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Activist Profile: Bianca V., Animal Advocate Extraordinaire

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Activist Profile: Bianca V., Animal Advocate Extraordinaire

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Activist Profile- Bianca V., Animal Advocate Extraordinaire.pdf

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Around the world, animal lovers arehelping Fido and Fluffy find a home

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Around the world, animal lovers arehelping Fido and Fluffy find a home

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Around the world, animal lovers are helping Fido and Fluffy find a home.pdf

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New York law would double fines for animal abandonment

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New York law would double fines for animal abandonment

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Animal rights activists in the city and across the state are applauding new legislation that would double the fines for New York residents who walk away from their pets without providing any type of care for them.

Senate Bill S410, which was recently passed by the Senate and is now under review by the Assembly, would double the fine for abandoning an animal from $1,000 to $2,000, while also continuing to carry a possible penalty of up to a year in prison.

The penalty would apply to owners who abandon and stop providing care for their animals as well as to those who fail to retrieve an injured pet when found in a public place and they are notified of its whereabouts.

State Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., who supports the legislation, said "Unfortunately, many people, for a variety of reasons, simply abandon their animals when they decide they can't or won't care for them anymore."

"This is cruel and contributes significantly to spiraling animal overpopulation and associated problems in many communities," he said.

Addabbo added that there is little downside to the legislation and said it has a "good chance of being passed by the Assembly and signed into law by the governor."

Although pet abandonment numbers are not tracked in the state and city, according to the ASPCA, the scope of the problem is evident from the numbers of stray animals that are picked-up each year by various animal care organizations.

Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals, a non-profit coalition of animal welfare organizations, noted that according to statistics from the city's animal care and control agency, last year more than 5,000 dogs and nearly 14,000 cats were taken in for shelter and care.

Asked about the proposed legislation, Hoffman said that while it's a good start, more needs to be done.

"I'm very pleased when members of the legislature consider animal abuse or neglect a serious offense; it's been too long in coming."

However, Hoffman said the reasons why people abandon animals are complex and that more often than not they involve people moving and not being allowed to take their pet with them.

"The law needs to be changed to require landlords to allow tenants to have pets," she said. "Too many buildings have breed restrictions or weight restrictions or outright bans, and this is not good for people or animals. If people have to move and the building they are moving into doesn't allow pets or their pet, then the pet may very well get abandoned or brought to a shelter. Landlords are a big part of the abandonment of pets."

Other reasons people abandon pets include not being able to afford food and veterinary care.

Hoffman said that some possible fixes could allow food banks to also provide pet food and for other city-based animal care organizations to step-in with either free or low-cost pet care, such as the Humane Society of New York, which already provides such care.

But, Hoffman also said there are those who simply will disobey the law and abandon unwanted pets no matter what the penalty.

For Manhattan resident Deborah Ciavolella, owner of a dachshund rescued from a notorious puppy mill in West Virginia in 2008, she had little sympathy for those who would abandon their pet.

"Not increasing the imprisonment of up to one year incites me. Up to a year in jail is a menial consequence for such malicious conduct," Ciavolella said, emphatically. "The mandatory penalty should be two and two: a $2,000 fine and two years in jail, period. No exceptions!"

Added Addabbo: "We need to take action to address animal overpopulation, cruelty and abandonment on a number of different fronts, and increasing penalties for irresponsible owner behavior is one part of the puzzle."

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New York law would double fines for animal abandonment

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Animal rights activists in the city and across the state are applauding new legislation that would double the fines for New York residents who walk away from their pets without providing any type of care for them.

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Global Animal | All about animals, from dogs and cats to wildlife and endangered species

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Dori Edwards, Global Animal

Similarly to how many grass roots organizations begin, Kids Against Animal Cruelty started with a small group of animal lovers carrying signs on street corners and a Facebook page with 47 friends.

"We are Animal Knights fighting for the rights of all animals," describes KAAC on their Facebook page. An animal activism group that uses social networking to encourage adoption at high kill shelters, KAAC was founded two years ago by child actor/singer Lou Wegner when he was a mere 14 years old.

