Last week, I called out Maddie’s Fund and some of its partner organizations for fearmongering about whether people can get infected with SARS-COV-2 from dogs and cats, because the evidence clearly says they cannot. News reports, however, have suggested that a new study conducted by government officials in China concludes the opposite for cats (though not dogs) — that they can get it from humans and then give it to one another. The headlines proclaim…
Maddie’s Fund and several of its partner organizations are fearmongering about the pandemic by recommending separating pets from people and other animals if those animals come from a household where people tested positive for COVID-19. They also note that, “If the pet is brought to a shelter, they should be kept away from the general population for 14 days.” In a regressive pound, this amounts to a death sentence. In homes where isolating the pet…
Legislation has been introduced in New York that creates a new reason to kill: “mental suffering.” As I explain to the NYS senators who will be debating this bill, there is no definition of what constitutes “mental suffering” and no standards to how it will be applied, allowing pounds to kill animals based on the animals’ perceived state of mind. All animals can experience stress on entry to a pound. Many of these animals are…
There’s been a request by some national organizations that shelters, rescue groups, and low-cost clinics suspend spay/neuter surgeries during the current crisis. For example, an article in The Association for Animal Welfare Advancement which claims to promote “best practices from industry leaders,” says “Spay and neuter services for the public, shelter pets, and TNR/SNR” are not “essential functions” and should “just stop.” This view is endorsed by the National Animal Control Association, which deemed community…
When it comes to dogs, cats, and other animal companions, the coronavirus pandemic has brought out the best in people. Shelters have put out the call to the community for help with animals and the community has emptied out those shelters, by adopting and fostering. In New York, Georgia, Minnesota, Missouri, Texas, Nevada, Iowa, and more, shelters are find homes for every single animal in their facility. The placement rate is upwards of 24 times…
Americans have a soft spot for animals and are not very discerning when it comes to which animal groups to support. In fact, according to a new study, they falsely equate having heard of a group with it being effective. In other words, because most Americans have heard of the ASPCA or the Humane Society of the United States, they wrongly also believe those groups are on the front lines leading and effecting positive change…
How to Protect Shelter Animals from Killing and Shelter Workers from Exposure Every day now, I am receiving an alert of another shelter or pound closing to the public for adoptions. Many of these are pounds with a history of routinely putting animals to death. Others are private humane societies, but this means they are not pulling animals from pounds in their communities where the animals are now under a heightened death threat. How should…
Introducing No Kill 101, the latest video from the No Kill Advocacy Center “No Kill Know How” series, which answers the question: How does a community achieve No Kill? Today, millions of Americans live in cities and towns that have dramatically reduced and even eliminated the killing of healthy and treatable animals in their shelters. Some of these communities are large, some are small. Some are urban; some are rural. Some are rich; others…
PETA has written members of the Ontario, Canada, legislature to tell them NOT to consider relaxing what they called “commonsense restrictions on pit bull in Ontario,” saying “These breeds should be regulated in the same way in which other dangerous species, like leopards, are regulated.” What are these restrictions and regulations? Ontario has banned dogs identified as “pit bulls” and exterminated thousands of dogs and puppies for how they look. And sometimes, these former…
Last week, in a PETA-style bid to get media attention, a member of a group called Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) stormed the stage where Vice-President Joe Biden was giving a speech after his Super Tuesday victories in the Democratic primaries, carrying a sign that said “Let Dairy Die.” DxE got their media coverage. But did the incident help cows? A new study out of Stanford University and the University of Toronto says No. In fact,…