Author: SPCAI Staff

Submitted by Stephanie Scott, Director of Communications

Recently the daily Ted Talks email featured one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, reciting two of his poems written from the viewpoint of dogs. They are entertaining, insightful and thought provoking. It's just a short 4 minute video. Well worth the time!

http://www.ted.com/talks/billy_collins_two_poems_about_what_dogs_think_probably

Submitted by Janet Mercer, Webmaster

As we all know, animal shelters are overrun with pets at this time of year as many dogs and cats unfortunately continue to reproduce. We wanted to share some of the exciting and creative ideas we've seen recently to encourage and increase pet adoptions.

• Find each animal's personality. Watch their behavior and learn about the special qualities of the pet and create some great flyers, for example:

  

• Infographics are also very popular and friendly, especially for shelter websites:

  

• Use simple Photoshop filters to make an illustration from a photo.

  

• Look at things from the animal's perspective, like the Human Walking Program.

• Baltimore's shelters have created a joint program every June called "The Baltimore 500". Adoption fees are waived during this month. Of course, all potential owners are still carefully screened. Check out their Facebook page here.

  

• One of Baltimore's 4th grade teachers had a great idea: have the children write persuasive adoption letters from the pet's point of view.

  

• And, in case you missed it, a really fun video from Wake County Humane Society, lip-synching to "Take a Chance on Me" by ABBA! Read more of the story of this video on their website.

What other creative ideas have you seen lately? Have these ideas sparked something for you? We'd love to hear about it!

Submitted by: Kelley LaBonty CRNA, PhD and DAWG Founder (Guest Blogger)

In Detroit, a poor automotive economy and a dwindling population have resulted in a rise in crime and dog fighting. Animals have no value in this harsh world and are tossed out without food, water, and shelter to fend for themselves on the brutal streets. Learn about the horrific realities through the eyes of Detroit Animal Welfare Group (DAWG) volunteers as they comb the desolate streets to help the thousands of homeless animals in need.

It was another day of below freezing temperatures when the volunteers of Detroit Animal Welfare Group (DAWG) packed up their vehicles with food, straw and water to drive to the once bustling and now forgotten city of Detroit, Michigan. With a poor automotive economy and a dwindling population, crime and dog fighting are on the rise. Animals have no value and are tossed out without food, water, and shelter to fend for themselves on the brutal streets. Dedicated DAWG volunteers regularly comb the desolate streets to help the thousands of homeless animals in need.

As a foster based rescue with over 100 volunteers they are always full, and since foster homes are limited, they must prioritize which animals are in emergent need of medical care and which won’t last another night in these temperatures. In just two quick hours the volunteers round up 15 dogs and 1 cat and head to the vet to have them examined and receive the care they need. They fret as they make the drive, as they know too well that some in the group will be heartworm positive and may have parvo. History repeats itself as the ones with chains and embedded collars will require surgery, the Great Dane shot in the leg may also, and the one with its teeth ground down will take extensive rehabilitation from being used as a bait dog.

The volunteers worry about funds to care for them all. As seasoned rescuers they know that getting them off the streets is the easy part and the rehabilitation to make them adoptable is the painstakingly hard part. The severely emaciated will take time to recover and trust and will likely have some short term food aggression, but they know with a little time, love and patience each of these dogs will bloom into a new and beautiful soul full of love – thanks to those that took the time to make a difference.

It takes a special team to see the vast suffering on a daily basis and forge ahead. The key to change is in education so they stop and talk to the locals and inform them on proper pet care and provide houses, straw, transport for spay or neuter and other assistance to the low income community.

