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The goats at the Heifer International farm that I went to as a kid were particularly feisty; I remember the struggle that my mother had to get them into the milking pens, always wary of being kicked. Luckily, my mom's milking gig was only once a week, but now that I've learned more about animal-donation programs, I can only imagine how women in the drought-prone areas that Heifer shipped the goats to must have tussled daily with the animals, in addition to the headache of trying to provide them with enough food and water.

Animal-donation programs like those run by Heifer International and Oxfam do not provide a sustainable solution for global hunger. Grazing animals often cause topsoil runoff and land degradation, which can contribute to drought, leading the environmental group World Land Trust to call these programs "environmentally unsound and economically disastrous."

An exposé about a program in India that gave cows to impoverished farmers noted that the "beneficiaries" have a difficult time providing even the most basic care to the animals who have been forced upon them. Having another mouth to feed often adds to a family's burden, and the animals often suffer from horrible neglect, including malnutrition, dehydration, lack of veterinary care, and lack of shelter from the burning midday sun or freezing nighttime temperatures. On a recent trip to India, PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk saw the distinctive black-and-white Holsteins and Holstein-crosses from America roaming the streets and eating plastic bags out of trash cans, which will clog their intestines and kill them. Many donated animals will end up in filthy, unregulated slaughterhouses and have their throats cut with a dull knife.

Tell your friends and family to avoid animal-donation programs and instead consider supporting sustainable, animal-friendly organizations that work to end hunger, such as The Fruit Tree Planting Foundation, Food for Life Global, VEGFAM, and Feed My Starving Children. Another way to aid poor families is to donate to the PETA-supported program Animal Rahat, which provides free veterinary care to working animals in India who are lame, sick, or injured. And please click here to send a polite message to Oxfam asking the organization to end its cruel, misguided animal-donation program.

Oxfam is a wonderful organization and they do a lot of great things, but their recent attempts to make money by hurting animals need to stop ASAP. Unfortunately, Oxfam has recently begun exploiting people's compassion and generosity by sending them gift catalogs full of adorable looking animals who can be "donated" to impoverished people. Now, everybody likes cute animals, but there’s something particularly sordid about using their images in a fundraising scheme that involves shipping them off to countries with no animal welfare standards, where they will be neglected, starved, and killed in horrific ways. As effective as this little stunt may be for Oxfam’s Membership Department, there are much better ways to alleviate global poverty that don’t victimize animals—and they damn well know it.

Please take a moment to learn more about our efforts to encourage Oxfam to do the right thing, and send them an e-mail about this misguided campaign, by clicking here.