Archives: Press

Media Contact:
Jack Heath, SPCA International
[email protected]

For Immediate Release:

SPCA International Announces Massive Spay & Neuter Campaign with ‘Spay Panama’ 
4 Day Effort Aims to Spay 1,000 Animals

New York City, September 27, 2011 – The SPCA International is setting a lofty goal with Spay Panama on World Animal Day- September 30th- to spay and neuter 1,000 dogs and cats in La Chorrera, Panama.  The 4-day campaign is aimed at stopping the unnecessary deaths of both pets and unwanted animals in Panama.  

“We are determined and excited to work with Spay Panama in hopes of achieving such an ambitious goal of altering up to one thousand animals,” said Stephanie Scott of SPCA International.  “Panama has a serious problem with thousands of stray cats and dogs who without spay and neuter will add to the vicious overpopulation cycle that results in many animals experiencing brutal, short life and early death.  With the help of our supporters we are going to make a real difference in Panama.”

The plight of female dogs and cats in Panama is a life of trying to survive bearing litter after litter.  Often malnourished, these female animals lose most of their puppies and kittens due to the dangers of the streets such as little or no food, and passing cars and trucks.  According to animal experts with Spay Panama, male dogs that are not neutered often run wild in the streets trying to mate and too often get hit by cars.  Un-altered male and female cats also become regular victims of violence due to their loud and bothersome “cat calls” during heat that can last for days at a time.  

All of these issues stem from a lack of spay and neuter.  The cycle is only perpetuated because the overpopulation of animals causes citizens to harbor ill-will against the helpless dogs and cats, leading to more animal abuse, more senseless death, and little interest in the one true and lasting solution – spay and neuter.

To help support this 4-day effort in Panama, go to www.spcai.org.

Scores of Animals Affected by Sagging Economy – High Abandon Rates Are Forcing Thousands of Animals to be Euthanized

New York City, August 16, 2011 –  As more and more stories of families having to give up their homes due to mortgage woes and other financial hardships make the news, one story that is not making headlines is tens of thousands of animals and pets who are being abandoned in record numbers and rescue shelters that are overwhelmed trying to save them while facing financial crisis themselves.   Today, SPCA International launched a “Funding Crisis Campaign” to combat low donation rates and high surrender rates.

“The sad fact is animal shelters across the United States are continuing to see very high surrender rates and this is causing a real crisis as rescue groups are trying to come up with needed funds to keep the abandoned animals from euthanasia,” says Stephanie Scott of SPCA International.  “During our recent ‘Pawsitive Progress Summer Roadtrip’,  our case workers heard from shelter after shelter across America about continuously high surrender rates due to the economy.  The horse population is especially suffering due to the higher cost of feeding and shelter according to rescue groups like Shadarobah Horse Rescue in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  In St. John’s County Florida alone, in a six-month time period this year the number of surrendered animals jumped to 2,403 from 2,118 from the same period a year earlier according to news reports.”

During these troubling financial times, SPCA International is seeing “half-off” sales for cat and kitten adoptions as shelters try to reduce their populations so they do not have to turn away so many abandoned animals in need.  Rescue groups such as Animal House Rescue and Grooming in Fort Collins, CO, a no-kill rescue group that saves animals on “death-row” at kill-shelters, are overwhelmed by all the animals in need and they lack the funds to keep up with the rising demand.  

SPCA International itself is $45,000 behind its summer fundraising projections due to the recent economic instability and risks rolling back program initiatives if they cannot get back on track.  They have set a goal of raising $45,000 in the next two weeks in hopes of being able to continue delivering needed funds to countless shelter and rescue groups, as well as soldier’s in Iraq and Afghanistan desperate to get their wartime buddies to the U.S. before they redeploy home.   

With the housing market forecasted to remain sluggish into 2013, the number of animals that need to be saved from euthanasia is only getting greater by the day.

For more on the Funding Crisis Campaign, go to www.spcai.org.

MONTREAL – It was a great night for a reunion at Trudeau Airport as Pollux the dog jumped back into the arms of its family after a 12-month, cross-country journey.

