Written by PETA
When Kansas Representative Ed Trimmer sponsored House Bill 2513, proposing that the cairn terrier, best known because a dog of that breed played Toto in The Wizard of Oz, be named the state's official dog, he said that he expected to be "barked at." But the growl that PETA let out in a letter to Trimmer would have sent chills up the spine of even the Wicked Witch of the West. The House landed on the bill Monday, squashing the proposal, which PETA pointed out would only encourage well-meaning guardians to purchase dogs from breeders and pet stores supplied by puppy mills. The move opened up a kind of "Yellow Brick Road" for shelter dogs in the state.
Katie@! | CC by 2.0
To a shelter dog, there really is "no place like home." Every time a breeder brings another animal into the world, an animal sitting in an animal shelter loses his or her opportunity to find a loving home. An estimated 6 to 8 million animals are taken to U.S. animal shelters each year—of which, about 25 percent are purebred. No matter what kind of animal companion you're looking for, have a heart like the Tin Man—always adopt and never buy!
Written by Michelle Sherrow
You may recall the protesters who took to the center ring at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show a couple of years ago. Well, it happened again earlier today just as the judge stepped up to announce which dog was "Best in Show." Two animal advocates rushed toward the ring with signs reading, "Breeders Kill Shelter Dogs' Chances" and "Have a Heart: Adopt, Don't Buy."
The protesters' point? Members of the Westminster Kennel Club continue to promote and breed "purebred" dogs, while millions of wonderful mixed-breed dogs die in animal shelters every year simply because they don't have a home. Every purebred litter takes homes away from other dogs waiting desperately in shelters as well as increasing the homeless population because one-quarter of purebreds will also be abandoned and end up in shelters.
As long as shelter dogs are dying for lack of a good home, there is no such thing as a "responsible breeder."
Written by Alisa Mullins
It took months and several news stories about her plight, but Gracie, the spunky three-legged, earless dog who was rescued by an American soldier in Afghanistan and fostered by PETA staffers, has finally found a home.
After Gracie was featured in The Virginian-Pilot, her story touched the heart of Virginia Beach teacher Beth Hall, whose 13-year-old dog had died a couple of months earlier. Beth sent us an eloquent e-mail listing the many pros her home had to offer ("lots of love and attention," a "3/4-acre fenced backyard," and a "cat companion"). Under "cons," she wrote, "N/A."
Gracie moved into the Hall home on Friday and has already wriggled her way into the hearts of Beth; Beth's 17-year-old son, Andrew; Beth's brother, who acts as Gracie's stay-at-home "uncle"; Beth's mom, who pops in for daily visits; and, of course, Marmalade, Beth's cat, who was adopted from a local animal shelter.
Gracie is safe, but tens of thousands of homeless dogs in animal shelters and at rescue groups are still waiting to be adopted. They don't have the great P.R. that Gracie had—they are simply relying on people to do the right thing by adopting from animal shelters instead of buying from breeders or pet stores. If you have the time and resources, consider adopting an animal!
Tuesday night, in a vote that met with thunderous applause and a standing ovation, the Irvine, California, City Council made the groundbreaking move to simultaneously ban rodeos, circuses that use exotic animals, and retail sales of cats and dogs, making it the first city in the country to ban all three in one fell swoop.
PETA had notified supporters about the pending Irvine vote and urged them to attend the meeting or contact City Council members, and their input was obviously heard loud and clear. Thanks to Irvine's new laws, elephants will be safe from bullhook beatings, horses and bulls will no longer break their backs after being goaded into bucking, and puppy mills will no longer be paid to churn out litters of sickly, unsocialized puppies.
To help pass similar laws in your community, contact your city council members, or e-mail Info@peta.org. For updates on any proposed animal-related laws in your area, join PETA's Action Team.
