A tragic story about a cat in NJ who was severely injured after being tortured by a group of children, saved by other kids, then turned away by every public facility that could have helped him. The cat suffered for 2 days before finally being euthanized by a vet. (Thank you Karen for the link.)
The Young-Williams Animal Center in TN killed more than 100 cats in response to a panleukopenia outbreak. The CEO blames the virus on the pound’s open admission status but doesn’t mention what, if any, measures the facility takes to avoid and minimize exposure. (Thank you Luke for the link.)
An article centered on transporting homeless dogs from the south to the north which fails to mention why that sucks and gets everything else wrong too. (Thanks Valerie for the link.)
The Humane Society of Fremont Co in CO announced it will no longer be paying its board of directors. Hopefully that money will be put into lifesaving efforts. (Thanks Davyd.)
Henry Co AC in GA is somehow quarantining an entire neighborhood for 31 days after several rabid raccoons and foxes were found in the area. (Thanks Valerie.)
Never mind the bird predation hysteria (billions and billions!) from feral cat haters, the US government killed 4 million animals, mostly birds, last year under the guise of eradicating threats from wildlife.
How can you say that the Augusta Chronicle story on Old Fella transporting animals north sucks?! Old Fella is in Burke County, the largest land mass county in the state and one of the poorest with absolutely no county wide animal control. Old Fella is the only non-profit, licensed rescue in the county. For the past 7 years the group has been rescuing homeless animals and either adopting them out or transporting them to our partner shelters in the North, mainly Northeast Animal Shelter in Salem, MA. This is how we have been able to save the number that we have. This was no fly by night decision, many of our volunteers have been to NEAS on several occasions. The adoption market for rescues, here in the Augusta area is saturated, this was our way to save more animals and it has worked well for every individual involved. Most importantly, the dogs who have been fortunate enough to take that long ride. My God! they didn’t have to walk through that back door..which is what I thought this blog was about. Those doing it wrong. We, Old Fella has worked hard to save these animals. If you are not a fan of transport, sorry.
In addition, Old Fella offers free (or low-cost $10-20 donation) spays and neuters for county residents. We have paid for over 2,000 surgeries of OWNED animals in order to prevent more homeless animals. For the past 4 years, we have had the financial support ($5,000) from the commissioners, the remainder of spay/neuter funds comes from grants we write.
We have also offered educational programs to school age children. Over 2,000 4th graders have been presented with facts on pet care, spay-neuter and dog-bite prevention.
Our group is very small but very determined. I am very disappointed that in your “Treats” post you couldn’t find one good thing to say about what we are doing. I invite you to look at our website oldfella.org and then comment.
I believe the purpose of the Chronicle article was to show Augusta Animal Services that there are options to killing the dogs and this is just one of them. In 2010, we were pulling some dogs from AAS and sending them north when we had room. The kennel manager at AAS said “I would rather kill these dogs then send our problems elsewhere!” There will be several more articles in the Chronicle coming up. Please keep watching. Also visit the No-Kill CSRA facebook page and find the petition for AAS to allow rescues back in. Thank you.
It’s not that I couldn’t find anything good to say about what your group is doing. Besides sending dogs up north, where dogs are also killed in shelters, I didn’t know anything your group did. What I am lamenting is that the article covers several aspects of potential paths to no kill, all of which are wrong, and none of which include the only set of programs proven to achieve no kill – the No Kill Equation. The article refers to such things as MSN, cheers a 20% kill rate, and quotes an HSUS rep saying “you can’t adopt your way out” of killing. And those are just a few of the problems with the article.
Watch for additional articles where the No-Kill group is interviewed. Hopefully these reporteres will have taken better notes.
Congrats to Colorado’s Humane Society of Fremont County for separating the ED position from the work of the board and discontinuing payments to board members. Seems like some very sound organizational development taking place there. This is familiar to me from my past volunteer work w/ an arts organization that went through a similar developmental stage — it’s an important effort and I foresee good things for not only the animals, but also the people involved as a result of these steps being taken.
Hell is going to be a lot more crowded than I thought. I admit I didn’t get past the tortured cat. The children can go to hell too.