As most of you know Let’s Adopt! USA is currently competing for USD 250.000 in the Pepsi Refresh Project.
Our goal is to use part of that money in building the worlds largest animal rescue plattform.
This competition is going very well… we are now in 431st position, bearing in mind that only the first two projects will be awarded you can clearly see we are in a position of advantage. We certainly can win this one!

Let’s Adopt is currently working in a number of secret projects. Our most ambitious one is to start rehoming animals in the Moon and Mars, to be followed by Venus.

A team of Let’s Adopt! scientists is currently based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, putting together the last details of this incredible project.

The choice between Congo and Cape Canaveral was a diffcult one but we are very satisfied with the results.

Here is a video of our historic launch…

We encourage all members of Let’s Adopt USA to continue voting for us in the Pepsi Refresh Project. Come on, we can win this one!

Please, if you are a US resident please vote HERE

A few days ago I heard the story of a young soldier currently stationed in Afghanistan.

With the incredible support of his girlfriend back home he is trying to coordinate the rescue of five dogs that, unless we do something about it, will have to stay behind in the most inhospitable land in this world.

This is a very heartwarming story of courage, heroism (the mother of the pups died whilst stopping a suicide bombing), tenacity and compassion.

To most this is an impossible mission.  We are going to give a push to this campaign and show the world that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

How to do this?  I have prepared this video..

Please click on this link

http://animoto.com/play/vDLtR1pzeAfOcgT63cFnQQ

At the end of the video there is a call to action. Please contribute to this very special fund. Any amount, no matter how small, will be helping to bring those young lives home.

If you cannot contribute then please Share this post in your profiles.  This is one of the most beautiful stories we have encountered, we must absolutely make it happen.

Now please watch this video… and share…

http://animoto.com/play/vDLtR1pzeAfOcgT63cFnQQ

Many thanks

Viktor

Dear Friends,

Most of you remember Coco…

She was found paralyzed by the side of the road. We looked for the reason and found out she had a bullet lodged in her spine.

Most people would have either dumped her in a Municipal shelter or put her to sleep. The best case scenario for her would be to live attached to a wheelchair.

Not us….

Please click HERE and see what happened with Coco…Please watch the video till the end. It is in German but this is one of those occasions where images speak for themselves. I can GUARANTEE you will cry with joy.

We thank all of those who were involved in this operation, we couldn’t have done anything without you.

We are currently working on the process of sending some of our rescues to their final homes overseas. If you want to be a part of it we will be thankful for your contribution to the Simba Fund.

Best

Viktor Larkhill

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DAY ONE.

“Canada eliminated the death penalty on July 14, 1976.The last execution in Canada took place on December 11, 1962 at Toronto’s Don Jail.”

Canada is, by all measurable standards, one of the most advanced countries in the world. The Economist ranks Vancouver as the world’s most liveable city, ahead of Vienna and Melbourne. Toronto is number 4.

Canada is the country where the cream of the crop wants to emigrate. A haven of sorts where individual freedoms are respected and communities care for their members.

A model society.

This is what makes Brindi’s story so puzzling and this is the reason why the eyes of the international animal welfare community are now fixed on Canada as a whole and on the city of Halifax in particular.

Brindi is an adopted mutt. She is smart, gentle, affectionate and has passed obedience classes.

On July 24, Brindi was seized and put on death row.

A minor incident, completely distorted by some of the people involved, would lead into a most incredible ordeal for Brindi and her family. Brindi’s owner, Francesca, an American recently emigrated to Canada, found herself tangled in the worst possible plot any animal owner could ever envisage: Her beloved dog, her child, put on death row by the City of Halifax.

There was never an offence charged; Brindi was assessed by an expert and found highly trainable. Thousands of dollars were paid to get the execution order quashed in court. But the city ignored the Law and kept Brindi. Instead of holding a fair hearing to decide whether Brindi presents a true danger (she obviously does not), the city charged Brindi’s owner with 3 by-law violations in a last minute attempt to push for a new kill order.