Written by Heather Faraid Drennan
Update: After meeting with PETA and reviewing our evidence, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) inspected Triple F Farms and confirmed our findings of multiple Animal Welfare Act violations. The USDA's inspection report details, among other atrocities, that newborn ferrets fell through gaping wire cage bottoms and that ferrets were denied adequate food, water, and veterinary care and subjected to major surgeries performed by improperly trained lay employees in unsanitary conditions. Triple F is now under federal investigation. Read the full report to learn about the rest of the USDA's findings.
Original Blog posted September 2nd, 2011:
Personnel with the USDA have inspected Triple F Farms, Inc., a massive ferret-breeding factory farm near Sayre, Pennsylvania, based on evidence that PETA recently presented to the agency following a nearly four-month-long undercover investigation that blew the lid off sickening abuse and neglect of thousands of ferrets there. Bradford County District Attorney Dan Barrett’s office reviewed a complaint filed by PETA and has now begun an investigation of Triple F.
PETA found that Triple F's owners, supervisors, and workers left ferrets with bleeding rectal prolapses, gaping wounds, herniated organs, painful mammary gland infections, and ruptured, bleeding eyes to suffer and die without veterinary care. Triple F forbade workers, including PETA's investigator, to rescue thousands of newborn and young ferrets—who had fallen through wire cage bottoms 3 feet to the concrete floor below—from accumulated piles and puddles of waste, where the animals were left to perish.
Day after day, at least 6,000 ferrets were confined to filthy, severely crowded cages in stifling-hot barns, with hundreds denied food and water. PETA's investigator witnessed workers who stepped on ferrets, buried them in feces, and threw them into an incinerator alive. Triple F employees cut organs and anal sacs out of inadequately anesthetized ferrets, who cried out in pain.
The animals who make it out of this hellhole alive face even more misery because Triple F sells ferrets to laboratories around the world for experimentation as well as to pet shops, including Petland. Triple F has had recent contracts worth nearly $2 million with federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Navy.
PETA is calling for appropriate criminal charges. We've also filed complaints with five other federal and state agencies, including one regarding Triple F's routine exposure of live ferrets to ferret carcasses.
Please help these ferrets by asking CDC director Thomas Frieden to investigate Triple F and determine whether the agency wishes to continue to funnel millions of taxpayer dollars into abusive animal mills like Triple F. Check back for more updates as this case unfolds.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
A U.S. company that breeds dogs for sale to laboratories has lost its first round in an effort to expand its operations in the U.K.
B&K Universal in Yorkshire is owned by New York–based Marshall Farms, which has been repeatedly cited for federal Animal Welfare Act violations. B&K applied for planning permission to open a new facility where dogs would be confined to indoor kennels. The females would be repeatedly impregnated, and their puppies would be sold to laboratories for use in painful toxicity tests and other experiments, perhaps similar to those conducted at Professional Laboratory and Research Services, which PETA investigated last year.
Following a massive outpouring of opposition—including more than 2,000 letters from PETA U.K. supporters—the local council rejected B&K's application. Now, B&K is attempting to bypass opposition by appealing to the Planning Inspectorate, a national body.
PETA U.K. is rallying supporters and will hold an eye-catching demonstration at the Inspectorate's office. Please help dry up the demand for animal-tested products by telling everyone you know to support only cruelty-free companies.
You would think that someone with the name Kat would know better, but Kat Von D committed a big Kat Von D, as in "Don't," when she bought a hairless cat from a breeder. Again.
In a recent episode of her reality TV series, L.A. Ink, Von D visits a breeder and plunks down a sizeable chunk of change for a sphinx cat. Oh, how we wish that the show's producers had followed up with a visit to the local animal shelter to show the cat who will have to be euthanized because he or she just lost the chance at a home.
While millions of animals are euthanized in shelters every year and millions more die on the streets, unwanted and abandoned, there is no such thing as "responsible" breeding—only greedy animal pimps who make money at animals' expense.
Here's hoping that Von D starts to L.A. think about what her money is supporting. For robbing yet another cat in a shelter of a chance at a family and contributing to animal homelessness, Ms. D earned herself an "F."
