Written by Michelle Kretzer
A longtime PETA supporter in New York is dedicated to rescuing cats from the cruel streets. She has adopted several cats into her loving home and arranged for dying feral cats, including cats who had been hit by cars or were suffering from terminal diseases, to be euthanized.
Her most recent rescue resulted from a trip to the local shopping mall. She saw something moving near a Dumpster, and when she stopped to investigate, she discovered a sickly looking cat who was walking through broken glass and trash, desperately searching for scraps of food. The weak and frail cat's ribs were protruding, her eyes were oozing pus, and she was crawling with parasites.
The woman called PETA, and while she retrieved a humane live trap and a can of cat food from her car, we set up an appointment with a local veterinarian who is always happy to help the supporter and PETA. Just hours after the sick, starving feline was first spotted, the animal was mercifully euthanized, surrounded by caring people.
This determined animal advocate has saved countless cats from unimaginable suffering simply by always making the time to help. If you see an animal in need, please never be silent.
It was one of those stories that was so appalling that people had to share it. A PETA supporter learned from someone at her workplace about a couple who had moved out of their house and left their St. Bernard there alone, caged in a crate 24 hours a day. She called us immediately.
After tracking down the owners, we learned that they were going once a day to give the dog food and water but were forcing him to spend his life alone in the crate, where he also had to relieve himself. We pressured the local police department and animal control to talk to the couple and convince them to surrender the dog. Thankfully, they agreed.
The dog was finally free, but the stress of confinement had left him with psychological scars. Like many dogs who are crated for an extended period of time, he had become aggressive and developed other behavioral problems. As it would have been dangerous to put him up for adoption, he was peacefully euthanized.
Had he not been deprived of socialization, exercise, affection, environmental stimulation, and everything else that was important to him, this dog might have been adoptable. You can help by encouraging the dog guardians in your life to let their dogs do what social pack animals do best: spend their time surrounded by family, not stuck in a crate or on a chain.
Written by Jeff Mackey
In Tucson, Arizona, a dog, Pina, who had been hit by a car, was forced to drag herself around her neighborhood for three weeks, while residents turned away from her obvious misery. Finally, after one kind person called for help when Pina struggled up to her front door, PETA located the dog's guardian. A PETA caseworker was contacted and arranged for Pina to be examined by a veterinarian, who determined that the dog was suffering from severe injuries, and her guardian agreed to have her euthanized to spare her further anguish.
ETersigni|cc by 2.0
Pina's prolonged suffering could have been prevented if those who saw her struggles had taken action immediately. Being a good neighbor shouldn't stop with humans—please never ignore an animal in need of help.
The guardian of a seriously ill Pekingese called PETA. Her dog was clearly in terrible distress—he wasn't eating or drinking, was panting heavily, and had great difficulty breathing. The diagnostics and treatment proposed by the veterinarian would have been costly and, more importantly, extensive. What should she do? Scrounge up the money for the procedures and put her beloved dog through them? She couldn't imagine making the decision to "let him go."
In these situations, where veterinary intervention is likely to lengthen the animal's misery, a painless and dignified release from suffering is the best and kindest course of action, despite our own anguish at the coming loss. Although this dog's guardian was distraught, she made the brave decision to spare him further torment.
Although a reluctance to say "Goodbye" to a cherished animal companion is normal and genuine, it is profoundly unfair—and often unlawful—to let him or her endure a protracted, miserable death because we can't bear to let go. That grieving time will come, now or later, but adding to the sum total of suffering does not help. Despite what proponents of so-called "no-kill" shelters or those who profit from the abuse of animals say, there is such a thing as a fate worse than a painless, peaceful death, which is why euthanasia can be the reasonable and compassionate option.
A crate on a slab of concrete is no home for a dog. But 21 dogs being held by a Florida hoarder each had only a crate and a dirty piece of bedding inside a concrete-floored kennel to call home. All the dogs were filthy and unaltered and denied regular veterinary care. And their exposed outdoor kennel gave them little protection from the myriad dangers that they faced, including other animals and cruel people.
After PETA was tipped off about the hoarder, we contacted officials with the county's animal services division and urged them to convince her to do the best thing for the dogs: to surrender them. Animal services talked to the hoarder and told us that, as is often the case in hoarding situations, the woman had taken in too many dogs and quickly become overwhelmed.
She agreed to surrender the dogs, who fortunately were all still friendly and in relatively good health, even after living in such deplorable conditions. After some much-needed vet care, grooming, and spaying or neutering, every dog was relocated through animal services and local humane societies and put up for adoption.
