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Animal Homelessness is a Community Challenge

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Animal Homelessness is a Community Challenge

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Our relationships with the animals we keep are highly personal. They provide us with unconditional love, and we take on a personal responsibility for making sure that they are well cared for. But when the bond between an animal and his guardian is broken, as when an animal is lost, abandoned, or surrendered to a shelter, who then has responsibility for the animal and his care?

Most people would say it's the local animal shelter's responsibility. And that's true. We take on the function of caring for animals other people don't want or can't care for. And we acknowledge our special role in speaking for the voiceless and upholding the moral status of animals in our communities. But if you were to ask the people at the shelter whose responsibility it is to care for lost, mistreated, and abandoned animals, they'd insist that it's the community's as a whole.

That's because we can't do this work by ourselves. Animal shelters rely on the community for funding, homes, volunteer help, and most importantly, we need people to care for their animals properly and not contribute to the problem. That's why we insist that animal welfare is a community responsibility and that success in this field comes through partnerships with people outside of the shelter.

In fact, just a few weekends ago we had an amazing adoption event -- a real example of community partnership. We got 65 animals into new homes in just two days. We kept our adoption trucks moving back and forth from the shelter to their temporary station in front of Friendship Hospital for Animals all weekend.

This private veterinary hospital, the largest in the nation's capital, understands the need for community involvement in animal welfare. Thanks to them, we have a thriving humane education program, ready veterinary interns and staff to help for events and patient care, and now... 65 new homes for our animals. It's exactly the kind of partnership we're always looking for.

With the help of that hospital, we made a lot of new friends and found many new homes. The astonishing thing to me though, was not the number of adoptions. We'd like to do that every weekend. It's the fact that by simply bringing animals to where our adopters live, and not keeping them in our shelter, which, let's face it, is not exactly on the beaten track of metro D.C.'s population (most shelters are tucked away near landfills, railroad tracks, airports, and other well-healed neighborhoods!), we literally tripled our adoptions for the weekend. One obvious conclusion -- we've got to get out more!

And that's exactly what we bought our new adoption truck to do -- bring our animals literally into the waiting arms of adopters. Easy enough to say, but not so simple to do. Especially in a city like Washington, in which parking a 22-foot truck has its challenges. So we need partners: businesses like Friendship Hospital for Animals that can host adoption events and provide us with venues to meet the public and tell them about our work.

At the same time, it's incumbent upon us in the animal welfare business to make our shelters welcoming places that the public doesn't have to be afraid to visit. So many times I hear from donors or other supporters that they love what we do, but don't want to visit because it's so sad to see all those animals without homes or hope.

But that's exactly what you won't see at the Washington Animal Rescue League or in any of the new "breed" of animal shelters being built all over the country. What you'll see at the League are contented dogs and cats acting like dogs and cats. That means you'll see them playing, eating, sleeping, and wagging their tails or stretching their paws in greeting. You'll also see funny bowls and buckets holding treats and messages from our behavior staff asking you to toss a few treats to help train our dogs to be household pets.

Every shelter needs to become a place of hope, education, and engagement -- not despair. They should be places where you can bring kids to adopt a pet, learn about the animals, or just practice compassion for all living things. But above all, places where you can teach responsible animal care, which includes spaying and neutering and adopting from shelters, not from Craig's List. Places where they are taught kindness and that it's important to be part of the world's solutions. Which includes ending animal homelessness. Put us out of business -- please.

November 6-12 is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. (But you knew that already, didn't you?) It's a great time to get to know your local animal shelter and show them that you're ready to become part of the solution. Every shelter needs adopters, donors, and volunteers. But here are few other ways you might get involved:

1. Help publicize the animals who are looking for homes. Hang a picture and description of an adoptable animal at your workplace or school. You can pull them straight from the shelter's website.

2. Consider donating used towels, blankets, toys, and treats to the shelter. Shelters go through a lot of these. You might even use your neighborhood list serve to organize a drive.

3. Host an adoption event at your work, school, or community group. Even if the event doesn't manage to find too many homes for animals -- and some are more successful in this regard than others -- you will introduce lots of people to the shelter and the work it does.

4. Learn about the services that your local shelter offers -- spay/neuter programs, low-cost vaccination clinics, dog training classes, help for feral cats, and the like -- so that you're ready to talk to friends and neighbors about how they can find help caring for their pets properly.

5. Offer to organize a tour of the shelter for a group of young people. Almost every shelter will happily talk to children about what they do and introduce them to their animals.

It's all about community. What Friendship Hospital showed us this weekend was that community partnerships work. Animal shelters need community support. And this starts by taking good care of all of our own animals. But if it's easier for the mountain to come to Mohammed, we'll do that too, like we did last weekend.

Because when the problem of animal homelessness becomes all of our problems, by spaying and neutering, giving proper veterinary care and teaching compassion for all living things, the animals will finally win. Sixty five dogs and cats who got to sleep in their new beds last week can attest to that.

Related

Animal Welfare abandoned animals animal shelters dc homeless-animals

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Animal Homelessness Is a Community Challenge

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Our relationships with the animals we keep are highly personal. They provide us with unconditional love, and we take on a personal responsibility for making sure that they are well cared for. But when the bond between an animal and his guardian is broken, as when an animal is lost, abandoned, or surrendered to a shelter, who then has responsibility for the animal and his care?

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Petside.com is a major supporter in the fight against animal cruelty and animal welfare is at the heart of what we do.

Our goal is to grow our site's awareness and donate through advertising to charitable organisations involved in ending the suffering to animals.

We want to support all animal lovers to do the very best for their pets. We believe that knowledge is key to keeping all animals safe and happy and so our mission is to ensure that we all know what to do. From caring for your own pet and understanding their behavior to wider animal welfare issues and protecting our precious wildlife, with the right guidance and advice we can all make a difference.