The phone rings and it’s a real estate agent who hears dogs barking in a home he is trying to sell and needs help. The DAWG director makes a call and has a volunteer on his way. They find two pit-bull pups locked in a room left to starve and freeze when the family moved out. “What are two more?” they say as they pack the pups in the car. Then another call comes in: A mom has been in labor for three days and has one live pup, the rest are stuck and owner cannot afford care for her and would like to surrender her. Volunteers race to save her life. She is lethargic and the smell of infection is overwhelming in the car as she is transported to the vet. Her saviors anxiously wait to hear how her emergency C-section is going and are heartbroken to learn that despite all efforts mom did not make it and left only one orphaned pup to care for. Through tears, a volunteer works on finding an experienced stay at home foster to bottle feed the pup around the clock.

The group of volunteers that went out on the frozen morning are emotionally exhausted and head home for the night to answer the daily email requests to take in animals that owners can no longer care for. As the rescuers think of the faces of the animals they had to leave on the streets, a shocking call comes in regarding three dead dogs found on the roadside in a Detroit park and a statement from a city employee who commented that they had 28 dead dogs to pick up on their route that day.

Another nearby city, Flint, the newspaper says another 12 dead dogs were found discarded in garbage bags. Volunteers cringe as they know dog fighting is a high stakes “sport” in these areas and difficult to crack. When will the torture and suffering end?

The team contacts Detroit city officials and organizes an Anti-Animal Abuse Rally the following weekend. Hundreds of advocates and local rescues join together. City officials do not respond. DAWG volunteers are disappointed and dream of a day when they have the funds to build a facility to house the many animals that they couldn’t help today and may not be alive on their next visit. One by one they strive to save them and continue to bring awareness to the problem.

If you would like to help the strays of Detroit please visit their website at www.dawghous.com.

A dog and cat’s life is a short one in Iraq. If they manage to escape the horrible abuse, they are likely to starve to death or die painfully due to illness or heat exhaustion. These animals are rarely shown any mercy for they are seen as worthless rodents, a nuisance to society.

There are very few individuals who would consider a dog or a cat a part of the home like we do in North America, so when US military and security personnel are deployed in Iraq, many of the animals attach themselves to those show them any form of kindness.

On our most recent Operation Baghdad Pups mission we were able to help 17 more lives escape their otherwise horrid fate. When we looked at the photos of the dogs and cats and read the letters from the brave Americans serving in Iraq who befriended these beautiful creatures, we knew we had to help get them home and we also knew it wouldn’t be easy!

Since flying into Baghdad where most of the animals were living is no longer an option, we needed many people holding hands across the country to facilitate their transport to safety in Erbil. Security workforces were kind enough to meet our hired driver with the animals, but meeting at a checkpoint outside the ‘red zone’ in Baghdad is certainly not like meeting at any regular street corner.

In Baghdad, the rules can change from one minute to the next, depending on which Iraqi guard is on duty. After close to three hours of bargaining before the sun even came up that day, the guard would still not let them pass the short distance to the van. However, in Iraq, it’s not always what you know, it’s who you know and luckily one of the security officials knew someone in a higher rank who was able to clear their departure, but not before they had to walk through the Red Zone with the frightened dogs and cat!

Once our team arrived in Erbil, the work of getting the animals ready for transport to the United States began. Every other day for 2 weeks, one rescue expert at a time, our group flew into Washington Dulles Airport with a crew of Baghdad Pups and cats. Meeting their arrivals brought tears to our eyes with each new wagging tail discovering US soil, some were even lucky enough to be reunited with their families right off the plane. This beautiful dog named George who spent many months with his human companion in Iraq, was so elated to see his dad, he launched himself right into his lap for a hug and wouldn’t let go!

Although Fred wasn’t able to meet his Houston family at the airport when he arrived, he clearly melted our hearts. With a wounded paw from a BB pellet shot at him in Iraq, the reality of life for an animal in the Middle East, he was immediately brought to the vet and taken into our care so we could keep a close eye on him. It was easy to see why Fred won the heart of his adopter while overseas. Here he is making friends with everyone at the hotel lobby!

