April 2012

Shame on Chris Brown. The Grammy-award winning artist has turned to the internet to sell eight Pit Bull puppies for $1,000 a pop through a website called CB Breeds. Needless to say we are SUPER disappointed that Breezy allowed his two dogs to breed, contributing to our nation's extreme pet overpopulation problem.

Chris, don't you know that countless homeless pets are sitting in shelters right now? By spaying and neutering your animals, you'll make sure you are not contributing to this problem.

Take Action
Hey folks, please make sure your pet is spayed or neutered. Visit our Spay/Neuter Database to see who in your community offers low-cost programs. Already done the deed? Great! Take your activism to the next level, create flyers promoting the organizations that offer discounts, and pass them out at central locations in your community!

It’s heartbreaking: Every year, millions of cats and dogs become lost in the United States. Many are beloved pets who never make it home. In fact, research shows that only 10 to 30% of lost dogs and a mere 5% of lost cats are ever reunited with their families. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Hey you! Yep, you! Have you gone orange for animals yet? Well, good news—it’s not too late. Here are five easy ways you can celebrate Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month and help us end animal abuse.

Get Your Shop On!
Yep, you heard us right. Shop at any one of nearly 2,000 participating merchants and the ASPCA automatically receives a donation. Download the ASPCA App—it takes less than a minute to set up, and it keeps on giving every time you shop!

Become an ASPCA Guardian
For as little as 60 cents a day, you can help us rescue animals from cruelty and help us find them loving homes. Please consider becoming an ASPCA Guardian today.

Volunteer at Your Local Shelter
Coordinate a ”Go Orange for Animals” event with your local animal shelter and donate the proceeds and/or supplies that you collect. Be sure to alert local media about your event! Learn more.

Show Your Virtual Support
Dedicate your Facebook status, Twitter or blog to the ASPCA during the month of April and encourage people to spread the word about animal cruelty. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Join the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade
Fight to get strong anti-cruelty laws passed on federal, state and local levels as a member of the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade.

Thank you for helping to end animal cruelty!

This Sunday, more than one billion people will be celebrating Earth Day and taking a pledge to live green. But what does that mean for our pets? Actually…quite a bit. Many pet parents don’t realize just how much of an impact their companions make on our planet—but just think of all the cat litter! Throw the planet a bone and check out our top ways you can help lighten their carbon paw print.

Cutting Back is Going Green
There are plenty of small ways to cut back on energy and materials. Cut down on paper products—clean up pet messes with rags or recycled paper towels.

The Power of Poop
Scoop dog poop with biodegradable bags or those recycled from the grocery store. If you use kitty litter, opt for brands that are made of plant-based materials like wheat or from recycled newspapers or wood chips.

Don’t Shop, Adopt
When searching for your next pet, opt to adopt. There countless numbers of homeless pets looking for a loving home. You'll save money, resources—and a life.

Spring Cleaning
It’s time for spring cleaning, but before throwing your dusty treasures away, call your local shelter—they may need old towels, bedding, leashes and pet toys.

Save Lives and Trees
Each year, members like you help us save those animals most in need, but did you know when you give online, you are also lowering your carbon footprint? Your online donation today will save lives and trees.

For a full list of ways you can help our environment, check out Go Green for Your Pets.

What would happen to my pet if something happened to me? That thought has crossed most pet parents’ minds, but most of us never have to learn the answer.

Tammy’s dad wasn’t so lucky.

Tammy was adopted from the ASPCA in 2007 when she was a kitten. Over the next three years, she grew very close to her dad, but their time together turned out to be too short. Tammy’s dad suddenly became gravely ill and unable to care for his beloved cat, and he had to return her to the ASPCA.

Tammy is safe and well-cared for at our Adoption Center, but shelter life just doesn’t suit her. She’s a girl who needs to be in a home, and today she marks her 630th consecutive day in our care.

Why do adopters pass Tammy by? Though she’s gorgeous, with bright eyes and one ear that’s missing a chunk, many people are put off by her age (five) and the prospect of buying her prescription food. (It costs about $35 a month, and Tammy needs it to keep her kidneys healthy.)

And though Tammy is very social, friendly and loving, she’s a bit shy at first. In fact, sometimes when adopters come to meet her, she hides her little face in her kitty bed. She just needs time to make a connection.