What is the Animal Liberation Front?

From animal experimentation and factory farming to research laboratories and the fur trade, the issue of animal abuse and exploitation has long been a thorny issue, with the direct action of many animal liberation groups making for some dramatic headlines. And at the forefront of the cause since the 1970s has been a notorious campaign group known as the ALF - or the Animal Liberation Front.

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

Originally formed from a small and passionate group of UK animal activists, ALF has grown into a worldwide network of anonymous individuals still active and committed to protecting animal rights today. Their use of direct action to highlight their cause - predominately through releasing animals as well as damage and destruction of property - has led to numerous criminal prosecutions over the years. However, their aim remains the same: to end animal abuse and exploitation.

Whether you agree or disagree with their actions, or have never heard of the ALF, here's what you need to know about the Animal Liberation Front.

The Animal Liberation Front is an animal rights group committed to ending the abuse of animals by carrying out direct action campaigns against the organizations they believe are the perpetrators of exploitation and cruelty. They believe that all animals have the right to live a life free of suffering and particularly target those who seek to exploit animals for financial gain.

Scientific laboratories, research institutions, fur farms and factory farms are just some of the types of organizations to be targeted by the ALF, often by destruction of property, animal rescue and undercover filming of the animal cruelty taking place.

The organizational set-up of the ALF reflects the clandestine nature of their direct action tactics and campaigns. The Animal Liberation Front has no hierarchy or leader, in fact the ALF prides itself on what it calls its model of 'leadership resistance'.

This model means there is no centralized organization or coordination; instead the Animal Liberation Front consists of lots of small, autonomous groups of people around the world who choose to undertake direct action in line with the ALF's original core guidelines:

1. To free animals from places of abuse and place them in good homes where they may live out their natural lives, free from suffering

2. To do damage to those who profit from the misery and exploitation of animals

3. To reveal the horror committed against animals behind locked doors, by performing non-violent actions and freeing of animals

4. To take all necessary precautions against harming any animal - human and non-human.

Due to the potential risk of their action being against the law, these groups or individuals work anonymously and there is no formal membership of the ALF. In short, individuals make the decision to act in the name of the Animal Liberation Front.

Direct action - the Animal Liberation Front focuses its attention on rescuing animals as well as causing financial loss to the animals' exploiters, usually through the damage and destruction of their property. By doing so, ALF activists believe they are also working towards ending the 'property status of non-human animals'.

Since their formation in the early 1970s, the Animal Liberation Front has highlighted the unpalatable issue of animal exploitation, shining the light on the horrors of animal research and experimentation, the cruelty of factory and fur farming and the need for all animals to have protection and a life free of unnecessary suffering. Just some of ALF's direct action campaigns include releasing a film made from undercover footage of animal experimentation at a University of Pennsylvania laboratory, a highly publicized release of minks from an Oregon fur farm and the Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty campaign.

'All necessary precautions' - prominent amongst the Animal Liberation Front's guiding principles are that they are non-violent and that all necessary precautions should be taken against harming any animal - 'human or non-human'. However, they accept that their actions 'may be against the law' as their long-term goal is to force animal abuse organizations and companies out of business and expose 'the horror committed against animals behind locked doors'.

The ALF's commitment to non-violent action has been called into question on numerous occasions, with the actions of some of its activists seen as threatening and even harmful towards people. While no-one has been killed by ALF direct action, there have been recorded incidents of arson attacks and intimidation which has increasingly cast a long shadow over the organization and its aim to end animal abuse.

In 1991, the FBI named the Animal Liberation Front a domestic terrorist threat (it is considered as special interest extremism), followed by Department of Homeland Security in 2005. In the UK, the actions of the ALF are considered as examples of domestic extremism and is monitored by the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit.

However, PETA - a legal activist organization that campaigns for the ethical treatment of animals, believes that ALF and its actions have uncovered horrific animal cruelty that would have otherwise gone undetected.

"They have resulted in officials' filing of criminal charges against laboratories, the citing of experimenters for violations of the Animal Welfare Act, and, in some cases, the shutting down of abusive labs for good. Often ALF raids have been followed by widespread scientific condemnation of the practices occurring in the targeted labs." PETA.org

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

History of Animal Liberation Front

Since the 1970s, the Animal Liberation Front has been at the forefront of exposing animal exploitation and cruelty around the world. To understand the motivation of the Animal Liberation Front, it's important to understand where the ALF came from and the people who set it on the path of direct action in the name of animal rights.

We take a look at some of the key milestones in the history of the Animal Liberation Front:

The seeds of the Animal Liberation Front movement were sown back in 1963, when a British journalist was assigned to cover a stag hunt. After watching the hunters chase and kill a pregnant deer, he felt compelled to set up the Hunt Saboteurs Association (HSA) in protest of what he had seen.

HSA groups started to spring up around the country, including one in Luton, formed by a law student called Ronnie Lee in 1972. Lee, and another activist, Cliff Goodman, felt that more militant direct action tactics were needed, so formed their own group, The Bands of Mercy.

Between 1973 and 1974, the Bands of Mercy embarked on a series of attacks on several animal testing research laboratories before completing its first act of animal liberation, taking guinea pigs from a Wiltshire farm.

In August 1974, Lee and Goodman went on trial for a raid on an Oxfordshire laboratory and given a prison sentence. On Lee's release in 1976, he was more focused than ever and renamed the Bands of Mercy as the Animal Liberation Front.

From the beginning, the ALF believed that animals should not be viewed as property and that science or industry had no right to assume ownership of animals in order to exploit them. As well as liberating animals from the research and factory farming industries, the activists also believed that sabotage by destroying property would seriously damage the companies financially and eventually lead to alternatives to the use of animals or see them close down.