The animal ran away in June 2010 and mysteriously turned up last week in Kamloops. B.C.

“It’s like Christmas,” owner Isabelle Robitaille said when Pollux arrived from Vancouver just after midnight Friday.

“This is like a second New Year’s Eve for my children. My son Antoine was so happy when I told him they had found Pollux. It was his dog.”

The Labrador-greyhound mix bolted from the family home in east-end Montreal after Robitaille opened the back door. The woman spent months putting up posters to try to find the dog, but to no avail.

Then last Friday someone dropped a dog off at the SPCA in Kamloops. Staff scanned the dog with a microchip reader, and Robitaille’s information popped up.

“I just did not believe it, when they called me,” said Robitaille, a mother of three.

“But when I saw photos, I had to face the facts: my dog travelled 4,000 km.”

She thinks Pollux jumped onto a train, since the dog couldn’t have run the entire way.

Pollux will have to share its old house with a new addition — Candy. The family bought the second dog during Pollux’s absence. But Robitaille says her children never forgot the one that got away.

“There were so many nights when the children went to bed crying,” she said. “I didn’t know what to tell them.”

She’s not concerned about any jealousy between Pollux and Candy.

“There is room in our house, in our yard and in our hearts for both dogs,” she said. “It’s a story worthy of a Disney movie. I still can’t believe it.”

By Brian Daly, QMI Agency
The Toronto Sun

MONTREAL – It seems the dog will come back, though they sure thought it was a goner.

A female black Labrador mix named Pollux is scheduled to be reunited with its family in Montreal later this week after it turned up 4,000 kilometres away in Kamloops, B.C., more than a year after it went missing.

Pollux was tracked down thanks to an implanted microchip that revealed Quebecer Isabelle Robitaille as the owner.

She was shocked to have received a call from the SPCA last Friday. “We were told that this chip under the skin could be used if ever the animal disappeared,” Robitaille told QMI Agency. “No one ever thought it would come to good use like that.”

The story began on June 20, 2010, when Pollux escaped from Robitaille’s home in east-end Montreal and vanished. Robitaille said she can’t understand why Pollux ran away.

“I left the door open, and she just disappeared,” she said. “This is a very active dog. She might have been tempted to take refuge in a train wagon and found herself later at the other end of Canada.”

The details of Pollux’s journey are still not clear.

Sarah Gerow, acting branch manager at the Kamloops SPCA, said someone came by the office last Friday to drop off a stray black Labrador mix. The SPCA staff nicknamed her Suki.

“She came in as a stray and the finder had cared for her for a little while,” Gerow told QMI Agency on Tuesday. “We scanned her for a microchip, which we traced to a vet clinic in Quebec which put them in touch with the dog’s owner.” Recent photos of Suki were sent to Robitaille who immediately recognized the animal as Pollux, though the dog had lost quite a bit of weight.

The owner was quickly confronted with another problem — she didn’t have enough money to pay for a flight home. That’s when New-York based SPCA International came to Pollux’s rescue, said Gerow.

“They are willing to provide the funding to fly Pollux home, she said. “Probably later on this week. We’re just waiting for flight details.”

Meanwhile, Pollux is soaking in all the attention while letting the humans figure out the mystery of its 4,000-km, 12-month trek. “I guess only the dog knows,” said Gerow.

By Michele Young
Daily News Staff Reporter
Kamloops The Daily News

In the eyes of many, this dog was just a typical black lab cross with white front socks.

Deb Chaplain already had two dogs of her own, but this one latched onto her daughter at the family’s home at Thompson Rivers Estates near Walhachin. She called her neighbours and was told the medium-sized dog had been seen around for a few days, going to the river for water.

“Nobody knew the dog or the description,” she said Tuesday.

So Chaplain called the Kamloops SPCA shelter to see if anyone had reported the dog missing/ “My daughter’s called her Suki. The dog was really well behaved and obviously loved. You can tell by the temperament.”

The shelter had no missing reports and also no room, so Suki stayed at chez Chaplain for three weeks. Then last Friday, a kennel space came open.