Wegner established KAAC after volunteering at a local animal shelter in Los Angeles during the filming of his short film Be Good To Eddie Lee.

"It was heartbreaking. All these dogs crying in their cages. Knowing they would be put down broke my heart," Wegner recalled of the facilities.

Wegner relayed it was the first time he became aware of the disconcerting euthanasia rates throughout the country- believing before that shelters were safe places for homeless animals.

After two years, KAAC boasts 12,000 members, 50,000 supporters, and 20,000 animals it has saved from euthanasia.The organization has branched across the United States and has several chapters, all run by young animal lovers like Wegner.

In New York City, two sisters are head of a faction that helped find lost dogs and provide food for families with animals during Superstorm Sandy. Two of Wegner's young relatives run chapters in Arizona and Minnesota.

Wegner hopes that KAAC will eventually have a chapter in every state, "because the bigger the group you work with, the bigger difference you can make. "

Robin Harmon, a transporter for Best Friends' Animal Society, was "especially impressed that at a young age, he could control his feelings and the sadness that we all feel when we are helping at high-kill shelters."

According to AP, Wegner agrees that the sadness is hard to deal with. "Saving one keeps you going," he says.

Wegner's volunteering does not end with KAAC. Clearly a dedicated animal lover, he began another group in South Carolina called For the Love of Dogs in order to save a black labrador retriever named Tommy Joe that he believed "was doomed."

He is also co-host of the Global Voice Broadcasting radio show Love That Dog Hollywood! Kids & Animals. A ccording to the general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services and a guest on the show Brenda Barnette, Wegner is "a well-spoken advocate for animals and for peer involvement."

Wegner also believes in a need to educate children on cruelty to animals. After the recent cases of child-inflicted animal cruelty when a 12-year-old hung his family dog and two 11-year-olds threw rocks at a pregnant cat, Wegner stated that these children should be exposed to a euthanasia room.

Wearing his KAAC t-shirt everywhere he goes, Wegner and his compatriots for animal rights are far from finished with their work. "They euthanize just as many animals every day as we have saved. It's like throwing a Band-Aid in a river," he says.

We expect to see a lot more from Wagner and his team of dedicated friends. We are grateful that the young generation has taken on this cause and is reshaping the future for animals.

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Lou Wegner Kids Against Animal Cruelty Animal Rescue Saves | Global Animal

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Dori Edwards, Global Animal Similarly to how many grass roots organizations begin, Kids Against Animal Cruelty started with a small group of animal lovers carrying signs on street corners and a Facebook page with 47 friends. "We are Animal Knights fighting for the rights of all animals," describes KAAC on their Facebook page.

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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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Animal Homelessness is a Community Challenge

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Animal Homelessness is a Community Challenge

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Animal Homelessness Is a Community Challenge

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November 6-12 is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. 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.

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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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New Zealand’s Faye Carey cares a LOT about pets. Here’s how she started Animal Re-home Waikato to help pets in need find the loving homes they deserve.

