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I was working as a humane officer, driving from one neglect case investigation to another, when I saw him: a large dog, limping pitifully down the middle of a busy, four-lane street, with traffic whizzing past him. I stopped my car and got out. The dog stumbled into my looped slip leash, and when I scratched his ear, he sighed and leaned into me.

I carried this thin, dirty fellow to my car. Some dogs stiffen in fear, but this big guy just melted into my arms. He clearly had been a handsome boy at one point, but his eyes and nose were now crusted as a result of an upper respiratory infection, his coat was filthy and matted, and he had an odor that surely bothered him as much as it did me.

I rushed the dog to the animal shelter, where the veterinarian determined that he was elderly, with enough health issues to merit charges for failure to provide veterinary care if the person who neglected him could ever be found. Euthanasia was undoubtedly a mercy for this poor old soul. A technician gave him an injection, and he left this world.

To this day, I find myself asking, "Who denied care to this sweet dog in his senior years? Hadn't neighbors noticed his condition? Why didn't anyone stop to save an old dog who was walking down the middle of a busy street?"

I've met hundreds of animals who have been saved from suffering and danger because a kind person refused to just look the other way and keep going. Please, for the sake of animals like this dog, report neglect and abuse immediately, and if you see an animal in danger, always stop to help.

Written by Scott VanValkenburg, the PETA Foundation's director of membership communications & special projects

A cat's survival of two harrowing ordeals in a gas chamber has prompted concerned citizens to demand that the West Valley City, Utah, animal shelter scrap its cruel carbon-monoxide gas chamber and replace it with euthanasia by injection. After the second attempt to gas her, the cat was put into a plastic bag and placed in a cooler before being discovered still alive sometime later.

Although the cat, now named Andrea, has since been adopted, animals in West Valley City—and in other municipalities in which animal shelters continue to use gas chambers—still suffer nightmarish deaths. There is no excuse for using these antiquated contraptions, which can take as long as 25 terrifying minutes to end animals' lives—assuming they work at all.

Gassing is especially cruel to animals who are very young, old, pregnant, or sick—qualities common to many, if not most, animals who arrive at animal shelters daily—because of their compromised health and/or physical state. Carbon-monoxide exposure is also dangerous to workers, placing them at risk for short- and long-term health problems or even death. When properly performed, euthanasia by injection is painless and quick. It's less expensive, too—an important consideration at a time when so many animal shelters are struggling financially.

If your local animal shelter is still using cruel and archaic methods to put animals to death, please work with your elected officials to institute a policy requiring euthanasia by injection. To get more people involved, you can write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper explaining why it's time to ensure that when euthanasia is necessary, the community's least-fortunate animals have their lives ended humanely, with peace and dignity.

Fed up with people who refuse to spay and neuter their animals, people who want someone to wave a magic wand and find a home for their "eight-year-old Rottweiler [who] spent his entire life chained to a tree," and people who allow their dogs to run loose, leaving others to scoop up "Scooby with a plastic bag," a frustrated animal control officer posted an off-the-hook "I quit!" rant on Craigslist that's going viral.

"I wish to god that there was a mandatory spay/neuter law and that the penalty for breaking it was to be forced to spend a day working in the euthanasia room," writes the shell-shocked shelter worker. "Every dog or cat you carelessly add into this world takes away a home for a dog or cat that is already here. So breeding means killing … so have a good day, executioners! I hope the 50 bucks you made off that puppy sure feels good."

The ex-ACO goes on to explain that there's no such thing as a "no-kill" shelter.

Don't send another animal control officer over the edge: Always spay or neuter your dogs and cats and urge your friends, relatives, and neighbors to do the same. Support your local open-admission shelter by volunteering to clean the cages, walk the dogs, and play with the cats. And give a hardworking shelter worker a hug.

