August 2010

We’re already three weeks into the ASPCA $100K Challenge, and our contestants are showing some great adoption numbers and creative promotions to save more animals’ lives. Check out some of the highlights below, and stay tuned in the coming weeks to learn who else is kicking butt and taking names in the race to the $100K finish.

McKamey Animal Care & Adoption Center in Chattanooga, TN, celebrated the start of the Challenge by distributing free collars and tags to promote the importance of proper ID for pets. “We are working to increase our return to owner (RTO) rates,” reports McKamey. “So often we receive loving animals who we know must have families, but we cannot reunite them with their pet parents because they do not have identification.”

Speaking of RTOs, the Kent County SPCA of Camden, DE, returned a staggering 43 dogs and 3 cats to their pet parents during the first week of the Challenge. Some great numbers are also coming out of Colorado: As of August 13, a mere two weeks into the Challenge, the Humane Society of Boulder Valley had adopted out 118 cats and 65 dogs—“an increase of 49 animals since the same time last year,” they report.

No rest for the weary at the Greater Birmingham Humane Society. When the Alabama shelter was closed one day last week, the organization still managed to turn in some exceptional results. That day, GBHS says, “the Lone Ranger, as we call our only veterinarian here, completed 26 spay/neuter surgeries and eight dentals!”

We’re consistently wowed by the innovative ways the Challengers are getting their communities involved in the action to find homes for needy pets. On August 7, Maui Humane Society assembled a team of 10 adoptable dogs for Pet Night at the Na Koa Ikaika Maui baseball game, where ticket proceeds benefitted the shelter. Meanwhile, the SPCA of Wake County in Raleigh, NC, got out some its favorite animal costumes and held an epic photo shoot with its Pit Crew.

Read all the minute-by-minute action on our $100K Challenge blog.

On August 18, the ASPCA Cruelty Intervention Advocacy (CIA) Team and Humane Law Enforcement Agents (HLE) rescued 11 dogs—mostly medium-sized Pit Bull and Shepherd mixes—from a small apartment in Brooklyn, NY. The rescued animals lived in cramped and unsuitable conditions with 10 other dogs who will also be removed from the home in the near future.

"A misguided rescuer, the owner took in most of the dogs after finding them abandoned in nearby streets and yards," reports Stacy Wolf, ASPCA Vice President and HLE's Chief Legal Counsel. "Since they were not spayed or neutered, a few dogs soon became more than 20, far more than the tiny apartment or the owner's meager means could support."

As they were led out of the apartment building, Stacy says, the dogs were wide-eyed and appeared startled by daylight. They likely spent most of their lives without setting foot outdoors—some refused to walk and were carried by their owner with their legs wrapped around her neck. With expert animal handling skills and compassion, the CIA team and HLE Agents made all 11 dogs as comfortable as possible in crates for the trip to the ASPCA headquarters in Manhattan. The CIA team also comforted and reassured the owner, who assisted in removing the dogs and thanked the team for helping in her time of need.

The 11 rescued dogs are being cared for by staff at the ASPCA Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital, where the remaining 10 dogs will join them in groups. All of the canines will be evaluated medically and behaviorally before being made available for adoption or being transferred to partner rescue groups. The ASPCA Adoption Center and Bergh Memorial Hospital Teams—along with several rescue and shelter partners—have stepped forward to lend a hand in giving these dogs a second chance at better lives.

Animal hoarding is a complex and far-reaching community health issue. It encompasses mental health, animal welfare and public safety concerns. For more information about our efforts to help the human and animal victims of hoarding, please visit our Hoarding FAQ.

As animal lovers become more aware that purchasing a dog from a pet store supports the inhumane practices of puppy mills, commercial breeders are using online sources to get their dogs directly into homes across the country.

On August 3, seven puppies died of suspected heat-related complications in the cargo hold of a plane en route from Tulsa, OK, to Chicago, IL. The victims were seven of 14 pups transported by the airline, and reportedly came from a commercial breeder in Oklahoma—many of the puppies were booked on connecting flights, making it likely that they were purchased online by buyers in different cities.

“Puppy mill operators are creating professional looking websites that convincingly dupe consumers into thinking they are reputable breeders,” says Cori Menkin, ASPCA Senior Director of Legislative Initiatives. “A sure way to spot a scam is that they often offer to ship the dogs to the buyer without ever meeting in person. No reputable breeder would ever ship a puppy to a buyer sight unseen.”

Buying a puppy over the Internet is just as risky as buying from a pet store—you can’t see the puppy’s breeding premises or meet his parents. Furthermore, those who sell animals online are not held to regulations established by the Animal Welfare Act.

“The Animal Welfare Act requires breeders to be licensed and meet specific minimum standards of care for animals bred for resale, but a loophole allows puppy breeders who sell directly to the public—which includes over the Internet—to go unregulated,” says Menkin. “They are able to keep inspectors away and operate without being accountable to anyone.”