With some reluctance — Chaplain didn’t want her to be euthanized if she didn’t get adopted — she left the dog at the shelter. “She has a lovely temperament, great with kids. Beautiful dog, works her tail a lot.”

On Saturday, Chaplain got a call. Suki was fine, and a scan showed she had a microchip that was traced to a vet clinic in Montreal. Kamloops acting shelter manager Sarah Gerow said all animals that come in are scanned for microchips.

She only had a few details, as the exchange of information was sometimes difficult between English speakers in the west and French speakers in the east.

And the story of how Pollux the dog (named after an animated kids’ cartoon dog, known in English as Dougal) came west to become Suki will remain a mystery to all but the dog herself.

In Montreal, ecstatic dog owner Isabelle Robitaille had some information, dating back a year. That’s when Pollux got out of the gate of the family’s east Montreal home.

“She just disappeared in June, 2010. We didn’t close the gate carefully and she just disappeared,” Robitaille said.

Her kids — Antoyne, 8; Lily-Ann, 4; and Morgane, 20 months — desperately missed their dog (as did the family cat, who would snuggle with Pollux on the couch). Robitaille checked with various shelters to no avail. “The older kids cried a lot when she ran away. Now they’re crying because she’s coming home.”

Robitaille herself was perplexed as to how her dog travelled so far.

Despite the long journey, Pollux is in excellent health. Gerow is hoping to fly her back to Montreal later this week, courtesy of SPCA International. Robitaille said she and the kids can hardly wait to be reunited with the dog they adopted when she was three.

“We saved her from the shelter. They were going to euthanize her because she had nobody to adopt her.”

Pollux will be leaving behind people who cared about her and didn’t want her to be euthanized. And she’ll be returning to the family that feels the same way. “She’s going to be nine this summer. She’s going to have her birthday with us,” Robitaille said.

The life of a soldier overseas can be incredibly stressful. Adopting stray pets is one way some soldiers cope and stay positive.

By Nina Hämmerling Smith
This story originally appeared on Guideposts.org.

When Army Staff Sergeant Bryan Spears was stationed in Baghdad a couple of years ago, he and his buddies found a puppy, a stray, and decided to take him in. They named him Moody.

“We kept him for a while,” explains Spears, “and then we were told we couldn’t have him anymore,” due to military code that prohibits soldiers from adopting stray animals in combat zones. “As soon as we were told we couldn’t have him, he just left.” As if he knew. A week or two later, in a particularly harrowing attack, “we lost five guys [fellow soldiers] and a linguist to a suicide bomber,” says Spears. “And that night, Moody came back.” As if he knew.

From then on, there was no keeping Spears and Moody apart.

“He did so much for the guys and me while we were deployed,” says Spears, whose higher-ups turned a blind eye, a not-uncommon response.

“Most of the time, we see commanders who are pretty understanding,” says Stephanie Scott, the director of communications for SPCA International (SPCAI), “especially if the soldiers feel really passionate about their dogs.”

Since 2007, the SPCAI’s Operation Baghdad Pups has helped bring home almost 300 dogs and cats adopted by soldiers overseas when their tours are over or they’re redeployed. “These dogs are valuable in multiple ways,” says Scott. “Sometimes they become working dogs, helping protect soldiers. And sometimes soldiers are just able to escape by throwing a ball or wrestling a dog after a stressful patrol. Dogs are a piece of home.”

That little remembrance of home is invaluable. “When soldiers adopt pets, they become their family,” says medical sociologist Joan Liebmann-Smith, Ph.D., who is writing a book about the health benefits of owning pets. “The pets depend on the soldiers for their needs, and the soldiers come to depend on their pets for amusement, loyalty and companionship.”

As anyone with a pet can tell you, it’s not just soldiers who experience this connection. “Relatedness is a basic human need,” says Timothy A. Pychyl, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Carleton University, who himself has 11 dogs. “People who engage in meaningful relationships are healthier and happier, and that extends to other species–dogs in particular.”

