Results tagged “Animal welfare” from Petfinder Blog

Last week saw the launch of The Shelter Pet Project, a joint venture between the Ad Council (the people who brought you "This is your brain on drugs"), the Humane Society of the United States and Maddie's Fund.

Its mission: to encourage adoption through humorous radio and TV ads like the one above and a fun and interactive Web site. The project is all about using a light touch to  disprove common misconceptions about pets in shelters -- something we can totally get behind!

Our favorite part of the project? The Web site's great Pet Personals section, which helps you find Petfinder pets that suit your personality and lifestyle. Check it out and let us know what you think!

Troublesome Toby continues to teach me each and every day.

Meet Toby, a.k.a the Tobes Man, the Tobester, America's Fat Cat and Mr. Man. Toby, my 10-year-old, 15-lb. Maine Coon mix, my problem child, is the reason I'm here at Petfinder.

While I've had the honor of caring for many wonderful pets in my life, it's the one who made things the hardest that turned my life-long passion for animals into a profession.

It all started as my first foray into foster care. I'd recently adopted the sweetest little Domestic Short Hair/Tortie, Kura, and felt the need to help some of the many other homeless cats that I saw at the shelter. So I called the adoption group and arranged to take in a foster for a week: Toby.

Right from the beginning Toby, then one year old, was different. As soon as I got him home he immediately strutted around the house, seeking out people to literally paw for attention. There was no way we could give him up. Thus Toby became my first and only "failed" foster.

It wasn't until about a week after the adoption that the trouble began. I went back to school.

The national economic crisis is having a negative impact on pets, their families and the Petfinder member shelter and rescue groups who work so hard to save their lives. You can help! Please consider volunteering to temporarily foster a pet in need, donating your time or money to a local shelter or rescue group, and of course, adopting a pet in need.

A recent survey of our members about how the economic downturn is affecting them and their pets revealed that 84 percent of Petfinder.com animal shelters and rescue groups are receiving more pets in need due to the overall economic downturn, foreclosures and / or job losses. And sadly, 74 percent said that they have seen an increase in pets being given away or abandoned since this time last year due to these economic trials.

According to the survey:
 

• 47 percent of shelters and rescue groups said the No. 1 economy-related reason pets are being surrendered is because of general financial difficulty.
• 18 percent said the driving factor was people having to relocate
• 16 percent said the No. 1 reason was foreclosures

Petfinder.com also uncovered in the survey that 37 percent of shelters and rescue groups have seen a decrease in pet adoptions over the past year.

You can find over 270,000 adoptable pets on Petfinder. So if you aren't ready to adopt yourself, be a voice for the pets and spread the "Adopt a Homeless Pet" call to action loud and clear.

Today marks the start of an historic animal abuse case brought against Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus by three animal-welfare groups and a former circus employee.

The ASPCA, the Animal Welfare Institute, the Fund for Animals (a partner of the Humane Society of the U.S.) and former Ringling Bros. employee Tom Rider charge that Ringling Bros. violated the Endangered Species Act by chaining its elephants for prolonged periods and training them with bull hooks, among other abuses.

I won't go into the details of the case, but Ringling Bros. has started its own Web site about the trial, where you can view a PDF of the complaint. You can also click on the names of the animal-welfare groups above to see their press releases about the case, or read a news story here or here.

But I'm interested in a comment by a lawyer for Ringling Bros.' parent company, who said: "Animal special-interest groups are distorting the facts by making false allegations about the treatment of Ringling Bros. elephants as part of a long-running crusade to eliminate animals from circuses, zoos and wildlife parks."

Leaving aside the question of zoos and wildlife parks, should elephants and other animals be banned from use in circuses?

Great news for dogs in Miami-Dade County: Commissioners voted yesterday to make it "illegal to tie a dog to any standing object outside a home unless the dog's owner is present" (Miami Herald).

There was a heated debate before the resolution passed 11-1, with some arguing the law discriminates against families who can't afford to build fences.

"I resent the implication that says if you can't afford it, or can't have a dog without tethering it, you shouldn't have one at all," said Commissioner Barbara Jordan, the
only one to vote against the measure.

Today, Oct. 1, is World Vegetarian Day. Consider giving up meat for this one day.

There are two reasons to be vegetarian. First, a vegetarian diet shows compassion for animals, because most farm animals are mistreated before they grace your table. That's reason enough for many of us.

(My husband and I became vegan about two years ago, which means we don't eat any animal products. We also try to buy non-leather shoes and handbags -- although that gets problematic at times, so I'm kind of a compromised vegan.) [Editor's note: Joan and her husband look GREAT and are living advertisements for veganism--Emily]

There's a common sense reason to give up meat for a day, too. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization has said that meat production accounts for nearly a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions. Habitat destruction associated with raising cattle and other animals for meat is also an issue.

It would be good if more of us found we could live without meat for a day -- then one day a week -- then maybe more than that. So give it a try. As an animal lover, and as an environmentalist, you'll feel good about your decision.

Michael Killen and Jim Kreitzburg, the animators behind Taco Bell's talking Chihuahua and the California Cheese cows, created this moving PSA about the cruelty of dogfighting.

Killen says on his Web site that he'd been deeply affected by the Michael Vick case. He writes that he asked himself, "What if we did a commercial speaking from the perspective of the dogs?"

The resulting PSA doesn't contain graphic scenes, but it makes its point with the simple question: "Who's the animal?"

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently wrote about his experiences growing up on a farm and how they shaped how he feels about factory farming.

In my opinion, Kristof doesn't do a very persuasive job of revealing his caring, compassionate side. Quite the contrary: He seems to me to be a less compassionate person for his experiences.

If, as he says, he grew to admire some of the animals in his family's care, how could he go on to enjoy eating the animals he admired?

A California woman has paid $50,000 to clone her pet pit bull, receiving five puppies Tuesday who are genetically identical to her late dog Booger.

I hear a lot of crazy stuff at this job, and not much really gets the steam coming out of my ears, but this story has me all kinds of angry.

Each week I walk dogs at my local animal control center. The dogs are overwhelmingly pit bulls, and the majority of them are euthanized for lack of homes, even though most are sweet, loving dogs.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's Fifth Annual Animal Law Conference, which Petfinder co-sponsored.

Topics included recently passed and pending animal welfare legislation, developing an animal cruelty case, laws regarding assistance animals, ethical issues for shelter/rescue boards and estate planning.

It was really great to meet so many attorneys dedicated to changing and enforcing the laws that protect our companion animals. Many of the attorneys, I learned, volunteer and work in rescue themselves. A huge "thank you" for all that they do.

Today, the Marines made public the punishment to be meted out to two Marines in Iraq who had become YouTube stars for casually and cruelly hurling a weeks-old puppy over a cliff while joking and filming their "prank."

The idiot who did the throwing was taken out of Iraq and will be dismissed from the Marines. The cineast who filmed the 17-second atrocity will face some sort of secret Marine wrist-slapping. Whoop-de-doo. The thrower is probably overjoyed at escaping the war zone early. Killing young animals might now become the ticket to coming home faster -- and never having to be redeployed.