A big brouhaha erupted after the Detroit Animal Control Center euthanized an emaciated, injured and extremely ill dog named Ace (after the hardware store into which he painfully stumbled before being rescued off the streets) on Thursday. Photos of Ace make it abundantly clear that he was suffering; they show him looking weak, hunched over, grimacing, bleeding from a neck wound, and barely able to stand. He looks as if he can't get comfortable, and there is obvious pain in his eyes. Unfortunately, Ace had to endure the state-mandated four-day waiting period for strays, and no owner could be located for him (or they surely would have faced cruelty charges). This suffering dog didn't deserve to linger a minute longer.

We just have one question: The shelters are overloaded with homeless dogs―if anyone is upset because this dog was put down, why don't they stop screaming "Murder!' and do something truly helpful, like adopting another dear dog who doesn't need as much vet care and resocializing but just needs a home? There's certainly no shortage of homeless dogs in every single animal shelter in the country―no, make that, in the world! If you think that every single one―or even one in 20―can be placed, then you're living in a dream that we all wish would come true, but picking one dog and going nuts about his euthanasia is just a feel-good exercise not grounded in reality. Shelters need financial help for spaying and neutering in order to stop more dogs from being born and to find truly good homes even for dogs with no problems, the "easy" ones. Meanwhile, "no kill" shelters take in their quota and then leave the dirty work to everyone else.

But back to Ace―for dogs who have been through so much and are obviously suffering and miserable, a dignified release from their pain is often a blessing and the most humane option. Let's not misplace our anger and frustration, which should be directed at those who neglect animals so badly that they end up ravaged with parasites and barely able to keep their heads up as well as at those who cause animals to end up homeless and euthanized at shelters because they buy from pet stores or breeders and/or fail to spay or neuter their animals.

And let's use our energy to save lives by promoting spaying and neutering and lobbying for legislation that would restrict breeding so that we can arrive at a day when no animal is born unless a loving, permanent home is waiting for him or her. Animal homelessness is a preventable tragedy.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

A family in Brooklyn called PETA for help after they found an extremely ill swan who was too weak to stand and was stranded on a beach. We guided the family in how to safely contain the swan, and they transported the sick bird to a nearby animal shelter, where professional staff recommended euthanasia because of the swan's poor condition. The family had hoped that the bird could be saved, but they agreed that euthanasia was the most compassionate option, and the bird was quickly released from her suffering.

There's no telling how much longer this swan would have lingered in misery if this kind family hadn't stopped to help her. Animals count on us always to be on the lookout for them and to step in and help them when they need it. Keeping a wildlife emergency kit in your vehicle (with a carrier, a towel, a net, and gloves as well as phone numbers and directions to animal control bureaus and shelters, 24-hour emergency veterinarians, and wildlife rehabilitators) will help ensure that you're ready to assist an animal in distress. Whatever you do, never pass by an animal in need—you may be the animal's only hope.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Many of us have had a peek into the bizarre world of hoarding courtesy of reality television. Accumulating piles and piles of household junk is bad enough, but when hoarders collect living animals, the results are extreme neglect, suffering, and death.

According to the Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), "It is likely that up to a quarter million animals—250,000 per year—are victims of hoarders. What's more, records kept by ALDF indicate that in the last four years, the number of reported hoarding cases has more than doubled. In terms of the number of animals affected and the degree and duration of their suffering, hoarding is the number one animal cruelty crisis facing companion animals in communities throughout the country."

Alarmingly, as a result of public pressure to avoid euthanasia at all costs, the hoarding mentality has infiltrated animal shelters. MSNBC.com reports that groups calling themselves "rescues" and "shelters" currently account for one-fourth of the estimated 6,000 new hoarding cases annually reported in the U.S. This is just one more way that trying to become "no-kill" before becoming "no-birth" hurts animals.

Cat suffering horribly at Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary.

No-kill shelters sentence animals to a life in prison.