Before Lani came to her forever home in the U.S., she lived a life of constantly having to fend for herself. Luckily, she was befriended by a wonderful ex-Marine working in Iraq who quickly fell in love with her sweet nature. Lani is sure enjoying her new life at home!

Separated from his mom at a very early age, little Taboga attached himself to everyone who would meet him and the feeling was mutual! During his transition to his home in the U.S., he learned two very important things, how to play and how to sleep!

Seeing the dogs excitedly walk on grass for the very first time was one of the best reflections of how your support enabled us to make this one of our most successful OBP missions to date!

We couldn’t have brought back 17 animals to their US families without your help.
Thank you for being part of the SPCAI team!

Submitted by Meredith Ayan, SPCAI Staff

All of my life, I’ve never been much of a carnivore, always gravitating toward vegetables. Well before I could have understood the realities of factory farming I just knew I didn’t want to eat animals. In fifth grade, I proudly announced to my parents that I wouldn’t eat “anything that had a face”. Luckily, I had a caring mother who would make a second vegetarian meal for me almost nightly, but it hasn’t stopped my father from offering me pork chops, steak or lamb still to this day, every chance he gets.

Not everyone shares my sentiments, and I understand that. The light that has been shed on industrial farming – the mass production of livestock and crops – in recent years has shown that nothing about these operations even resembles that of a traditional farm. These large-scale production plants are not even recognized as farms anymore and have been classified by the government as “Animal Feeding Operations”.

Animal activists have gone undercover and posed as factory workers to expose the horrors of these factories. The video footage alone is enough to make you swear you’ll go vegan, cold turkey. (Pun intended). Rolling Stone published an article in December 2013 that brought the issue to the mainstream media, no longer just the plight of “crazy animal people”. The article describes the horrid conditions, cruel torture and employment of animal abusers in these facilities. This goes beyond the issue of animal abuse to a concern of public health and safety. All for the pursuit of “cheap meat”.

“Ag-Gag” laws as they are commonly known, criminalize the act of interfering with an “animal enterprise”; which means that these undercover operations can no longer exist. At worst, it feels like censorship and a violation of citizens’ first amendment rights. At best, it sweeps the problem of animal cruelty under the rug. Nothing will be accomplished if we look the other way. Animal abuse is a very real problem in this industry, and without information, consumers cannot make informed decisions.

So what can we do? 1. Contact your local government and let them know you oppose these measures. 2. Buy local. By supporting local farms for your vegetable or meat purchases, you have more knowledge about where your food is coming from. 3. Cut back. Try to limit your intake of meat to one or two nights per week. With a little research and creative thinking you can make protein-packed, meat-free meals. The effect these small changes will have will add up if we all do our part to be conscious consumers!

This month we celebrate the first anniversary of SPCA International’s Operation Military Pets program. Over the past year, SPCA International has played a lifesaving role for 251 military families’ pets. For numerous financial reasons, each dog and cat faced the risk of having to be left behind – either in an already overcrowded animal shelter or handed off to someone else when their families moved to their next duty location. Thankfully 212 dogs and 37 cats were able to remain with their families because of SPCA International supporters.

The Operation Military Pets program was formed out of a concern that military families often have a difficult time coming up with the money to transport their pets when given military relocation orders. Since the military does not cover any of the costs to transport pets, and there are no other organizations that offer this kind of financial assistance, SPCA International decided to step forward and give hope to military families that find themselves in a potentially heartbreaking dilemma. During this last year, 173 families received Operation Military Pets grants. Families like the Unfreds who reached out to us when they were just weeks away from having to make one the hardest decisions in their life.

“I am requesting assistance because I don’t make very much money in the military and my wife and I just had a baby that was born on December 30, 2013. Benjamin is the greatest thing to happen to me, but I am finding it costs a lot of money to raise a child. Unfortunately, it also costs a lot of money to ship our dog Gus from overseas, but I could never leave him behind. My wife and I consider Gus to be our first child and he is a big part of our life. I was injured while on active duty and have to accept orders away from my family in order to get follow up surgeries, so knowing that Gus will be protecting my family while I am away takes a load off my mind. Thanks for helping my family.”