In fact, medical research indicates that caring for a pet can provide physical as well as emotional benefits. Pets helpreduce stress and anxiety and can actually lower blood pressure and cholesterol. The National Institutes of Health is even funding research into the health benefits of pets.

And if you adopt a pet–providing a loving home to an animal that might otherwise be neglected or worse–you’re rewarded many times over, from the satisfaction of helping a creature in need to the unconditional love that comes along with it. In Iraq, Scott explains, many of the animals that are taken on by soldiers are in pretty rough shape.

But helping them–washing them, feeding them, playing with them and giving them affection–can take soldiers’ minds completely off of the difficult jobs they perform day in and day out. “Pets can bring out nurturing feelings that may otherwise go untapped,” says Liebmann-Smith.

The benefits for soldiers extend well beyond the combat zones. “We’ve seen incredible results when soldiers bring their dogs home,” says Scott. “They can significantly help with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder].” “Many people feel that they can shed tears around their pets even when they can’t around their friends,” says Liebmann-Smith. “This can be especially helpful to soldiers, who often bottle up their feelings.”

Spears certainly appreciated Moody, who returned stateside with him (thanks to Operation Baghdad Pups) and is still his constant companion. “The guys had someone they could talk to and not get judged,” says Spears. “Sometimes you can’t talk to other people, but your dog just lies there and lets you put your hand on him.”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

New York City, April 21, 2011 – An intense international effort involving the Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the U.S. Embassy and SPCA International (www.spcai.org) will allow an Iraqi donkey to relocate to the United States next month. SPCA International thanks the many donors and supporters who petitioned the Turkish authorities allow Smoke the donkey passage to the U.S. through Turkey. The animal was rescued in 2008 by Col. John Folsom and his Marines at Camp Taqaddum, brought back to good health and soon became the unit’s mascot and friend.

After a brief period of quarantine in New York’s JFK airport, Smoke will settle in Nebraska where he will be trained as a rehabilitation therapy animal for Wounded Warriors Family Support, a nonprofit that provides support to families of military personnel wounded, injured or killed during combat operations.  

Thanks to the efforts of SPCA International and the U.S. Embassy working with authorities in Turkey, Smoke will become the first animal allowed official transport from Iraq into Turkey since the Iraq war began. 

“We are so excited and thankful to have gained the approval needed to bring Smoke to his new loving home with John Folsom and the Wounded Warriors group,” said Stephanie Scott of SPCA International.  “We worked closely with the USDA and multiple veterinarians in Iraq to ensure Smoke has all the proper immunizations, has cleared the proper tests, and is healthy and safe for travel to the United States.  It has been a long journey so far and we are grateful to the many people and officials who helped make this happen so Smoke can be reunited with his Marine friends and serve an important therapy role helping veterans and their families.”

Ret. Col. John Folsom is providing a safe and loving home for Smoke in Nebraska.  Folsom says he has not stopped thinking about his friend since he left Iraq and is looking forward to giving him the kind of life and home he deserves.

For daily updates on Smoke’s progress and to view the petition that helped secure Smoke’s passage, visit www.spcai.org.

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–In keeping with its founding mission to support independent animal shelters and promote the safety of animals, SPCA International (www.spcai.org) distributed a total of $5 million dollars in veterinary supply aid last year. The materials were sent to shelters and animal groups in Haiti, Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Central America.

“The fact is in places like Haiti and around the world, thousands upon thousands of animals are homeless and suffering in the streets”

Specifically, SPCA International (Society for the Protection of Cruelty of Animals International) made donations of nearly $1.5 million in supply aid to the Animal Friends League of Kuwait and another $1.5 million to the Asociación Hondureňa Protectora de los Animales y su Ambiente (AHPRA) in Honduras. The non-profit also donated more than $800,000 in supplies to Elephant Care International in Nepal and nearly $700,000 to the Tanzania Animal Welfare Society.