When animal shelters and rescue groups—such as South Carolina's terribly inaccurately named Sacred Vision Animal Sanctuary—aren't themselves hoarding animals, they sometimes farm out animals to anyone who will take them, including hoarders, in order to reduce the number of animals they euthanize. Here are just two examples:

• In December 2010, the New Jersey SPCA and police raided the home of so-called animal rescuer Dawn Scheld and seized nearly 60 dogs who were hoarded in reportedly "filthy" conditions on her property. According to news reports, "When agents arrived, most of the animals were living in their own waste, a number of them in outside pens with insufficient shelter, little evidence of food, and frozen water. Most were suffering from some kind of illness, and many were in serious condition …." Scheld had acquired many of the dogs from animal shelters that hand over animals to anyone claiming to be a "rescue" in order to reduce their euthanasia statistics. 
• In September 2010, authorities raided an apartment rented by a foster caregiver for several Austin-area animal shelters and seized 78 cats. One-third of the cats were found dead in an unplugged refrigerator. The ironically named organization Austin Pets Alive! stated, "We have been informed by TLAC [Town Lake Animal Control] authorities that 5 of the 75 [sic] seized cats were originally saved by us from TLAC's euthanasia list." The hoarder had also adopted cats directly from TLAC. 

Flooding left these dogs with nowhere to go.

No animal should ever have to live in conditions like this.

Please help keep animals out of hoarders' hands by volunteering to help your local animal shelter screen potential placement partners, rescue groups, and adopters. Contact PETA for free placement partner applications and agreements. Please also spay and neuter all your animal companions—it's the only real way to prevent animals from being born only to end up homeless or hoarded.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

The economic downturn has taken its toll on nearly everyone, and animals are no exception.

Animal shelters across the country are overflowing with record numbers of cats and dogs—many of whom were surrendered by people who lost their homes or could no longer afford to care for their animal companions after being laid off.

With so many animals in need of refuge, now is a terrible time for an alarming number of animal shelters to arbitrarily implement limited-admission, "no-kill" policies. These policies put animals in danger because they prompt shelters to turn animals away or they make it expensive and difficult for people who can no longer care for their animal companions to surrender them to a shelter.

The only effective way to deal with the companion animal overpopulation crisis is through aggressively pursuing laws and policies requiring people to have their animals spayed or neutered and making it easier for them to do so. When shelters refuse to take in animals—and communities fail to address the underlying causes of the problem—animals pay the price.

Under pressure from people with good intentions but no clue of the ugly reality of overpopulation—nor of the sheer number of animals who flood shelters every day—some facilities are stooping to all-time lows to manipulate their euthanasia rates. Many adopt policies and practices that endanger the very animals they should be protecting. These include charging fees for surrendering unwanted animals (sometimes outrageous fees, such as $96 for feral or stray cat "turn-ins" in Maricopa County, Arizona); requiring citizens who can't care for their animals to make appointments and "wait until there is room"; refusing to accept feral or stray cats, even when people might resort to doing them harm; refusing to accept animals from outside the invisible boundaries of a certain town or area; and giving away animals free of charge and without adequately screening adopters.

Here are just a few heart-wrenching news stories about the ways in which no-kill shelters and policies harmed animals in 2010:

• Renters in Rhode Island left animals behind in an empty apartment, and shelters still would not take the animals.
• In New York, cats died in a box after being left outside a shelter that had a waiting list to surrender animals.
• One shelter in Pennsylvania decided to stop responding to cruelty complaints because there is no room at the shelter and they don't want to euthanize animals.
• Kittens were dumped on the road in British Columbia with a note saying, "We are really sorry. We cannot afford the SPCA surrender fee."

PETA's small sheltering program takes in any animals who need help—even those who are aggressive, horribly injured, or terminally ill. We took in nearly 80 dogs and cats whom PETA staffers brought back from crowded New Orleans–area shelters after the Gulf oil leak nightmare dealt an additional blow to the Gulf economy. 
 

