September 2012

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to thank you. A few weeks ago, we told you about the hay emergency facing American horse caregivers this year. We told you that persistent drought has put hay in dangerously short supply, and that if we don’t pull together and do something, horses will die.

We asked you to help us feed horses by contributing to our Hay Bale-Out initiative, and we were overwhelmed by the generosity of those who answered our call.

Here’s what happened next.

We told equine rescue groups the good news: The ASPCA has your back, and we can provide hay to help get your horses through the winter. We asked them to tell us what they needed.

Since then, equine groups have been flooding us with requests.

We’re deep in the process of working closely with these groups to meet their hay needs, and our equine rescue friends tell us this assistance couldn’t come at a better time.

“This year is setting up to become a ‘perfect storm’ for equine neglect, as we are already seeing a huge increase in calls and skinny horses,” Gail Vacca of the Illinois Equine Humane Center told us. “Thank goodness many will find relief due to the efforts and support of the ASPCA.”

We’re so grateful for your help feeding horses this year. If you haven’t yet given to this critical effort, it’s not too late! Every little bit counts, and it all goes directly to feeding horses.

Watch ASPCA.org for updates on this life-saving project, and if you haven’t already, consider being a part of it.

When Britney came to the ASPCA through the Humane Law Enforcement department, she was in pain and suffering from multiple untreated conditions.

Fortunately, the veterinary staff at the ASPCA’s Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital was able to nurse Britney back to health, and eventually she became available for adoption; we could finally find a home for this sweet dog who had suffered so much.

We knew it would be a challenge.

Statistically speaking, animals who are black, large or senior, as well as those who take medication or can’t live with other animals, usually spend more time waiting for homes. Britney was all of these things, and to make matters worse, she didn’t engage much with adopters who passed her habitat, preferring to rest quietly.

Still, we knew that the right person would come for Britney, and to speed things along, we spread the word about this special canine. After seeing Britney’s picture and reading about her, Kevin Bechard tells us, “I wanted to snatch her right up.”

A few days later Bechard was going above and beyond to help Britney settle in to her new home in suburban Connecticut.

“The first couple nights I actually slept on the floor with her because she can’t do stairs, and she would just reach out with her paw and make sure it was against me,” he recalls. “Only then she would allow herself to go to sleep. If I moved away a little bit, her eyes would open.”

The love and comfort of a forever home has revived Britney, who has blossomed into a trusting and happy pup: Bechard reports that at his house Britney loves romping outdoors and goes on multiple nature walks a day. 

In return, Bechard has gained a new best friend who, he says, never required house-training or manners instruction, thanks to her age. “I wish more people would consider older dogs,” Bechard says. “I was open to anything, but I was so pleasantly surprised.”

To read more happy endings, check out our Happy Tails archive.

In this guest blog, ASPCA Director of Disaster Response Dick Green tells us what it’s like to be a disaster responder during National Preparedness Month. He also shares his tips for disaster preparedness.

September is National Preparedness Month, and it has certainly lived up to its name! September began just after Hurricane Isaac made landfall in Louisiana. Isaac not only “landed” seven years to the day after Hurricane Katrina but took a very similar path. Not nearly the size of Katrina, Isaac still wreaked havoc as a Category I storm that just sat and spun off the coast, bringing more than 20 inches of rain to New Orleans and causing extensive flooding in St. John and Plaquemines parishes.

The Louisiana State Animal Response Team (LSART) asked us to help prepare for the storm and be ready to assist with assessment and rescue. Working in conjunction with the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, LSART and the ASPCA provided sheltering support, evacuation, and water and land rescue throughout the impacted areas.

Following Isaac, three members of the Field Investigations and Response Team presented at the National Animal Control Association’s Disaster Academy. My presentation, “Trends in Disasters,” showed that disasters are increasing worldwide and that, unfortunately, the U.S. is a hotbed—consistently number one or two each year in terms of frequency and impact. 

Next, six ASPCA staffers delivered talks at the National Alliance of State Animal and Agricultural Emergency Programs Summit. I provided a cost analysis for emergency animal sheltering. The take-home message was that shelters that house both people and their pets are the only way to go. My team also conducted nearly 40 interviews throughout the country over the last couple of days, sharing these key tips:

1. Have a Plan. That plan needs to be more that just evacuating with your animals. We hope everyone will do that! Your “all-family” plan needs to include how you will transport your animals, possible routes you will take and your destination/sheltering options. Practice that plan at least yearly and share it with your family and friends.
2. Build a Kit. Don’t forget a photo of your pet, medical records, vaccination records, and any special food or prescriptions.
3. Stay Informed. Keep an eye on the weather, follow the projected storm path and don’t get caught unprepared. Staying informed also means knowing which shelters house both people and pets, monitoring possible road closures and having alternate travel plans.
4. Know your Neighbors. Now is a great time to have a block party. Develop a telephone tree and determine who is home when. If a disaster occurs when you are at work, your neighbor may be the only one able to reach your pets.
5. Vaccinate and Microchip your Pets. If you are ever required to shelter your pets, you will want them protected against disease. And the single most important piece of advice we can offer is to microchip your pets. It is truly their ticket home. And remember to update your contact information if it changes.