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An animal shelter, by definition, is: an establishment, especially one supported by charitable contributions, that provides a temporary home for dogs, cats, and other animals that are offered for adoption. An establishment that temporarily provides a home until the animal is adoptable. Sounds good, right?
However, this definition is more in line with no kill animal shelters. These shelters will either keep animals as long as possible, or give them to some other organization that can attempt to adopt out the animals. They will do all in their power to find a great new home for animals that may have been homeless, abused, or a victim of hoarding. Through these types of organizations and charities, animals are given a second chance at life, love, and happiness.
Not only do the animals benefit, but those who adopt them do as well. They can receive some of the best animals and friends from places such as these, (as I know from experience.) While animals may come from any condition, if they are healthy, and great with people, even if it so happens to be as a result of many months or years of training, they will get another chance to be happy and to know love like they should.
Programs like these are great and can really help people in many conditions. There are many success stories out there that will make one want to go adopt every single animal from a shelter that they can, or at the very least, help them.
On the contrary, when comparing no kill shelters to ones without the same beliefs, the results often are not so 'successful.' These shelters may take in animals from the streets, and give them what they need, if only for a little amount of time depending upon their policies.
To clarify, there are some shelters that will let an animal stay for two weeks before euthanizing it. Others give only 3 days. According to research, some shelters may give an animal 3 days, then an additional 7, should the owner come looking for the animal. Meanwhile, other shelters may give the animals a few months, a few weeks, a few days, or even just an hour.
These particular shelters may have excuses, such as "we don't have enough room, we don't have enough money to keep them alive, or they aren't young or 'cute' enough and nobody will want to adopt them." While it may be true that there is no room for the animal or not enough money, the shelters could give the animals to a no kill shelter or an adoption organization.
I personally believe that all animals, no matter what age, as long as they are healthy and gentle, are "adoptable." The excuse that the animal is not young or cute enough has no support, seeing as many ages and kinds of animals are adopted all the time.
Animal shelters that do not have no kill policies don't give the animals enough time. It may take more than 3 days, 7 days, or even a couple of weeks for someone to come to the shelter. But the people coming to adopt are not to blame, because the shelter could put out fliers or notices that there are adoptable pets waiting to find their 'furever homes.'
Though some shelters may do this, and may even genuinely care about the animals, there are always those who just look at the animals as profit. Maybe they think keeping the animals alive is too much money or that there's less hassle with less animals, but clearly, the animals' best interest is not in mind, as it is at a no kill shelter.
Sure, maybe this is the first time in the animal's life that they've had shelter or food and water, but is it beneficial if the animal will not even get a fair chance at life? The animals don't know what's going on, and they may be scared from the past, traumatized, or extremely shy, but they haven't done anything at all to deserve to die.
So while not all shelters can 'afford' to keep the animals, they could find people who will foster the animals until adoption, or some other, positive alternative. Why, if an animal is not a harm to others, should it be killed without any choice? The animals can't speak for themselves. Their fates depend on us to be their voice. Are you up for the challenge? I know I am.

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Animal Shelters: another chance at life or death

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An animal shelter, by definition, is: an establishment, especially one supported by charitable contributions, that provides a temporary home for dogs, cats, and other animals that are offered for adoption. An establishment that temporarily provides a home until the animal is adoptable. Sounds good, right?

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How to Help a Neighbor’s Neglected Animal

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It can be heartbreaking to see a neighbor’s animal suffering in a situation of neglect. Depending on the situation, there are various ways you can help the animal or animals involved.

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Meet the Teen Animal Activist Who Took Two Shelter Dogs to Prom - Dogster

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Dogster is a publication where dog lovers come together to get the latest expert advice about dog behavior, health, news and entertainment.

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We need your voice to advance animal-friendly laws and regulations! See how policy and legal work can help end cruelty and build a better world for all animals.

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How many pets are in the United States? How many animals are in shelters?

Facts about U.S. Animal Shelters:

The terms "humane society" and "SPCA" are generic; shelters using those names are not part of the ASPCA or The Humane Society of the United States. Currently, no government institution or animal organization is responsible for tabulating national statistics for the animal protection movement. These are national estimates; the figures may vary from state to state.

Approximately 6.3 million companion animals enter U.S. animal shelters nationwide every year. Of those, approximately 3.1 million are dogs and 3.2 million are cats. We estimate that the number of dogs and cats entering U.S. shelters annually has declined from approximately 7.2 million in 2011. The biggest decline was in dogs (from 3.9 million to 3.1 million).

Each year, approximately 920,000 shelter animals are euthanized (390,000 dogs and 530,000 cats). The number of dogs and cats euthanized in U.S. shelters annually has declined from approximately 2.6 million in 2011. This decline can be partially explained by an increase in the percentage of animals adopted and an increase in the number of stray animals successfully returned to their owners.

Approximately 4.1 million shelter animals are adopted each year (2 million dogs and 2.1 million cats).

About 810,000 animals who enter shelters as strays are returned to their owners. Of those, 710,000 are dogs and 100,000 are cats.