With around 30 activists, the newly formed ALF went on to carry out 10 direct action campaigns against vivisectionists (companies and organizations involved in animal experimentation) in its first year. The Animal Liberation Front had arrived.

It was towards the end of the 1970s that the Animal Liberation Front started to spread overseas, with the first documented ALF-action in the US taking place in 1982 with a raid on an animal laboratory at Howard University. However, the FBI had been tracking ALF activity in the US as early as 1977.

It's also important to note that the 1970s saw a transformation in the philosophy of animal welfare. This included the publication of Peter Singer's influential book, Animal Liberation, which argued against the idea of 'speciesism', defined as discrimination against animals based on their non-human status. This period saw a shift from animal welfare to the concept of animal rights and the arrival of other key animal activism groups, including PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) in 1982.

This shift also reinforced the ALF's belief that all animals had rights and that through their direct action campaigns, they were liberating animals, not stealing them, as they were not 'owned' in the first place.

In 1984, ALF activists broke into a laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania and stole 60 hours of videotape footage from their head injury research program. The footage was handed over to PETA for editing into a film 'Unnecessary Fuss', which featured shocking footage of experiments on primates, and which ultimately led to the closure of the lab.

Throughout the 1980s, the Animal Liberation Front remained active on both sides of the Atlantic, but as the decade progressed, the ALF's firm grip on non-violent action started to slip, and not all its activists seemed to adhere to its guiding principle.

In 1984, the first food scare arrived, with the ALF claiming it had contaminated Mars Bars in UK stores in protest against tooth decay tests on monkeys. It later proved to be a hoax.

During the 1990s, the ALF continued with a host of high-profile direct actions, including a fire attack on a Michigan State University laboratory, attacks on the fur industry and the well-publicized releases of minks from fur farms in Oregon and Washington. The ALF also claimed responsibility for smashing the windows of the Bank of New York, in protest of its business with Huntingdon Life Sciences.

The 90s saw the Animal Liberation Front get involved in Stop Huntington Animal Cruelty, a high-profile campaign to close Huntingdon Life Sciences in Cambridge, Europe's largest animal testing laboratory. One ALF activist was subsequently jailed for 12 years for planting homemade bombs on the doorsteps of businessmen linked to the laboratory.

In the UK, the ALF repeatedly vandalized and destroyed the construction site of an intended research lab for Oxford University, leading to the build being halted in 2004. Then, in 2006, ALF activists claimed responsibility for a firebomb attack on a home owned by a UCLA researcher. The bomb failed to ignite.

In its early years, where they limited their activity to removing animals, damaging property and exposing cruelty, the Animal Liberation Front had garnered sympathy and support from the public, largely due to their non-violent stance. But as their actions became more militant and individual members started to choose more violent ways to achieve its objectives, the ALF started to become more isolated.

In 1984, the Animal Liberation Front had been expelled from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisectionists (BUAV). And, by 2005, the Animal Liberation Front was on the watchlist of Homeland Security, having already been identified as a potential terrorist threat by the FBI.

The Animal Liberation Front Today

By the early 2000s, direct action campaign activity involving the Animal Liberation Front had begun to slow as support for their increasingly violent tactics in the name of animal rights started to dwindle. However, their original ethos, commitment and passion for animal rights remained. With animal rights and environmental issues now firmly on the global agenda and public sympathy for animal welfare at an all-time high, the Animal Liberation Front's drive for ending animal suffering and abuse has been embraced by a host of other charities and direct action organizations, including PETA.

And they are not alone - as there are ALF cells currently believed to be active in more than 20 countries around the world, continuing to champion the end of animal abuse and exploitation.

To read more about the ALF and keep up to date with latest news, please click here.

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Petside.com is a major supporter in the fight against animal cruelty and animal welfare is at the heart of what we do. Our goal is to grow our site's awareness and donate through advertising to charitable organisations involved in ending the suffering to animals. We want to support all animal lovers to do the very [...]

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These Teens Made a Difference, Anya Agarwal: Global Animal Rescue Program

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These Teens Made a Difference, Anya Agarwal: Global Animal Rescue Program

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Share Your Story

Did you purchase a puppy from a pet store or online? Did you rescue a puppy mill dog? Your story and photos could aid us tremendously as we work to educate the public and expose inhumane breeders.
Tell us about your experience.

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Like you, we love dogs. They're members of the family-often our favorite members! But too many dogs in America don't know this kind of love. Victims of the high-volume puppy industry, they're bred for profit and kept in tiny, filthy cages. These dogs don't receive any affection, exercise or proper veterinary care.

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Puppy mills are a well-kept secret of the pet-trade industry. They supply animals to pet stores and purebred enthusiasts without any concern for the millions of animals who will die in animal shelters as a result. It's standard practice for puppy mills to keep animals in cramped, crude, and filthy conditions without proper veterinary care or socialization.

Puppy-mill kennels can consist of anything from small cages made of wood and wire mesh to tractor-trailer cabs or simply chains attached to trees, where mother dogs and puppies spend every day outdoors in the same small patch of dirt in all types of weather.

Female dogs are bred over and over until they can no longer produce puppies-at which point they are auctioned off or killed. Mothers and their litters often suffer from malnutrition, exposure, and a lack of adequate veterinary care.

Undercover investigations of puppy mills have revealed that dogs often had no bedding or protection from the cold or heat and no regular veterinary care even when they were ill. Health conditions such as crusty, oozing eyes, raging ear infections, mange that turned their skin into a mass of red scabs, and abscessed feet from the unforgiving wire floors all were ignored or inadequately treated. Investigators have observed dogs circling frantically in their small cages and pacing ceaselessly back and forth, oblivious to anything around them-their only way of coping with despair.

Since puppy mills breed dogs for quantity, not quality, genetic defects are rampant. These can include physical problems that require costly veterinary treatment as well as personality disorders that often frustrate guardians into abandoning their dogs.