Register for our free pet safety pack and stay safe with your pet this September!

Tennessee Walking Horses desperately need your help. These majestic and gentle-natured creatures are a breed of horse famous for their distinctive, smooth, high-stepping walk. Sadly, a cruel and illegal procedure called “soring” is all too frequently used to elicit an exaggerated movement, called the “big lick,” in order to win prizes at horse shows.

Soring is the gruesome practice of using chemicals and painful devices to injure a horse’s front limbs, making any contact with the ground so painful that the horse quickly jerks up his legs to relieve the pressure. Soring causes such intense pain that its victims often cannot stand for several days afterward.

Although soring was banned nationwide in 1970, inadequate legal penalties and lax enforcement have allowed this cruel practice to continue. A new bill, H.R. 6388, will address these inadequacies by amending the federal Horse Protection Act and improving protections for horses from soring, and we need your help in building support for this critical legislation!

What You Can Do
Please contact your U.S. representative and urge him/her to cosponsor H.R. 6388 and support strong amendments to the Horse Protection Act to better protect horses from soring.

Visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center online right now to contact your U.S. representative in Washington, D.C. There are only a few working days left in this Congress, so time is of the essence!

Fan of the Emmys? So are we! Tonight we’ll be joining Gracey the Tiniest Tiger as she hosts the popular Red Carpet Cat Academy Award Twitter Party LIVE from Hollywood. Simply follow #RedCarpetCat on Twitter to mingle with the stars as Gracey tweets photos from our special pre-emmy gifting suite.

But that’s not all! While Gracey is rubbing paws with animal-loving celebs, Event Barkers will keep the Twitter party moving with fun trivia questions and swag bag giveaways every 10 minutes—these are the very same gifts celebrities will be receiving at the Red Carpet Lounge Gifting Suite in Beverly Hills.

Join us tonight, September 19, from 8:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M. (EDT). What are you waiting for? RSVP for the #RedCarpetCat Twitter Party!

See you there!

Guest blog by ASPCA Regulatory Affairs Manager Deborah Press

Our pets are family, and when they get sick we want to make sure they get the best care possible. We rely on the wonderful vets in our communities to keep our pets healthy and ease their suffering. But for many pet parents struggling to keep their animals healthy in this tough economy, the costs can often be overwhelming—even impossible to afford.

 In 2011, Americans spent nearly $7 billion for prescription and over-the-counter pet medications.  Though purchasing meds from the vet is convenient, in some cases pet parents can save money by filling pets’ prescriptions at their local retail pharmacies. For many pet lovers struggling to keep their animals healthy in a tough economy, being able to fill prescriptions at the lowest cost could mean the difference between being able to afford the medicine—or even being able to afford keeping the pet—or not.

Most vets are happy to write prescriptions for their clients to fill anywhere they choose, but others may not be. We think pet parents deserve the freedom to comparison-shop for pet meds, but to do that, they need a copy of their animals’ prescriptions.

Here’s where you come in.

Take Action

The Federal Trade Commission wants to hear from you! The FTC wants to understand how to make prescription pet medications more affordable to consumers. They want to know how much you’re spending on pet meds, where you’re buying them, and whether a law requiring vets to give you a prescription to fill wherever you choose would help make pet care more affordable and accessible to you and your animals.

Tell FTC that for the sake of cost and convenience, you would like to have the option of receiving a written prescription from your vet that you could fill wherever you choose.

In addition, please tell them:

• How much you spend on prescription pet meds
• Where you buy your pet meds—at the vet or at a pharmacy?
• What you like/dislike about filling your pet’s prescriptions with the vet as opposed to a pharmacy where you’d fill your own prescriptions

Please note: FTC is accepting comments beyond the September 14th deadline and wants to hear from you!

Submit your comments TODAY—scroll to the bottom of the page and type your comments in the box.

The results are in! Just as we hit the midway mark of the 2012 ASPCA Rachael Ray $100K Challenge, we are thrilled to report that participating shelters helped save nearly 20,000 animals’ lives during the month of August. The shelters achieved this staggering feat by adopting out or reuniting animals with their pet parents. We couldn’t be more impressed or pleased that 19,114 cats and dogs found forever homes in just 30 days—that’s a combined increase of nearly 5,000 lives saved over the same month in 2011!

Our contestants approached this year’s Challenge with creativity, which led to happy animals and pet parents all around. These shelters kicked off August with special events drawing adopters of all ages and pet preferences. From games and food giveaways to adoption fee-waived specials, each shelter utilized innovative ideas to match tons of furry best friends with loving adopters. We think this strong start in August is a sure sign of good things to come as these shelters keep on truckin’ toward the finish line at the end of October.