Like people who hoard material possessions, animal hoarders usually suffer from mental illness. They fail to provide for animals' basic physical and social needs, and the animals suffer as a result. If you suspect an animal- hoarding case in your area, please alert police and animal control immediately.
Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post
Update: Joshua Moore has been indicted on five felony counts of animal torture, five felony counts of aggravated cruelty, and one misdemeanor count of depicting animal torture. PETA presented the Chicago Police Department's Animal Crimes Team with a Hero to Animals Award for its swift work in seizing the abused dogs—five dogs and five puppies—and promptly charging Moore for his crimes.
A man and a boy who physically and psychologically tortured several small dogs in a series of sadistic YouTube videos have been charged with multiple counts of felony and misdemeanor cruelty to animals, thanks to the swift work of PETA and authorities in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and Chicago.
The videos show 22-year-old Joshua Moore and a teenage boy hanging and spinning a dog by a leash, violently ripping duct tape off a dog's testicles, and biting a dog's neck until he cried in pain. The pair is also shown hiding a mother dog's five puppies and watching as she frantically searches for them, repeatedly throwing the mother dog in the air, trying to force a dog to eat feces, and pouring lemon juice down a dog's throat, among other horrors.
The clips have been taken off YouTube, but PETA saved the video evidence (which would have otherwise been lost!) and provided it to Fort Wayne Animal Care & Control (FWACC) on Sunday. The agency immediately jumped into action to locate Moore, who had posted on his Facebook page that he was living in Fort Wayne.
On Tuesday morning, a Fort Wayne vice and narcotics officer identified Moore, at which time Moore was detained, interviewed by FWACC, and released. The videos, information gained from the interview, and supporting reports were immediately forwarded to the Chicago Police Department, giving that agency the probable cause needed to take action. On Thursday evening, FWACC intercepted the bus that Moore was traveling on from Fort Wayne to Chicago, where Chicago police officers were waiting.
Moore was arrested and charged with four felony counts of cruelty to animals and eight misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals. The 13-year-old has been charged as a juvenile with six counts of aggravated cruelty to animals and three counts of animal torture. Ten dogs, including five puppies, were seized and are now in protective custody.
These dogs would still likely be suffering at the hands of their abusers if someone hadn't alerted us to the videos. If you know or suspect that someone is harming animals, don't delay—report cruelty immediately to local law-enforcement officials and animal control authorities, and if you don't get anywhere, contact PETA. You'll help keep the whole community safer by speaking up—animal abusers are bullies who victimize the defenseless, including members of their own species.
An Arkansas woman who was feeding a colony of 15 feral cats was deeply distraught when she found the bodies of seven of the cats, all riddled with gunshots. One cat who had been shot in the eyes had apparently wandered around blindly before dying.
Desperate to save the remaining cats—five adults and three kittens—from suffering the same fate, the woman contacted PETA for help. We talked her through how to trap the cats, and since there was no animal shelter in the area, we found a veterinarian who was willing to assess their condition. The caller brought in the adult cats, and the vet determined that because they were so feral, it was unkind to confine them, try to tame them, and look for someone willing to take any of them when so many socialized cats are already going without homes. The vet recommended peaceful euthanasia.
The woman took the kittens into her home, carefully socialized them, and found families who adopted them—terrific news.
Feral cats face innumerable dangers, including attacks by other animals, being hit by cars, contracting deadly contagious diseases, exposure to extreme temperatures, starvation, and cruel people who poison, shoot, and otherwise torture them. The best way to help feral cats is to trap them and, if you cannot provide a good home for them without traumatizing them, take them to a reputable animal shelter.
PETA and other Virginia animal shelters have just submitted to the state the numbers of animals they received, found wonderful homes for, reunited with guardians, had to euthanize, or were able to release back into nature in 2011. Because numbers can't begin to tell each animal's story, let me describe one of those animals: Pepper.
PETA's emergency fieldworkers are on call 24/7 and leap into action even when that means getting up in the middle of the night to drive long distances in response to calls about suffering, abandoned, neglected, and abused animals. Since we refer healthy, highly adoptable animals to traditional, well-trafficked animal shelters, the animals we focus on with our hands-on work are the most abused, neglected, and underserved, usually the "unadoptables."