It turns out that the hypoallergenic dog fad is something to sneeze at. Henry Ford Hospital's Department of Public Health Sciences analyzed dust samples from homes with alleged Benadryl-banishing pups and homes with regular dogs and found no difference in allergen levels.
Dogs like poodles, bichons frisés, and Labradoodles are marketed as "hypoallergenic" because they shed less (their long hair takes longer to grow to its full length and fall out). But of course, these dogs still shed, shake, scratch, and do all sorts of other dog activities that release dander. According to the chair of the Division of Allergic Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Mayo Clinic, "There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog breed …"
Rather than supporting breeders and puppy mills, which rake in money with no thought for the millions of dogs in shelters literally dying for a good home, people who want to share their lives with a dog should adopt a good old-fashioned mutt and experience a whole different type of watery-eye moment.
A mother-and-daughter dog-breeding duo who had won several awards at Crufts, the UK's most prestigious dog show, were convicted this week of cruelty to animals after 104 dogs were discovered living in "unimaginable squalor" at the women's home last year.
Many of the dogs were kept in cramped, filthy cages or in dark, cluttered rooms smeared with feces and without access to clean water. Sick and elderly dogs were denied veterinary care, including a poodle with a broken jaw and other serious health problems and a former show dog with an ear disease. Of the 89 dogs seized, 24 were so sick or elderly that they had to be euthanized.
Shockingly, the women continued to breed and show dogs for more than a year while they were being investigated. As one of the defendants pointed out, "If we are so bad how come we have not been banned from showing dogs?" Good question.
Remember, fancy "papers" and dog show ribbons are no guarantee that a breeder is "responsible." In fact, we would argue that no breeding can be considered responsible while millions of dogs are being euthanized in animal shelters for lack of good homes.
Via Newsday
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.
I'll never understand why some people still turn to breeders, classified ads or pet stores—all of which contribute to the animal overpopulation crisis—when animal shelters and rescue groups are filled to the brim with lovable, affectionate cats (and dogs) who would make wonderful companions. With so many more animals than there are good homes, shelters have no choice but to euthanize many healthy and friendly cats. Every year, 3 to 4 million cats and dogs are euthanized in animal shelters.
If you're determined to have a specific breed of cat, you can still rescue an animal in need of a loving home. Having a pedigree doesn't protect cats or dogs from being tossed out like old furniture when they're no longer wanted. I recently adopted a second Siamese cat who, like Mochi, was a stray. Romeo had been neutered and declawed, so obviously he was once someone else's companion, but no one had come forward to claim him.
Despite being extraordinarily handsome, Romeo still ended up homeless—until he was rescued.
The rescue group from which I adopted Mochi is currently caring for several Siamese cats who were left to fend for themselves when their owners moved away. One cat was stuffed into a box that was taped shut and left outside an animal shelter.
Another older Siamese was given up because his owner didn't want to spend the money to find out why he was sick. Then there are the Siamese kittens who were born homeless because someone didn't bother to spay or neuter his or her cat and an unwanted litter was the result.
These same sad scenarios are repeated time and time again all over the country, and they affect mutts and purebreds alike.
There are other reasons to visit an animal shelter or rescue group rather than supporting breeders and pet stores. Pre-loved cats are more likely to be litter box-trained, and they're pros at sharpening their claws on a scratching post instead of your favorite sofa. Shelters screen animals for specific temperaments and behaviors, and most have trained adoption counselors available to help you find the perfect fit for your family. Animals in shelters and rescue groups are also checked out by a veterinarian when they arrive, and they leave spayed or neutered, microchipped and vaccinated.
Mochi and Romeo went from life on the street to a loving home where they lounge on windowsills on sunny days, playfully chase each other up and down the hallway and snuggle in bed with me at night. If you're ready to share your home with a feline companion, why not give a homeless cat—or two—a second chance at life? Your new best friend could be as close as your local animal shelter.
Written by Paula Moore
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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