With millions of unwanted dogs and cats (including purebreds) dying every year in animal shelters, there is simply no reason for animals to be bred and sold for the pet-shop trade. Without these stores, the financial incentive for puppy mills would disappear, and the suffering of these dogs would end.

You can help. It's as easy as ABC- Animal Birth Control. Always have your animal companions spayed or neutered and never buy from a breeder or pet shop.

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Puppy mills are a well-kept secret of the pet-trade industry. They supply animals to pet stores and purebred enthusiasts without any concern for the millions of animals who will die in animal shelters as a result. It's standard practice for puppy mills to keep animals in cramped, crude, and filthy conditions without proper veterinary care or socialization.

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The information on this page and our Puppy Mill FAQs has been compiled based on first-hand experience with the rescue and rehabilitation of dogs from puppy mills, years of researching USDA inspection reports and regulations, investigation of pet stores and the source of their dogs, and resources provided by national organizations with significant expertise on the puppy mill industry, including the HSUS, the ASPCA, and Best Friends Animal Society.

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Buyer Beware: The Problem with Puppy Mills and Backyard Breeders

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Buyer Beware: The Problem with Puppy Mills and Backyard Breeders

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Choosing to bring a new canine companion into your life is an exciting but involved decision-making process, especially when deciding where to get one. You might have concerns about "puppy mills" or "backyard breeders," and want to know how to steer clear of them. Perhaps you don't even know what these are and need more information.

As you begin your research, here are some things to consider:

Puppy mills

Puppy mills are commercial breeding facilities that mass-produce dogs (and cats in cat mills) for sale through pet stores, or directly to consumers through classified ads or the Internet. Roughly 90 percent of puppies in pet stores come from puppy mills. Many retailers who buy animals from such facilities take the wholesaler's word that the animals are happy and healthy without seeing for themselves.

In most states, these commercial breeding kennels can legally keep hundreds of dogs in cages their entire lives, for the sole purpose of continuously churning out puppies. The animals produced range from purebreds to any number of the latest "designer" mixed breeds. Cat breeding occurs under similar conditions to supply pet stores with kittens.
Animals in puppy mills are treated like cash crops

They are confined to squalid, overcrowded cages with minimal shelter from extreme weather and no choice but to sit and sleep in their own excrement.

Animals suffer from malnutrition or starvation due to inadequate or unsanitary food and water.

Sick or dying animals receive little or no veterinary care.

Adult animals are continuously bred until they can no longer produce, then destroyed or discarded.

Kittens and puppies are taken from their mothers at such an early age; many suffer from serious behavior problems.

Backyard breeders

Backyard breeders are also motivated by profit. Ads from these unscrupulous breeders fill the classifieds. Backyard breeders may appear to be the nice neighbor next door-in fact, even seemingly good-intentioned breeders may treat their breeding pairs as family pets. However, continuously breeding animals for years to produce litters for a profit still jeopardizes the animals' welfare.

Some backyard breeders may only breed their family dog once in awhile, but they often are not knowledgeable on how to breed responsibly, such as screening for genetic defects. Responsible, proper breeding entails much more than simply putting two dogs together.

Look for these red flags:

The seller has many types of purebreds or "designer" hybrid breeds being sold at less than six weeks old.

Breeders who are reluctant to show potential customers the entire premises on which animals are being bred and kept.

Breeders who don't ask a lot of questions of potential buyers.

No guarantees-responsible breeders make a commitment to take back the pet at anytime during the animal's life, no matter the reason.

Because puppy mills and backyard breeders choose profit over animal welfare, their animals typically do not receive proper veterinary care. Animals may seem healthy at first but later show issues like congenital eye and hip defects, parasites or even the deadly Parvovirus.

Taking homes away

When puppy mills and backyard breeders flood the market with animals, they reduce homes available for animals from reputable establishments, shelters and rescue groups. Every year, more than 150,000 cats and dogs enter shelters in Washington State-6 to 8 million animals enter shelters nationwide. Sadly, only about 15 percent of people with pets in the U.S. adopted them from a shelter or rescue group, leaving so many deserving pets left behind.

Help stop the suffering by taking these steps:

1. Be a responsible, informed consumer-if you do buy from a breeder, go to a reputable one who:

Will show you where the dogs spend their time and introduces you to the puppy's parents.

Explains the puppy's medical history, including vaccines, and gives you their veterinarian's contact info.

Doesn't have puppies available year-round, yet may keep a waiting list for interested people.

Asks about your family's lifestyle, why you want a dog, and your care and training plans for the puppy.

Doesn't use pressure sales tactics.

2. Adopt from a shelter or breed-specific rescue group near you-typically 25% of the animals in shelters are purebred.

3. Support laws that protect animals from puppy mill cruelty-tell your elected officials you support laws which cap the number of animals a person can own and breed, and establish care standards for exercise, housing, access to food and water and regular veterinary care.

4. Urge your local pet store to support shelters-animals are often used to draw consumers into stores. Encourage pet stores to promote shelter animals for adoption instead of replenishing their supply through questionable sources.

5. Donate pet supplies to local shelters to help those rescued from the puppy mills and many other homeless animals in need.

6. Learn more at:

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Buyer Beware: The Problem with Puppy Mills and Backyard Breeders | PAWS

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Choosing to bring a new canine companion into your life is an exciting but involved decision-making process, especially when deciding where to get one. You might have concerns about "puppy mills" or "backyard breeders," and want to know how to steer clear of them. Perhaps you don't even know what these are and need more information.

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Bullying. A word almost every kid dreads. They dread being the outcast. The reject. The person everyone bullies. The loner. Not being good enough or not meeting someone’s standards. Some dread it so much, they take their own lives. A tragic way to

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Anti-Bullying Activist Spreads Message of Kindness

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Anti-Bullying Activist Spreads Message of Kindness

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Easy to Use. Hard to Put Down.
With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Scholastic Classroom & News Magazines | Subscribe Now!