For months, PETA tried to engage local law-enforcement officials to take action on a monstrous woman who kept a terribly neglected and miserable dog named Pepper, who needed urgent veterinary treatment, penned in her backyard. When PETA found her, Pepper had been languishing in the filthy backyard cage for years and had slowly deteriorated, yet the woman—a nursing assistant—couldn't be bothered to provide her dog with basic vet care and dignity.
Finally, PETA obtained custody of Pepper and whisked her to a veterinarian, who determined that Pepper was suffering from dehydration, "severe emaciation" (the veterinarian's exact words), a severe eye infection that caused both of Pepper's eyes to ooze discharge, a chronic hematoma (blood pocket) on her left ear, chronic dermatitis, a raging flea infestation (more than 500 live fleas were picked off her body), extremely worn-down teeth from biting at her own infected skin, toenails on all four feet so curled inward that they were embedded into the skin (causing an infection), a large mammary tumor, and cancer. For Pepper, euthanasia was a sweet release from the painful existence that she'd endured for so long. PETA's fieldworker stayed with Pepper as she peacefully slipped away from this world.
PETA filed cruelty charges against Angela Williams, Pepper's owner. This month, there was a small measure of justice meted out for Pepper when a judge found Williams guilty of cruelty to animals. The judge said that the woman's treatment of Pepper was as inexcusable as it would be to know that one of her patients had had bed sores for months and do nothing about it.
How we wish that Pepper's heart-wrenching case was unusual! PETA's caseworkers take in scores of animals who are in equally miserable, and even worse, condition almost every single day. For many of these suffering souls, the only kind thing to do is to hold them, make a fuss about them, tell them that they are loved, and let them slip away.
If a dog is kept penned or chained in your neighborhood, please take action. Urge the homeowner to allow the dog indoors and make him or her a part of the family. Offer to take the lonely dog for walks. Report abuse and neglect. Get the dog fixed, vaccinated, and dewormed. Look for other medical needs. Together, let's help wipe out the cruel practice of tossing dogs in the backyard and forgetting about them. Please push for anti-chaining legislation in your city or state.
PETA has learned that Casey, a young, paralyzed St. Bernard, died recently at Angel's Gate, reportedly after suffering from a long-term urinary tract infection. Casey spent most of her short life at the mercy of Susan Marino—the founder and operator of the hellhole, which continues to keep hundreds of ailing and disabled animals in conditions that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Marino faces criminal cruelty-to-animals and other charges; her next court date is March 20. We will be there.
Casey was among the animals whose systemic neglect we documented in our undercover investigation of the self-proclaimed "hospice and rehabilitation center." Our investigator routinely found Casey covered with her own waste and confined to a filthy crib, often without access to water. Routinely spending hours caked with excrement scalded the paraplegic Casey's skin around her hindquarters and genitals. We learned that in recent months, Casey was mostly kept on a mattress surrounded by baby gates, where she often lay in her own waste; that at some point, she had bloody urine; and that Marino often bemoaned Casey's "stink."
Casey as a pup, in September 2010.
Casey was not alone in her suffering. Several of the animals whose suffering we caught on video have since died, including Tucker, a sweet little beagle-hound mix with hydrocephalus who allegedly drowned a few weeks ago, evidently after being left unsupervised. Our investigation exposed the following:
The Delaware County, New York, District Attorney's Office filed charges of cruelty to animals and criminal possession of a controlled substance against Marino, but hundreds of animals still remain in Marino's custody.
How You Can Help These Animals
Please urge the New York Attorney General's Office to dissolve Angel's Gate as a nonprofit corporation and make sure that Marino's victims are immediately seized and helped.
After discovering that a family of stray dogs had taken refuge at a vacant property in Texas, a kind-hearted soul contacted the landlord to get permission to go in and remove the seriously ill and injured animals. But when local law-enforcement officials and rescue groups were unable to help—no animal shelter serves the county—the dogs' defender called PETA.
PETA's cruelty caseworker persuaded an animal shelter in a neighboring county to take in the dogs and found someone willing to drive more than an hour to transport the two dogs and five puppies to the animal shelter.
Within minutes of their arrival, however, four of the desperately ill puppies died. And one of the adult dogs—suffering from a severe head injury as a result of having been kicked by a horse—was euthanized. But the fifth puppy pulled through and is being fostered by a shelter staffer, and the other adult dog, who had been suffering from severe mange, has been treated and adopted into a loving home.
Life for homeless dogs and cats is dangerous and often deadly. Please, if you see stray animals, never look the other way—do whatever you can to get them off the streets and into a safe place.
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.
Follow PETA on Twitter!