*These estimates are based in part on Shelter Animals Count data and other known and estimated sources, 2019. These are national estimates based on data obtained from shelters and rescues; the figures may vary from state to state.
Facts about Pet Ownership in the U.S.:

It's estimated that 78 million dogs and 85.8 million cats are owned in the United States. Approximately 44% of all households in the United States have a dog, and 35% have a cat. (Source: American Pet Products Association 2015-2016 (APPA))

Approximately 40% of dog owners and 46% of cat owners learned about their pet through word of mouth. (Source: APPA)

According to the APPA, these are the most common sources from which primary methods cats and dogs are obtained as pets (Note: this information was based on a multiple response question, which results in the total % exceeding 100% individually for cats and dogs. In addition, the 'other' category includes all source categories that were reported by <10% of both dog and cat owners):

APPA reports that 34% of dogs are purchased from breeders, while 23% of dogs and 31% of cats are obtained from an animal shelter or humane society.

Around 27% of cats are acquired as strays, down from 35% in 2012. (Source: APPA)

According to the ASPCA's National Rehoming Survey, pet problems are the most common reason that owners rehome their pet, accounting for 47% of rehomed dogs and 42% of rehomed cats. Pet problems were defined as problematic behaviors, aggressive behaviors, grew larger than expected, or health problems owner couldn't handle.

The preceding data are ASPCA estimates unless otherwise indicated.
You may also wish to visit:

American Pet Products Association
https://www.americanpetproducts.org/

The National Council on Pet Population Study & Policy (NCPPSP)
https://theaawa.org/page/nationalcouncil

The American Veterinary Medical Association
https://www.avma.org/ (see U.S. Pet Ownership and Demographics)

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How many pets are in the United States? How many animals are in shelters? Get the answers to these and other questions about pet statistics.

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The Shelter Pet Project’s goal is to make shelters the first place potential adopters turn when looking to get a new pet.

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Pet "overpopulation" encompasses two primary factors: (1) allowing cats and dogs to reproduce with little chance to find homes for the offspring and (2) pets being relinquished by owners who can no longer keep their animals, or who no longer want them.

Every year, millions of cats and dogs are euthanized in our nation's animal shelters because there are more pets than there are responsible homes for them. Until this issue is resolved, American Humane believes that all cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities should be spayed or neutered (i.e., sterilized). Such sterilization includes prepubertal spaying and neutering of kittens and puppies. American Humane supports the passage of laws and regulations mandating that all cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities be sterilized. It is less certain that community-wide mandatory spay/neuter laws are effective in addressing pet overpopulation. More information needs to be gathered on the benefit of prior legislative initiatives to determine long-term benefits.

American Humane encourages the veterinary profession to assist, whenever and however possible, in reducing the number of unwanted pets. This involvement includes supporting the neutering of cats and dogs adopted from public or private animal care and control facilities - thereby controlling the ongoing contribution of offspring to pet overpopulation. Veterinarians should continue to use their best judgment when recommending appropriate sterilization ages for individual cats and dogs owned by clients, especially those clients who are wellknown and likely to permit an unwanted pregnancy to occur prior to surgery. Short-term and long-term health risks for each animal should always be assessed. American Humane encourages research into the development and use of nonsurgical methods of sterilization.

American Humane also supports research to assess the causes for pet relinquishment. Prior research studies suggest that 7 to 20 percent of pets entering a home are no longer in that home six months after acquisition. These animals often end up at shelters, contributing to the pet "overpopulation" issue. Thus, American Humane wishes to understand individual, cultural and community issues that lead to pet relinquishment and to develop practical and effective intervention strategies.

What you can do to combat pet overpopulation:

1. If you are adding a pet to your family, make sure the pet comes from a legitimate shelter, nonprofit rescue group or a responsible, humane breeder.

2. Always spay and neuter your pets.

3. Consider all the responsibilities and consequences of pet ownership before deciding to get a pet and always make a lifetime commitment to your pet.

4. Educate your children, friends, family members and co-workers about pet overpopulation, adoption and the importance of spaying and neutering.

You can help stop generations of suffering. Have your female pet spayed and your male pet neutered. Don't allow them to breed and add to the pet overpopulation problem.

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Pet "overpopulation" encompasses two primary factors: (1) allowing cats and dogs to reproduce with little chance to find homes for the offspring and (2) pets being relinquished by owners who can no longer keep their animals, or who no longer...