Each time we approve another grant, we know we are making a difference for a military family. As we celebrate the one year anniversary of Operation Military Pets, we are grateful that our supporters also recognize this unique way to help – and thank – members of the military and their pets at the same time. The need for this program’s services is undeniable and for this reason we are starting to prepare for the upcoming summer months – a busy time for the program when military families with children are on the move. Last summer we received as many as two to three applications per day and at times it become overwhelming. That is why we need help so we are able to keep up with the growing demand. There would be nothing worse than having to deny a family a grant because funds were not available and learning that a dog or cat – a member of their family – got left behind.

We just received the following email this week from the Rappa family, also desperate for an Operation Military Pets grant:

“Please help us!!! We just found out we are moving to Nashville, Tennessee next month! This was unplanned and unexpected. We got our orders today and we will be in Nashville on May 30th. We took our dogs to the vet yesterday for their annual checkup and shots and the bill was $728! I have a copy of the receipt. We had no idea the vet would cost us that much yesterday. We thought it would only be like $200 max. It is so expensive here in Hawaii. We are a large family of 5, not including our fur babies. We were quoted today from Delta $1,314.93 to fly Jack and Kona with us to Nashville. We don't have the money to do that. We also priced their XL crates that they will need and that's going to cost us $400. We are in a dilemma. Please help us. We move next month.”

How can we tell this family no? We can’t.

SPCA International has given out $134,875 in grants over the past year, a great accomplishment considering the short time the program has been in existence. It is our hope that Operation Military Pets continues to grow – resulting in more happy endings for military families and their pets.

When the Knopp family had to move and they absolutely did not have the money to fly their dogs Lolita and Sylvia, they left them behind with family. Settling into their new life in Hawaii was difficult for many reasons, but the hardest part was not having Lolita and Sylvia with them. When someone told the Knopp family about Operation Military Pets they could not believe that such a program existed. Now the Knopp household is filled with joy, knowing that their family will soon be together again and Lolita and Sylvia will no longer be spending their days sitting at the window wondering where their family went. Operation Military Pets gave this family a happy ending and the following email expresses their appreciation:

“Thank you for the incredible news, we are both humbled and so grateful for this grant. We can't wait to be reunited as a family, a moment you and this incredible organization is making possible.”

SPCA International hopes to have lots more emails like this to share in the years to come. Nothing would make us happier!

Submitted by Becky Haisma, Founder, Paws in the City, Dallas TX

In December 2013, 293 dogs were abandoned at a boarding kennel outside of Dallas, TX. They were abandoned by a rescue organization that ran out of funding and could no longer pay their boarding fees. The animal loving kennel owners spent their savings attempting to find homes for these abandoned animals. They were successful in placing 93 of the animals with local rescue groups and private homes. Now the remaining 200 face the risk of euthanasia without outside help. The kennel continues their efforts to get more placed and adopted, but without funds they are quickly running out of time.

Donations are desperately needed to pay for water, heat/air conditioning, electric, food, medicines and minimal staffing to feed, medicate, walk and exercise the dogs in play yards.

Most of the dogs are pits/pit mixes although there are about 50-70 that are "other" mixes. This makes it even harder to find placement. Some have been through the Prison Training Program.

Donations: can be made through a local non-profit, Paws of Hope, and their Happy Endings Relief Fund.
You can donate online at www.campdiggybones.com.

Checks can be mailed to:

Mail a check payable to: Paws of Hope
Camp Diggy Bones c/o Paws of Hope
10785 Hwy 205
Lavon, TX 75166

If interested in adopting or if you know a local rescue organization that can assist with relocation or placement please contact Thea at [email protected].

Click here to view photos and descriptions of the dogs in need of adoption or relocation. It is now life or death for each of these precious souls. Please help in any way you can.