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Easy to Use. Hard to Put Down. With Magazines+, you get fresh, high-interest content delivered all year long-in print, online or both. Every single story, video and activity is designed to hook your students and keep them engaged. And because Magazines+ complements your curriculum, it's easy to implement during any part of the school day!

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Cyberbullying: What Teachers and Schools Can Do

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Cyberbullying: What Teachers and Schools Can Do

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If you are already registered on our website, you can sign in by selecting your partner organization below, then entering your email address and password on the next screen.

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Cyberbullying What Schools Can Do to Stop It

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Cyberbullying What Schools Can Do to Stop It

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Student loan forgiveness: Biden to continue freeze of payments, ask Congress to erase debt

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Student loan forgiveness: Biden to continue freeze of payments, ask Congress to erase debt

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President-elect Joe Biden's administration plans to continue a pause on federal student loan payments when he takes office this month, according to officials helping with the transition.

The nation's tens of millions of student loan borrowers could continue to abstain from making payments, though it wasn't immediately clear how long the pause would last.

Biden officials also said Friday they would encourage Congress to pass legislation to erase $10,000 in federal student loan debt per person. That move, however, is likely to draw criticism from activists who have pushed Biden to forgive more debt per person, in some cases up to $50,000, via executive action upon taking office.

In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump's administration suspended student loan payments, froze interest and told loan servicers to stop their collection efforts. That pause recently was extended by outgoing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos through the end of January.

"On day one, the President-elect will direct the Department of Education to extend the existing pause on student loan payments and interest for millions of Americans with federal student loans," said David Kamin, the incoming deputy director of the National Economic Council and recently a professor at New York University's law school.

Wiping out federal student loan debt is more controversial. Critics of student loan forgiveness, who include both liberals and conservatives, have said wiping out these debts would unfairly benefit those with a college education, who typically earn more as a result.

According to Federal Reserve data, Americans hold about $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Student borrowers who graduated in 2019 from public or private nonprofit colleges held on average $28,950 in debt, according to The Institute for College Access and Success.

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Student loan forgiveness: Biden to continue freeze of payments, ask Congress to erase debt

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President-elect Joe Biden's administration plans to continue a pause on federal student loan payments when he takes office this month, according to officials helping with the transition. The nation's tens of millions of student loan borrowers could continue to abstain from making payments, though it wasn't immediately clear how long the pause would last.

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As of 2014, Germany has offering free education to all students who choose to study in the country.

Although education may not be entirely free in some countries, the fees to attend a college are remarkably cheaper in some places, with some universities charging a fraction of the tuition fees to international students. The countries offering free tertiary education draw a lot of international students who find it expensive to pursue a university education in their home countries.

Countries With Free College

Germany

Germany has been offering free education to all students who choose to study in the country since 2014. As from 2017, a fee was imposed on students from non-European Union countries who want to study in some universities located in the South-Western part of the country. The institutions of higher learning in Germany are divided into two; universities are the institutions that offer doctorate degrees while other institutions are known as Hochschule. Most high school diplomas received from schools outside Germany are not considered as a qualification to join a German university; international students have to take entrance exams to be able to get admission to a university. In some parts of the country, students who take longer than the stipulated time to complete their university degrees are usually charged a fee similar to those taking their second degree. University attendance in Germany is still lower than that of other European countries, and this may be attributed to the school system which allows students to choose between attending vocational schools and the universities.

Norway

Norway has several public universities with a few private institutions. University education is free in the country except for some professional educational courses and for private universities which charge a fee. The higher education system is broken down into a 3+2+3 system whereby a degree takes three years, a masters two years, and a doctoral three years. There is no tuition fee charged in the universities, and this applies to all students anticipating to study in Norway including international students.

Denmark

Education in Denmark is mandatory for persons under 16 years. Education is free in all government schools and universities. Most of Denmark's population is literate due to the free education system. Free education in the country is offered to Danish nationals, individuals born in Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, permanent residents or individuals with a resident visa, individuals from Nordic countries, the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and the European Union countries. In addition to paying zero fees, Danish students who meet specific criteria are offered financial aid and government loans to enable them to complete their education. Most classes in the universities are offered in English. The University of Copenhagen is one of the famous and highly rated public universities in Denmark.

Significance of Studying Abroad

The countries offering free college education are also home to some of the best public universities in the world. Other countries that provide free education include Finland, Sweden, Czechia, Greece, and Spain. The Nordic countries draw in many international students despite the high costs of living in the countries. Something to note is that despite having most classes in English, a basic knowledge of the national language is required to attend school in most of these countries.

Rank

﻿Countries With Free College

1

Germany

2

Norway

3

Denmark

4

Sweden

5

Finland

6

Czechia

7

Greece

8

Spain

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2. World Facts

3. Countries With Free College

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Although education may not be entirely free in some countries, the fees to attend a college are remarkably cheaper in some places, with some universities charging a fraction of the tuition fees to international students. The countries offering free tertiary education draw a lot of international students who find it expensive to pursue a university education in their home countries.

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Tuition-Free Degree Program: The Excelsior Scholarship

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Tuition-Free Degree Program: The Excelsior Scholarship

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Tuition-Free Degree Program: The Excelsior Scholarship

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New York State is Home to the Nation’s First Accessible College Program

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Few New York students benefit from free College tuition, study finds

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Few New York students benefit from free College tuition, study finds

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New York City students largely aren't benefiting from the state's program promising free college tuition, according to numbers released Friday by a nonpartisan policy think tank.

At Hostos Community College in the Bronx, just 34 students qualified for the Excelsior scholarship - 0.5 percent of the college's enrollment. The numbers were similarly tiny at other New York City campuses, like Guttman Community College, where 36 students received aid, and Bronx Community College, where 61 students did.