We’d like to congratulate the shelters in each region that saved the most additional cats and dogs by the end of the first month of the Challenge: Canyon County Animal Shelter (Caldwell, ID) in the West region, City of San Antonio Animal Care Services in the South Central region, Toledo Area Humane Society in the North Central region, The Humane Society of Charlotte in the Southeast region and Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Center (BARCS) in the Northeast region. These participants will each receive a $5,000 Fast Start grant for working so hard to pull ahead of the competition. Congrats!

Click here to see the full leaderboard with complete month one results for all participants.

But the fun is just beginning. With a month and a half left to go, our contestants have plenty of time to buckle down, get creative, and find even more ways to find more loving forever homes for animals in need. You can follow all their triumphs on the $100K Challenge website.

Back in June, the New Jersey Legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill to prohibit the slaughter, transport, and sale of horses for human consumption within the state. Unfortunately, Governor Chris Christie has not yet signed the bill into law, and it’s not clear that he intends to.

With the clock ticking, several prominent New Jersey horse owners, equestrians and animal advocates, including Jessica Springsteen—daughter of Bruce—have sent a letter to Governor Chris Christie urging him to approve the horse slaughter ban. Christie is famously a huge Bruce Springsteen fan: Will a direct plea from The Boss’s daughter move him to finally act?

Americans don’t eat horse meat (it is shipped overseas), and 80% of American voters are opposed to the slaughter of U.S. horses for human consumption. What are you waiting for, Governor Christie?

See our latest press release to read a portion of the letter to the governor and learn more about New Jersey’s pending horse slaughter ban. And if you live in New Jersey, we urge you to send your own letter to the governor—visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center to get started!

Does your local pet store help perpetuate animal cruelty? The sad reality is…many do. You see, most puppies sold in pet store come from puppy mills. So if your pet store has a slew of roly-poly pups for sale, chances are it supports a very cruel industry. To make matters worse, by giving stores that sell puppies your business, you’re actually supporting puppy mills, too!

“Most people just don’t realize that pet store puppies come from puppy mills,” says Cori Menkin, ASPCA Senior Director of our Puppy Mills Campaign, “and that by shopping for pet supplies at stores that sell puppies, you’re actually supporting puppy mills.”

Take Action
We’re here to help! Our new interactive map shows pet stores across the country that sell puppies. All you have to do is pledge not to shop at them.

“It’s an easy action that takes a big stand against puppy mills,” explains Menkin. “If a store sells puppies, don't buy anything there—not pet food, kitty litter, squeaky toys—nothing.”

So where can you shop? Not to worry—we have a second map dedicated to highlighting the awesome pet stores that work with local shelters to offer dogs for adoption. Check ‘em out!

In June, we told you about a dog fighting bust the ASPCA and New York Police Department conducted in the Bronx. Today, we’re happy to share some good news: 26 of the dogs have found placements with rescue groups, and another seven of them have placements in the works! We’re hoping continued rehabilitation and forever homes are just around the corner.

Partners that have embraced these canine survivors include St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center in Madison, New Jersey; Charles Henderson Animal Rescue in Brooklyn, New York; Columbia Greene Humane Society in Hudson, New York, and Animal Rescue League of New Hampshire in Bedford. Some dogs have also been transferred to the ASPCA’s Adoption Center in Manhattan.

These dogs’ lives are already so different from the ones they led just a few short months ago. On June 21, we found them living in the windowless basement of a six-story apartment building with a makeshift fighting arena.Also discovered on scene were a loaded .25-caliber handgun, U.S. currency and other equipment associated with dog fighting—including dog treadmills, harnesses, muzzles, syringes and a shopping cart full of raw chicken parts.

For more than two months, ASPCA responders cared for and provided the dogs with extensive socialization, a healthy diet, medical care and exercise at a temporary shelter. Each dog was carefully evaluated by a team of animal behavior professionals prior to being transferred to the rescue groups.

While the majority of the dogs in this case may be rehabilitated, some were far too dangerous for placement. These dogs were victims of the brutalities of dog fighting—bred over generations to exhibit aggression, trained to fight with lethal intent, subjected to a life of inhumane treatment and, as a result, displayed highly aggressive behavior. After extensive evaluations, all decisions to euthanize were based on recommendations of multiple behavior professionals who weighed in objectively and independently, with the best interest of each individual animal in mind.

The dogs’ owner, Raul Sanchez of the Bronx, was arrested during the raid and arraigned on 63 counts of animal fighting, six counts of aggravated animal cruelty, six counts of animal cruelty, and one count of criminal possession of a weapon. If convicted, he faces up to four years in jail.

The ASPCA’s Legal Advocacy team is providing support to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office in this case.

September is Puppy Mill Awareness Month—and we’re gearing up for a really cool event. With Pet360 and Catster, we’re co-hosting a Puppy Mill Twitter Chat to answer ALL of your puppy mill questions. Where do pet store puppies come from? What really happens to mill dogs when they can no longer breed? Is my dog from a puppy mill?  How can I help?

In addition to spreading awareness, we’ll be giving away lots of really cool loot—like our puppy mill message tee and tote bag! So join us on Wednesday, September 12, from 7:00 to 8:00 P.M. Use hashtag #EndPuppyMills to join the conversation.

See you there!