Though we’ve done everything in our power to make Tammy comfortable—including giving her a stay in office foster care—only one thing would really make her happy: being part of a loving family again.

Might you be the person who sees past Tammy’s initial shyness and notices the beautiful kitty soul that she is? If you live in a 10-and-up home that’s a bit on the quiet side, consider calling our Animal Placement department in New York City at (212) 876-7700, ext. 4900, about Tammy.

And please share her with your network. She’s been waiting so long!

For 146 years, our members have been getting active for animals. In honor of National Volunteer Week, we want to take a moment and thank YOU for all that you do for animals. From assisting in the care and placement of shelter animals to educating the public on animal welfare issues, the work you do saves lives!

To help keep you motivated, we’ve come up with a few easy volunteer tips that pack a big punch!

Volunteer at your local shelter or animal rescue organization. Shelters across the country are in desperate need of volunteers to help out with tasks as diverse as walking dogs, organizing fundraising events, and fostering abused or frightened animals. Check out our top ways to help your local shelter.

Become an Animal Activist. Being a voice for animals can mean educating the public on spaying/neutering, fighting for stronger animal legislation or reporting animal cruelty. Check out these easy ways you can speak up for those who can’t.

Support the ASPCA. Volunteers have been the heart of our organization since its founding in 1866. The ASPCA remains the leader in rescuing animals from abuse, passing humane laws and sharing resources with shelters nationwide. Become a member today and directly help us—and our furry friends.

Don't forget to share this page with your friends and family on Facebook and Twitter!

On any given Friday afternoon across America, most of us are likely to utter a variation of the same phrase: “Have a great weekend!” A good weekend may be one in which we are able to relax, but I believe that a truly great weekend is one in which something meaningful is accomplished. By that standard, thousands of Americans started April with an amazing weekend during which they saved thousands of animals during the ASPCA’s first-ever Mega Match-a-thon.

Animal shelters and rescue organizations recognize that weekends are of prime importance for the adoptable animals in their care, as potential adopters are more likely to look for companion animals to adopt on days when they do not have to work. Some creative people who work on the ASPCA’s Community Outreach team spend a lot of time brainstorming ways to create excitement around animal adoption events. This year, they proposed and implemented a dramatic idea: concurrent Mega Match-a-thon events to be held throughout the country, which would be subsidized by the ASPCA to support high-volume community adoption events.

The ASPCA granted nearly $500,000 to be shared among 53 animal welfare organizations. Each grant recipient had made a thoughtful proposal detailing how it would use the funds we provided to create successful weekend adoption events. The Mega Match-a-thon weekend was a huge success—and 6,144 animals found loving homes.

Happy stories poured into us throughout the weekend adoption event:

• Riverside County Department of Animal Services in Riverside, California, adopted out 400 animals over the weekend;
• Staff and volunteers at Bangor Humane Society in Bangor, Maine, closed up early and went home after running out of animals;
• The Humane Society for Southwest Washington in Vancouver, Washington, broke its own record for the most adoptions (44) in a single day within the first two hours of its event;
• Rubbles, a 12-year-old blind Shih Tzu, was adopted from the Humane Society of Greater Miami in Miami, Florida, by a local soldier, and as soon as Rubbles got to his new home, his proud dad shared photos of Rubbles finding his way to the kitchen; and
• Wisconsin Humane Society spent a lot of time preparing for its 24-hour adoption event, including posting a Paw-jama Puppy Parade on its website; their hard work paid off with 156 animals adopted during the event.

While the immediate and wonderful result of the Mega Match-a-thon events held throughout the country was the thousands of lives saved, the excitement these events elicited in their communities will hopefully lead to an enduring legacy of more people saving lives by adopting homeless animals in their local shelters.

Gee, that sure is a lot of candles on our cake. Yep, today marks the 146th birthday of the ASPCA, the oldest humane organization in the Western Hemisphere (but we’ve been told we don’t look a day over 100!).

When our founder Henry Bergh first spoke up for animals in Civil War-era New York, America was not a very animal-friendly place—but Bergh rallied people to the cause and succeeded in getting the New York State Legislature to pass a charter incorporating the ASPCA on April 10, 1866. Nine days later, the first anti-cruelty law was passed and, with a team of three, the ASPCA began working to enforce it.