In Haiti, SPCA International continued its support by sending $500,000 in supplies to veterinary shelters and animal groups working to treat homeless and injured or sick animals still suffering in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

“The fact is in places like Haiti and around the world, thousands upon thousands of animals are homeless and suffering in the streets,” said Stephanie Scott, Director of Communications for SPCA International. “We are continuing to provide aid and support to the independent shelters and groups working so desperately to treat and save the homeless animals in their area. And in Iraq, we continue working to help homeless animals affected by war through our program, Operation Baghdad Pups.”

SPCA International Shelter and Emergency Grants are available for organizations experiencing unusual disasters or emergencies. For more information on SPCA International’s Shelter and Emergency Grant programs, please visitwww.spcai.org. 

July 13, 2009, Washington, DC – On Saturday, July 11, actresses Mary Tyler Moore and Bernadette Peters honored SPCA International at the annual “Broadway Barks” – a star-studded dog and cat adopt-a-thon in New York City hosted Broadway Cares. SPCA International’s Operation Baghdad Pups program was awarded a PEDIGREE® certificate for outstanding service and courageous efforts on behalf of U.S. service members and their pets.

Operation Baghdad Pups’ most recent rescue on June 1, 2009, was a dog named Laia, whose soldier was killed in Iraq in May as a result of wounds from a roadside bomb. Laia is now living a safe, happy, healthy life in Michigan.

SPCA International requests donations in honor of all our military heroes and the countless animal casualties of war.

by Stephen Bajza

If you’ve ever tried to transport an animal long-distance, you know that it’s a complex process that can cost a lot of money — and it can be even more difficult for servicemembers and their families, who must foot the bill for transporting pets due to frequent relocations, often to other countries. For some, the costs and logistics can be overwhelming, and it was for that reason that SPCA International (SPCAI), which has plenty of experience saving dogs and cats, has a new program assisting those needing to relocate their pets.

“SPCAI has been running the program Operation Baghdad Pups for 5 years,” says Stephanie Scott, director of communications for SPCAI. “Throughout our time working to save dogs and cats U.S. troops befriended in wars in the Middle East, we often heard of the hardships military families face here at home with their pets. Our experiences with Operation Baghdad Pups showed us time and time again how important animals are to our troops and their families.

“We have many stories of moms and dads stationed in Iraq who would give the dog or cat they were sending home a hug before handing it off to the SPCAI transporters. That mom or dad would then call their kids at home and say, ‘When you hug the dog you will be getting a hug from me.’ In other cases we received direct requests from soldiers stationed in other places around the world who needed assistance getting their domestic pets to or from their duty station and the U.S. And we heard from shelters near military bases about the high rates of surrender when military families couldn’t afford the high costs of their family pets to new stations. So, as we witnessed all these things, the idea of a program dedicated to this issue began to take shape.”

As a result, SPCAI has just formed a new initiative called Operation Military Pets to assist servicemembers and their families in transporting pets. The need for assistance is so great that Operation Military Pets received eleven requests for assistance within its first week.

Morgan’s Story: Veteran’s PTSD Confidant in Crisis

As an example of the type of work SPCAI does, in 2012 it aided an Air Force veteran who had recently returned from Afghanistan and was enduring PTSD. The veteran’s brother contacted SPCAI, wanting to relocate the veteran from San Diego to the brother’s family in the Northeast so he could receive support and treatment for his PTSD — the only problem was that the veteran refused to move without bringing his longtime friend, a cocker spaniel named Morgan, and couldn’t afford the hundreds of dollars it would cost to bring Morgan with him. SPCAI rushed the veteran a financial grant to cover the cost of Morgan’s flight to the Northeast, and a few days later, Morgan and the veteran flew east together.

The mission statement for Operation Military Pets is as follows:To keep military families together by providing financial assistance for pet relocation costs. All branches of the military can qualify for grants. Whether being relocated within the United States or anywhere in the world, SPCA International’s Operation Military Pets aim is to keep pets with the ones they love

For more information about the program, check out the operation’s home page at www.spcai.org; the program also gratefully accepts donations. If you’d like to apply for assistance, fill out this form. Anyone who wishes to donate to the program can click through to this page and select the increment they’d like to send.