All told, 21 percent of Excelsior recipients attend City University of New York schools, even though those students make up 38 percent of undergraduate enrollment statewide. Across the city, 4,000 students received the award.

"A lot of students are being excluded," said Tom Hilliard, a researcher who authored the report for the Center for an Urban Future, which draws on state data obtained through a public information request. "Are we really meeting the state's larger goals of helping all students afford college so they can get a degree?"

Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced the scholarship program in January 2017, calling it a first-in-the-nation plan to make college more affordable. But experts had long warned that the scholarship's strict requirements - especially the rule that students earn 30 credits a year - would exclude many students juggling additional responsibilities while attending school. Sixty percent of CUNY students report a household income under $30,000.

There are other reasons why New York City students may have been shut out of Excelsior, and the small numbers don't necessarily mean students aren't receiving tuition help. Since the scholarship is only a "last dollar" program - meaning it fills the tuition gap not covered by other scholarships - city students may be qualifying for other types of aid to pay for their classes.

The governor's office noted that 53 percent of the state's full-time students already attend college tuition-free, thanks to other aid programs. At CUNY, that figure is 56 percent for full-time students. The state also took issue with some of the report's figures, and said that many students who qualified for Excelsior were rejected because their bills were already covered.

"We are proud that, with Excelsior, thousands more are attending college for free this year," spokesman Don Kaplan wrote in an email. "New York is expanding college access and making it affordable and the Center for an Urban Future shouldn't stand in the way of that progress."

Hilliard said the state should consider easing Excelsior's credit requirement, or focus on helping students pay for other kinds of college costs, such as books and transportation, to help more students earn a degree.

"We have a lot of students who aren't graduating, or are not graduating on time, and affordability is a big part of that," he said.

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Few New York City students benefit from free college tuition, report finds

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New York City students largely aren't benefiting from the state's program promising free college tuition, according to numbers released Friday by a nonpartisan policy think tank. At Hostos Community College in the Bronx, just 34 students qualified for the Excelsior scholarship - 0.5 percent of the college's

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The Excelsior Scholarship is Leading the Way to Affordable Education

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The Excelsior Scholarship is Leading the Way to Affordable Education

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Santa Monica Teens Saving the Environment

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Santa Monica Teens Saving the Environment

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Find the best eco-friendly advice for parenting infants to teens, plus tips on pregnancy, activities, family dynamics, and environmental education.

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Young Activist: Erica Fernandez Speaks Out for the Environment

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Young Activist: Erica Fernandez Speaks Out for the Environment

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Kid Reporters' Notebook | Scholastic Inc. | News for kids by kids

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Can President Biden help heal the political divisions that led to a riot at the U.S. Capitol building on January 6?

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Clay McMullen, Teen Passionate about Saving the Environment: Community Heroes 2011

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Clay McMullen, Teen Passionate about Saving the Environment: Community Heroes 2011

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Like a lot of boys, Clay McMullen always enjoyed fishing and rock-climbing around his home in Geauga County's Chester Township.

But starting about a half-dozen years ago, at age 11, Clay began worrying about the environment so much that he started a crusade to make a difference.

Since then, Clay, now 17, has won nearly 50 grants totaling $180,000 from organizations ranging from Walt Disney Co. to the Environmental Protection Agency to Sea World.

Along the way, the West Geauga High School senior also helped get a state law passed last year that essentially guarantees that Ohio elementary students will be taught about wetlands when they learn about the state symbols.

More heroes

Every year The Plain Dealer highlights people in Greater Cleveland who saw a need and stepped up to answer it -- sometimes risking injury to save lives, sometimes risking time and effort to make a change in the community. Here are the heroes of the past three years and a link to all of this year's stories.

Clay'sprojects include building nesting landings for osprey (an endangered bird), starting nature clubs for students in the West Geauga district's two elementary schools, planting vegetable gardens and courtyards at his middle school and high school, and getting emission-control devices installed on nearly two dozen buses in the school district.

He estimates that he has spent 2,000 hours on environmental causes since the seventh grade.

"It's worth it. I want these natural resources to be preserved," he said. "I want my kids to have the same natural resources that I had. I want my grandkids to have them, too.

"Whatever amount of work I have to do, it's completely worth it," he said.

Clay's mom, Irene, recalls that hebegged to go on a bird-watching excursion when he was in the fifth grade.

"It was so funny. Everyone else was retired," she said, "but Clay was fascinated." Among the topics: The endangered osprey -- a fish-eating bird with a 6-foot wingspan.

The grant mania set in a year later in 2005, after he learned that 90 percent of Ohio's wetlands have been destroyed in the last 100 years. Ospreys rely on wetlands.

Clay got the idea to build osprey nesting platforms, which sit on 50-foot-high poles in wetland areas, and his mom took him to Home Depot. Clay asked the manager if he could help out with the materials, which would have cost about $150. The manager told Clay that if he wrote a letter explaining the project, Home Depot would donate the materials. The rest is history.

Mike Sustin, an environmental-science teacher at West Geauga High School, recalled that Clay next started researching online where he could get grants to build more nesting platforms, and found an application from Disney.

Clay was awarded $1,000 from Disney to build the platforms.

"The projects just got bigger after that," Irene McMullen said. "People began to call him. So it just kind of snowballed."

Clay's biggest grant was a $64,000 prize from the EPA to get diesel multistage filters installed on the schooldistrict's buses. "The amount of particulate from those buses is pretty alarming," he said.

He also got the school board to adopt a "West G is Idle Free" policy that prohibits idling in the parking lot for more than 30 seconds.

What about parents waiting to pick up their kids on cold days? Clay helped secure a grant last year to buy green micro-fleece blankets to distribute to people waiting in cold cars.

