can't control pet overpopulation on their own.
More than 350 people stopped to talk to the eye-catching pair and received leaflets on the importance of spaying and neutering. Many passersby asked for information about low-cost spay/neuter services—and one man said that he was going to make a veterinary appointment that very day. If you haven't already done so, have your own animal companions spayed or neutered (or help a friend get his or her animals "snipped"): Spaying just one female dog can prevent 67,000 births in six years, and spaying one female cat can prevent 420,000 births in seven years!
Written by Michelle Sherrow
We're over the moon to report that the team working PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please" (SNIP) mobile clinic met their goal to spay and neuter 10,000 dogs and cats by the end of 2010—by December 1. This means that SNIP will likely end the year having performed closer to a record-breaking 11,000 low-cost or free surgeries and sparing multitudes of their patients' future generations from winding up in animal shelters or suffering on city streets.
Consider that in six years, one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies—and that in seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 kittens. The numbers of animals saved from suffering thanks to SNIP is astronomical—and way, way more than my calculator could figure.
Let's meet some happy recipients of SNIP's services:
George also enjoys his warm, dry doghouse from PETA.
Paris, the doggy of love
The ridiculously adorable Duckie and his Mama
Congratulations and a bazillion thanks to clinic manager Cindy Emanuel and the entire SNIP team for their tireless, lifesaving efforts in 2010—and here's to much more of the same in 2011!
Written by Karin Bennett
Today, it's good luck to be a black cat or the guardian of one. That's because PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please" (SNIP) mobile clinic will be performing spay or neuter surgeries on black cats all day free of charge.
Approximately three dozen black cats will have the good fortune of never having to give birth to litters of kittens who could end up unwanted, homeless, neglected, abandoned on the streets, or euthanized at a shelter for lack of a good home. The sterilized cats themselves will be immune to uterine, ovarian, and testicular cancer and less likely to suffer from other cancers of the reproductive system, such as prostate and breast cancer (yes, cats and dogs get those too). Altered cats are also less likely to roam, mark their territory with urine, get into fights, or become infected with deadly contagious diseases such as feline leukemia and feline AIDS.
And just a reminder for you folks whose homes are graced with a cat, black or otherwise: You should never let your precious bundle of perfection outside alone, but this is doubly important at Halloween. As my mother found out as a child when her favorite cat, Midnight, was tortured to death on Halloween, cruel people do horrible things to cats—especially black ones—at this time of year (and the rest of the year too).
Visit the Living page for more Halloween safety tips.
Written by Alisa Mullins
What better way to honor Simon Cowell, American Idol creator and staunch spay-and-neuter advocate, on his 51st birthday than by taking action on an issue that he so strongly supports?
Mr. Cowell has proved that he is a true friend to animals—and as a birthday present, PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please!" (SNIP) mobile veterinary program will add 51 more, (for FREE), surgeries to the 7,300 that we've already done so far this year—and the whopping 64,721 sterilizations that we've performed since 2001.
Consider that just one unaltered female dog and her offspring can produce 67,000 puppies in only six years—and that in seven years, one female cat and her offspring can produce 420,000 kittens! Then consider that a very simple, inexpensive (or even free) spay or neuter surgery can make a huge dent in the number of homeless animals who are cast into the streets or left at animal shelters.
If you haven't already, do as Simon says: Have your companion animals spayed or neutered. And please wish our caring idol the best birthday ever—leave your message for him in the comments section below! Happy birthday, Simon!
Some 58,000 stray dogs have been shot dead in Baghdad over the past three months, and people around the world are outraged. No animal deserves to be killed simply for the "crime" of not having a home
But while we shake our heads in disgust over what's happening overseas, frustrated that we can't do anything there, we can do something equally important, totally relevant, and incredibly helpful right here. Here in the U.S., right in our backyard, many more dogs and cats are being killed—and not always humanely—because people are still buying animals from pet stores and breeders while open-admission animal shelters overflow and "no-kill" shelters slam their doors in animals' faces.
So what can we do? If you haven't already done so, please pledge today—right now—to help get dogs and cats who belong to your friends, family, or people in an impoverished area of your city fixed. You can help by educating, persuading, and even—bless you—donating to no- to low-cost spay/neuter facilities such as PETA's SNIP and ABC clinics. In June alone, PETA's clinics sterilized a record 1,011 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from ever having to compete for homes. Here are some of our happy clients:
Even those dogs and cats who are lucky enough to find loving, lifelong homes often spend many lonely days or weeks behind bars, and it is often impossible to find homes for the animals no one wants—those who are sick, injured, unsocialized, elderly, or not cute enough to be in a calendar.
Spaying and neutering saves more lives than trying to find homes for each one of the thousands of animals who can trace their roots back to one unsterilized cat or dog—and it spares animals and those who care about them immense heartbreak.
It's Spay Day—do you know where your neighbors' cats and dogs are? Or, more importantly, do you know whether they have been spayed or neutered? I do. In fact, one of them is here with me as I write this (and he seems to think that I need to write "#%^)tfr*^lpxc%$#?.>l" here instead of a period). Sam is one of nearly a dozen cats who once belonged to one of my neighbors. The cats came to my attention when I noticed the "free kittens" sign outside my neighbor's house.
I called the number on the sign and offered to get the mama kitty and the kittens spayed and neutered. Rather than being offended, as I feared she might be, my neighbor gratefully accepted my offer. "She just keeps having kittens," she sighed, "and I can't afford to get her spayed." She also agreed to let me find homes for those kittens I could convince her to part with. (I wanted to carefully screen the adopters, which I knew she wouldn't do.)
According to a recent survey, people's reasons for not spaying and neutering their animals usually boil down to simple economics and logistics, rather than a conscious decision not to do it. The neighbor whose cat kept having litters has three kids and is on welfare—she just couldn't afford to pay for the surgery. (Eventually, the bank foreclosed on her house, which is when she asked me to take the remaining animals—Sam, his sister Bibi, and his mother, Tiger.)
Another neighbor doesn't have a car, so I offered to drive her to the clinic for her cat's appointment. Yet another neighbor didn't realize that his 5-month-old female kitten could come into heat any day. Wanting to ensure that this busy single dad didn't put it off until it was too late, I offered to make the appointment and take her myself. He readily agreed, and I did the same with the family's other cat and two dogs.
In total, I have arranged for more than a dozen dogs and cats in my neighborhood to be spayed and neutered at PETA's "Spay and Neuter Immediately, Please!" (SNIP) mobile clinic. In some cases, the animals' guardians were willing to pay for the surgery—it was just a matter of making the appointments and arranging transportation. That was a small investment in time that reaped huge rewards in terms of the prevention of unwanted litters—and suffering.
No matter where you live, there are animal companions in your town who have not been spayed or neutered. Here are some easy steps you can take to make your neighborhood a "no-litter" zone:
If you have a general question for PETA and would like a response, please e-mail Info@peta.org. If you need to report cruelty to an animal, please click here. If you are reporting an animal in imminent danger and know where to find the animal and if the abuse is taking place right now, please call your local police department. If the police are unresponsive, please call PETA immediately at 757-622-7382 and press 2.
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