Within five years, SPCAs had sprung up in cities including Boston, Buffalo and San Francisco. By 1888, 37 of the 38 states in the Union had passed anti-cruelty laws! We’re proud of the ASPCA’s role in changing the way people think about animals, and even prouder of you, our supporters, for helping us do such great work. In celebration, please join us this month in going orange for animals!

Want to Donate Your Birthday to the ASPCA?
Henry Bergh spent his life helping to fight animal cruelty—think of how proud he would be if you donated your birthday to help animals. It’s easy. Just set up your own special ASPCA birthday page and watch as your family and friends donate critical funds to animals in your honor.

And thank you for 146 years of compassion!

In honor of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month (that’s April!), we’re pleased to announce our 2012 “I Saved My Pet!” Photo Contest. Furry, finned or feathered—all rescued or adopted animals can compete.

The top five winners—selected by ASPCA staff—will receive an ASPCA Fight Cruelty Kit and be featured on our website. Winners will be announced April 30. We can’t wait to see your pet’s prize-winning photo!

So grab your camera, get snapping… and enter your photo today!

Guest blog post from Suzanne McMillan, ASPCA Director of Farm Animal Welfare

On March 22, a federal judge ruled that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) must address the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals. The fact is, factory farms feed drugs like those in the penicillin family to animals even when they’re not sick. The drugs are used to speed up the animals’ growth and compensate for their unsanitary and overcrowded conditions, which are major breeding grounds for illnesses. Indeed, the same drugs that we take when we are sick are routinely fed to healthy animals!

The FDA Fails to Protect
More than 30 years ago, the FDA first discovered the overuse of antibiotics creates drug-resistant bacteria that can spread to humans and cause hard-to-treat illnesses. So far, the FDA has failed to follow through on its findings. This new ruling will now require the FDA to withdraw its existing approvals for routinely using penicillins and tetracyclines on farm animals unless the farming industry provides evidence that their use does not threaten human health.

Did You Know…?
Almost 80% of all antibiotics sold in the U.S. are fed to food animals. In addition to its impact on animal welfare, the misuse of antibiotics also affects our own lives. If we want to keep antibiotics working for us, we must keep industrial farms from abusing them. The ASPCA applauds this recent court decision—not only for human health, but also in hopes that it will help ensure cleaner, more humane living conditions for animals on farms.

For more information on the ASPCA’s efforts to help farmed animals, please visit our Farm Animal Cruelty section.

Guest blog post from Nancy Perry, Senior Vice President of ASPCA Government Relations.

Did you know that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is the federal agency in charge of protecting our country’s wild horses and burros?  Enacted more than 40 years ago, the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act states that the federal government is required to protect wild horses while balancing their presence on rangelands with commercial activities of humans and the needs of other wildlife.

Unfortunately, in the 40 years that the BLM has been managing our wild horses, we have seen a continuous cycle of roundups and removals with little regard for the welfare of these living creatures.

Taking Action on Capitol Hill
I was recently invited to testify before the U.S. House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior and the Environment to discuss the importance of protecting wild horses.

My testimony focused on four main requests. We asked the committee to 1) reinstate language to prevent the sale for slaughter and mass euthanasia of wild horses, 2) prohibit removal of more horses and burros than can be adopted, 3) prioritize on-range management of wild horses and burros, and 4) require the swift creation of standard operating procedures for humane, transparent roundups, if any are to occur.

As I spoke to the committee, I could see their obvious disgust at the descriptions I provided of recent roundups, during which:
 - Foals were forced to run extreme distances, losing their hooves.
 - Horses were driven to physical exhaustion.
 - Horses and burros were physically assaulted with helicopter skids.
 - Electric prods were used on wild horses by BLM staff or contractors.
 - Horses were kicked and beaten with lunge whips.
 - Metal gates and panels were slammed into horses.
 - Horses' tails were twisted and pulled during loading.

Looking Ahead
Congress oversees federal agencies to ensure that government services are delivered appropriately and fairly, and it can direct agencies like the BLM to reform programs that are not working as they should. The BLM has indicated a willingness to examine parts of its wild horse program and we hope they will work with us to make needed changes.

For now, we are encouraged that both the BLM and Congress are open to input from the ASPCA and other animal protection organizations regarding the plight of these majestic animals.

Learn more about our efforts to protect equines.