Sustin considers Clay's slickest achievement to be the five-year quest he undertook with a few of his environmentally minded friends to ensure that students statewide would learn about and appreciate wetlands.

They persuaded the Ohio legislatureto name the spotted salamander, which lives in wetlands, as the state's official amphibian -- guaranteeing that wetlands are part of every fourth-grade science class.

"That was a great strategy," Sustin said. "As a 20-year educator, I don't know that I could have come up with that idea."

While a kid who's extremely science-minded and has a grade point average above 4.0 could be considered a little nerdy, Clay is one of the most popular students, said Principal David Toth.

As he prepares to leave for college next year, Clay is training younger students to continue his environmental work.

"I think we can provide an example to show that you can be active and try to contribute and make a difference," he said.

Plain Dealer news researcher Jo Ellen Corrigan contributed to this story. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tmurray@plaind.com, 216-999-6315

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Clay McMullen, teen passionate about saving the environment: Community Heroes 2011 (video)

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Like a lot of boys, Clay McMullen always enjoyed fishing and rock-climbing around his home in Geauga County's Chester Township. But starting about a half-dozen years ago, at age 11, Clay began worrying about the environment so much that he started a crusade to make a difference.

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The Second Amendment: Firearms in the U.S.

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The Second Amendment: Firearms in the U.S.

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The Second Amendment: Firearms in the U.S. | History

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Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975

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Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975

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The Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 was passed by the District of Columbia city council on September 24, 1976. The law banned residents from owning handguns, automatic firearms, or high-capacity semi-automatic firearms, as well as prohibited possession of unregistered firearms. Exceptions to the ban were allowed for police officers and guns registered before 1976. The law also required firearms kept in the home to be "unloaded, disassembled, or bound by a trigger lock or similar device"; this was deemed to be a prohibition on the use of firearms for self-defense in the home. On June 26, 2008, in the historic case of District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court of the United States determined that the ban and trigger lock provisions violate the Second Amendment.

Washington, D.C.'s gun laws are considered by many to be the strictest in the United States, and have been challenged as infringing on constitutional rights protected by the United States Constitution's Second Amendment. On March 9, 2007, portions of the law were declared unconstitutional by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 ruling in the case District of Columbia v. Heller. After the District's application for a rehearing en banc was denied, it appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of the United States. On June 26, 2008, the Court determined that the ban and trigger lock provision violate the Second Amendment. However, the ruling does not prohibit all forms of gun control; laws requiring firearm registration remain in place as does the city's assault weapon ban.

1. ^ "Government Reform to Review D.C. s Handgun Ban". Congressman Tom Davis. Archived from the original on 2007-02-28.

2. ^ "The Case For Reforming The District of Columbia's Gun Laws". National Rifle Association.

3. ^ Senior Circuit Judge Silberman (2007-03-09). "Case No. 04-7041, Parker v. D.C." (PDF). United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. p. 58. Section 7-2507.02, like the bar on carrying a pistol within the home, amounts to a complete prohibition on the lawful use of handguns for self-defense.

4. ^ Kates, Jr. Don B. (1983). "Handgun Prohibition and the Original Meaning of the Second Amendment". Michigan Law Review. 204.

5. ^ Reynolds, Glenn Harlan (1995). "A Critical Guide to the Second Amendment". Tennessee Law Review. 461.

6. ^ Polsby, Daniel P. (March 1994). "The False Promise of Gun Control". Atlantic Monthly.

7. ^ Miller, Bill and Robert Barnes (2007-03-09). "Appeals Court Guts D.C. Gun Ban". The Washington Post.

8. ^ Nakamura, David (2008-06-26). "D.C. Attorney General: All Guns Must Be Registered". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2008-10-11.

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Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975

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The Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975 was passed by the District of Columbia city council on September 24, 1976. The law banned residents from owning handguns, automatic firearms, or high-capacity semi-automatic firearms, as well as prohibited possession of unregistered firearms. Exceptions to the ban were allowed for police officers and guns registered before 1976.

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Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 140, §§ 121-131Q regulate firearm possession and licensing in the Commonwealth.

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National Constitution Center - The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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The 2nd Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

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Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S.

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Malala Yousafzai is a Woman of the Year because... "By targeting her, extremists showed what they feared most: a girl with a book. Malala embodies the power of education to build peace. She is truly a role model for the world."
-Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations__
Update: Malala wins the Nobel Peace Prize "

For most of us, her story began on October 9, 2012, the day a young man with a handkerchief over his face boarded a bus filled with 20 singing, chatting girls on their way home from school in the lush Swat Valley of northern Pakistan. "Who is Malala?" the man asked. When the girls unwittingly glanced toward their 15-year-old friend near the back, he lifted a black Colt .45 and fired three shots, sending a bullet through her head.

But who is Malala? Her real story, she told me, started years before.

When Malala Yousafzai-named, fittingly, after Malalai, a female Afghan martyr who died in battle-was born, her father, a teacher named Ziauddin, refused to grieve the way fathers in his culture were expected to upon having daughters; instead, he wrote her into his clan's family tree-a distinction usually reserved for boys. And Malala's sense of justice came young. When, at an early age, she saw children living on a garbage dump, she wrote a letter to God. "Give me strength and courage," she pleaded. "I want to make this world perfect."

Malala's valley had always been conservative; she remembers disliking having to cover her face, and bristling at the fact that while boys and men could walk freely around town, her mother could not go out without a male relative, "even if it was a five-year-old boy!" But real danger only came to her peaceful region when she was 10-in the form of the Taliban. Then, says Malala,"I got afraid. Not of the Taliban, but because they were banning girls' education." Schools closed; many were bombed; bodies of dissenters piled up in a town square. The local Taliban leader used his radio show to congratulate by name those girls who dropped out of school. The school Malala's father ran stayed open, but for safety, it removed its signs and the girls stopped wearing their uniforms, which would have made them targets.