Willy Wonky was stuck high up in a tree, terrified and helpless, for three days, until PETA secured a tree climber to rescue him. Now that he's happy and spoiled rotten in his new home, it looks like Willy Wonky has forgotten all about his ordeal.

Kayla was one of the dogs PETA rescued from a New Orleans–area shelter following the Gulf oil disaster. She quickly adjusted to her new home—she's a bundle of energy, and she loves swimming and playing with her new "sister."

No one ever needs to pay a fee or make an appointment to drop off an animal to PETA. Our field staff is on call 24/7; animals are accepted at all hours of the day and night. PETA's fieldworkers rushed out to help both of the following animals after receiving emergency pager calls early in the morning on weekends:

This poor cat's leg had been accidentally slammed in a car door, fracturing it at a 90-degree angle and causing her horrible pain. She was put out of her misery.

Buddy had been hit by a car a week before his owner called PETA for help. His back leg was broken and his pelvis was crushed. Buddy's owner couldn't bear to see him in pain. He considered shooting Buddy but couldn't bring himself to do it, so he called PETA for assistance.

Animals like Buddy are the reason why PETA will never turn away any animal in need. Is a shelter in your community turning away animals? Work to open its doors by following these guidelines.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

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 spayed Boe last year, and fieldworkers regularly stop by to give her flea and tick repellent, straw bedding, and toys like the one that she and her guardian are playing with here.

Butch's impoverished guardians couldn't afford to take him to a groomer, so PETA spruced him up, free of charge. Butch's guardians were extremely grateful and gave PETA a $5 donation and some black-eyed peas to say thank you.

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. 

Rambo had previosly been a big, strong dog but was skin and bones when PETA's fieldworkers found him.

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: 

Dehydrated, disoriented, and too weak even to stand, all Buddy could do was lie under his owner's house, screaming in pain, while flies swarmed around him and his buttocks teemed with maggots. A PETA fieldworker crawled underneath the house to rescue him.

This feral kitten's eye had become dislocated—possibly as a result of head trauma—and was severely infected.

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!

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

Here's a reminder of why it's so important to question authority when it comes to our animal companions' well-being: Recently, a distraught woman called PETA for help after a veterinarian sent her terribly injured cat home with only a prescription for antibiotics, claiming that this gaping wound would heal on its own:

No one knows how this poor cat was injured, but it doesn't take a degree in veterinary medicine to realize that the wound was life-threatening—it was necrotic and the muscle tissue had been exposed—and that the cat clearly needed further intervention immediately. PETA's Emergency Response Team helped find another nearby vet to assess the animal, who determined that the cat was indeed in dire condition and that euthanasia was the most merciful option. She was able to peacefully end the cat's suffering.

We owe it to our animals to be proactive if we suspect that they are suffering as a result of inadequate or downright bad advice or care from a veterinarian, groomer, trainer, or anyone else. Trust your own instincts and seek a second opinion. In this case, the cat would have suffered prolonged pain and a slow death if her guardian hadn't known better and persisted on behalf of her kitty. Of course, animals are much less likely to suffer catastrophic injuries like this one if they are safely confined indoors or kept under constant supervision when let outside on a harness or in a secure fenced area.

Written by Lindsay Pollard-Post

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Up until today, it was legal for Florida residents to acquire wild foxes, bobcats, and coyotes, corral them in pens, and then set dogs upon them to rip them apart. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) voted to put an end to "penning," effective immediately.

When we posted an action alert about this issue, people were appalled, and the response was overwhelming. Believe it or not, penning is defended by some hunters as a way to train dogs and get them "thirsty" for blood. Hunters kill millions of wonderful animals in cold blood every year, so it's no surprise that some would find cruel penning acceptable. Is it any wonder that some young people are disconnected from any compassion for wildlife?

Please send thanks to the FWC commissioners for not letting any more foxes, bobcats, or coyotes be torn to shreds. Please spread the word to family and friends so that we can let the commissioners know how important their decision is.

Written by Jennifer O'Connor