“The bottom line is the only way to be sure your new puppy isn't a product of cruel and inhumane conditions is to see for yourself where he lives—visit the breeder’s facilities and meet the puppy’s parents,” Menkin states. “Or better yet, adopt from your local shelter.”

For more information on the risks associated with buying a puppy in a pet store or online, please visit our online Puppy Mill campaign.

On August 4, the ASPCA filed a legal petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) requesting new policies be implemented to strengthen its enforcement of the federal Horse Protection Act (HPA). The ASPCA, along with the Humane Society of the United States, American Horse Protection Association, Friends of Sound Horses and former U.S. Senator Joseph Tydings, is specifically asking APHIS to toughen its enforcement of laws banning the inhumane practice of horse "soring."

Soring is an illegal training method in which pain-causing chemicals or objects are applied to horses' limbs or hoof pads to achieve the "big lick"—the exaggerated, high-stepping gait of some horses in the multimillion-dollar Tennessee Walking Horse industry. The practice often involves applying chemicals such as diesel fuel, kerosene, or mustard oil to the horse's limbs, causing severe pain. Another commonly practiced form of soring, known as pressure shoeing, involves cutting the horse's hoof to the quick and tightly nailing on a shoe, causing an extreme amount of pain every time the horse bears weight on his hoof. The Horse Protection Act was enacted in 1970 specifically to prohibit these inhumane practices. Unfortunately, soring continues to occur in the gaited horse industry.

The ASPCA’s petition seeks to permanently disqualify from competition any violators of the Horse Protection Act and any horses found to be victims of soring. It also requests that mandatory enforcement protocols be implemented and any non-compliant horse inspection groups be decertified by the USDA.

"The ASPCA is dedicated to improving the lives of horses across the country and we will continue to speak out against the illegal practice of horse soring," says Sherry Rout, Legislative Liaison for the ASPCA. "Soring is a particularly cruel form of abuse as the horses are forced to endure years of chronic pain throughout their show careers while the USDA does little to enforce existing laws."

For more information on the ASPCA’s mission to fight horse cruelty and neglect, visit our Equine Cruelty section. Please stay tuned to the ASPCA Blog for updated information on the legal petition to protect horses.

A team of three ASPCA shelter medicine experts and one veterinary representative from Texas A&M are traveling to Austin this week to spend two days at the Town Lake Animal Center (TLAC), assessing the shelter's programs and working with leaders to develop a plan for the future. TLAC is a city-funded, open-intake facility and ASPCA partner shelter. The visiting experts hope to gain insight into the shelter's daily operations and a holistic understanding of its programs.

"An on-site visit provides a chance to explore together with the shelter opportunities that may improve animal health and welfare and ultimately save more lives in Austin," says Dr. Miranda Spindel, ASPCA Director of Veterinary Outreach and one of the attending experts.

This week's assessment is being performed as part of TLAC's participation in the ASPCA Partnership program, a collaboration with communities and shelters nationwide to save more animals' lives. The program emphasizes reuniting lost pets with families, increasing adoptions, promoting spay/neuter solutions and supporting feral cats. As part of the program, all ASPCA partner communities receive assessments at no cost to the participants. The other Austin partners—Animal Trustees of Austin, Austin Humane Society and emanciPET—will receive their assessments later this year.  

For more information about the ASPCA's work in communities across the country, please visit ASPCA Partnerships online.

On Tuesday, August 3, a citizens’ initiative to promote more humane treatment of dogs in Missouri’s large-scale commercial dog kennels was certified by the Missouri Secretary of State’s office. This means that the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act will appear on the state’s November ballot as "Proposition B."

"We are absolutely thrilled with the overwhelming showing of support for this initiative,” says Cori Menkin, ASPCA Senior Director of Legislative Initiatives. “If passed by voters in November, the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act will improve the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of dogs in Missouri's commercial kennels, and hopefully set a precedent for other states.”

More than 190,000 signatures were submitted in May to the Secretary of State’s office to qualify the Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act for the statewide ballot. (See our April blog report from St. Louis to see some of the work that went into processing the signatures.) The ASPCA would like to thank the Missouri members of our Advocacy Brigade, the hundreds of grassroots volunteers across the state who propelled the campaign to success in signature gathering, and the tens of thousands of Missourians who showed their support for the humane treatment of dogs.

The Puppy Mill Cruelty Prevention Act will improve the lives of dogs by requiring large-scale breeding operations to provide each dog under their care with such basics as sufficient food and clean water, necessary veterinary care, adequate housing and space, as well as access to regular exercise. Lawmakers in Iowa and Oklahoma enacted puppy mill legislation in those states earlier this year—after Missouri, they are the two largest dog-breeding states in the nation. In 2009, 10 states approved legislation to address puppy mill problems.

Missourians for the Protection of Dogs is comprised of the Humane Society of Missouri, the Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation, the ASPCA and the Humane Society of the United States, and is backed by veterinarians, businesses, animal welfare organizations and thousands of individuals. Details on the ballot initiative are available at missourifordogs.com.

*Paid for by Missourians for the Protection of Dogs / YES! on Prop B, Judy Peil, Treasurer