And that's when Malala really became Malala. When a BBC journalist asked her father to recommend a teacher or student willing to document the terror, no one volunteered-except his own daughter. "I thought, What a great opportunity," she recalls. "Terrorism will spill over if you don't speak up." Under the pen name Gul Makai, she wrote frank, detailed diary entries about her life under the Taliban. Though many urged her to stop, and some have since criticized her father for allowing her to do it, Malala wasn't worried. The Taliban, she remembers, "had never come for a girl."

Emboldened, she began giving speeches across Pakistan in favor of education. She won the country's National Peace Prize and met the prime minister, presenting him with a list of demands on behalf of children-rebuilt schools, a girls' college-but keeping her expectations low. "I told myself, 'I shall not wait for any prime minister-when I'm a politician, I will do these things myself,'" she says. Malala led a double life: In one world, she was an Ugly Betty fan known for her spot-on impersonations of teachers and friends; in the other, a rising voice of dissent against terror. She started to realize her work could be risky. "I used to think that one day the Taliban would come [for me]," she told me. "And I thought, What would I do? I said to myself, 'Malala, you must be brave. You must not be afraid of anyone. You are only trying to get an education-you are not committing a crime.' I would even tell [my attacker], 'I want education for your son and daughter.' " Her own mother decided to take classes to learn to read and write.

And then came October 9.

Her parents rushed to her bedside. "My brave daughter, my beautiful daughter," lamented her father, leaning over her. But his brave daughter recovered, thanks in part to two visiting British doctors who were able to take her to a hospital in Birmingham, England. Around the world, women, men, and children prayed for her. Thousands of letters piled up (one addressed simply to "The Girl Shot in the Head, Birmingham"), and people everywhere asked: Would she be okay? Could she lead a normal life again?

It turns out that for Malala, normal was never the goal. In the year since her attack, she has spoken, written, and fought her way into history, becoming the world's leading advocate for educating girls. Not normal-extraordinary.

At the United Nations in July, she brought the general assembly to its feet. "One child, one teacher, one pen, and one book can change the world," she said. Since then she has Skyped with Syrian children, written the memoir I Am Malala, charmed Jon Stewart and Barack Obama, and become one of the youngest-ever nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout it all, she has stayed focused: Let girls go to school.

The issue certainly needs a hero right now. Around the world an estimated 66 million girls are being denied the right to an education. Fix that, scholars have long said, and you could change the course of human history. "There's a saying," says Sheryl WuDunn, coauthor of Half the Sky, "that when you educate boys, you educate boys; when you educate girls, you educate a village." Educated girls are safer from sexual assault and childhood marriage; they go on to raise more-educated children themselves. Her Muslim faith, Malala points out, is in her favor: "Islam tells us every girl and boy should be educated," she says. "I don't know why the Taliban have forgotten it."

For that sensibility, and for her unstoppable drive to change the world, Malala is Glamour's 2013 Women of the Year Fund honoree. The money raised goes to the project she is most passionate about, The Malala Fund, which aims to help children all over the world get the education that is their birthright. The fund recently made its first grant, supporting the educations of 40 girls in the Swat Valley-an achievement that thrills Malala, who wants to expand to other regions and countries (she cites Syria, Afghanistan, Nigeria). "Nothing can happen when half the population is in the Stone Age," she says. "I believe that when women are educated, then you will see this world change."

Malala's own world has changed hugely, from a small town to the global stage. She plans to go to college-Oxford, Cambridge, maybe Harvard, "to learn and learn and learn"-and into politics; one of her heroes is the assassinated Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose scarf she wore during that address at the United Nations.

But the place she'd most like to go is home. She misses it dearly. "I miss my room, I miss the traffic-I even miss that garbage dump!" she says. But it's far too dangerous for her there. "We will target her again and attack whenever we have a chance," a Taliban spokesperson told reporters in October. So Malala and her family-her mother, father, and younger brothers Khushal and Atal-are changing the world from abroad. "If Malala can do what she did-take on the Taliban, at risk to her own life," notes 1997 Nobel Peace Prize winner (and Woman of the Year) Jody Williams, "then there is really no excuse for the rest of us not to get up off our butts and work to make the world a better place."

The last time I spoke to Malala (by Skype, with her family milling about behind her), I asked her what she wanted Glamour's 12 million readers to know. "You can tell them a story from my imagination!" she said cheerfully. "When God created man and woman, he was thinking, Who shall I give the power to, to give birth to the next human being? And God chose woman. And this is the big evidence that women are powerful. Women are strong. Women can do anything. Come out and struggle for your rights; nothing can happen without your voice.

"Do not wait for me to do something for your rights. It's your world, and you can change it."

__Read more:

* Glamour Women of the Year 2013

* The Malala Fund

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Malala Yousafzai is a Woman of the Year because... "By targeting her, extremists showed what they feared most: a girl with a book. Malala embodies the power of education to build peace. She is truly a role model for the world." -Ban Ki-moon, secretary general of the United Nations

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Girl Up Teens Make a Difference: Exclusive Interview with Annie Gersh

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Girl Up Teens Make a Difference: Exclusive Interview with Annie Gersh

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What's it like to campaign to reduce illiteracy, sexual harassment or teenage pregnancy in your own community and why is it so important that the voices of girls are heard? We ask 12 girls under the age of 20 what they are fighting for and why

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adolescent girls - global development professionals network

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The other Malalas: girl activists in the developing world - interactive

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What's it like to campaign to reduce illiteracy, sexual harassment or teenage pregnancy in your own community and why is it so important that the voices of girls are heard? We ask 12 girls under the age of 20 what they are fighting for and why

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a tip for if you need a good article about animals!

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a tip for if you need a good article about animals!

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the teens help animals article has a lot to know in it,and plenty of writing uses.