On the 23rd of February Brindi’s owner was found guilty on all counts.

Sentence hearing will take place on March 9. It is feared the judge will order the Killing of the animal.

We have 13 days to Save Brindi.

History is full of miscarriages of justice.

Brindi’s case is one of those. It was never about the dog.

It was obvious from the beginning that the issue had grown into a personal vendetta, as it is too often the case; a power play where Brindi and her owner Francesca had become mere pawns in the hands of “authorities” clearly more concerned about saving face than about truly pursuing justice.

We have 13 days to Save Brindi.

Today we are launching a local and international campaign to drive public opinion and to prompt the world to take action.

We want each and every one of our readers and the entire international community to stop for a second and think.

Her life is all that Brindi has. We will not allow it to be taken away from her. Think how you would feel if it was YOUR child put in this position. Going through months of isolation while waiting for the moment to be administered a lethal injection and killed. What would you think of Canada every morning if you were in Francesca’s place?

Today the internet and social media have made a new kind of world and a new way to demand justice possible. There are millions of us ready to stand up and fight for what most would consider worthless.. a dog.

However, Brindi is not just a dog. Brindi is a living being, with feelings of sadness, anxiety, fear, longing. A living being that will be executed unless we all stand together and take action.

Starting from today, Brindi is no longer just a dog.

Brindi is now a symbol that represents our most essential values: Justice and the Right to live.

The Universal Declaration of Animal Rights was solemnly proclaimed in Paris on 15 October 1978 at the UNESCO headquarters.

Article 7 states:Any act unnecessary involving the death of an animal, and any decision leading to such an act, constitutes a crime against life.

We need YOU to tell the government of Canada and the City of Halifax that to execute an innocent animal based on obscure by-laws is about the lowest a government can sink into. We will do our best to send a clear message to the Canadian Government and concretely to the City of Halifax; we will show them that doing this would be a terrible mistake, a miscarriage of justice.

We have 13 days to save Brindi and we are going to need YOUR help.

Get involved. We wont give you a model letter to copy and past. We want YOU to speak your mind.

Contact:

Mayor Peter J. Kelly, Mayor of Halifax on ph: 902-490-4010. Email kellyp@halifax.ca and express your deepest inner feelings regarding this case.

We have 13 days…

For the Animals…

For Brindi…

Viktor Larkhill

Let’s Adopt! is a different kind of organization, born at a time when ideas are created and spread differently and using social media in a way no other group used before in Turkey (or anywhere else for that matter).
Whilst in the US animal welfare organizations rushed to create a presence on Facebook and a base on Twitter, no other organization used blogs in a way as effective and far reaching as Let’s Adopt has.
Today Let’s Adopt runs five blogs whose editorial line is specifically adapted to the challenges animals face in five countries, Turkey, the USA, Canada, France and Germany.
These blogs are acting as the center, the core of our group, the place where ideas are anchored and from where they get spread through the entire social media map.
How does this happen? By Sharing. Let me explain you how it works.
Please have a look at our blog, in there you will see a number of funny looking icons. Here:

Those are our share buttons. Every time you click on one of those buttons you are contributing to expand the reach of our ideas exponentially, across the entire social media spectrum. By simply clicking on the Facebook Button you are presenting our posts, our ideas, our tireless efforts to save animals, day after day, in front of your entire Facebook friendslist and visible on everyone’s feeds. By simply clicking a share button you are putting in motion a chain reaction that spreads our presence and ideas across the world.

Help us grow… help us expand and reach millions of people. It couldn’t be easier… just a click!

Whether the post be about finding a home for Genny, or about promoting responsibility, please do that simple action that will identify you as one of our members and advocates, click on the Share button.

Million thanks for your help. Glad to have you on board.

Viktor

Viktor@myletsadopt.com

Yesterday I watched in disbelief how the person responsible for producing  some of the most insightful and well researched posts Let’s Adopt! USA has ever produced, wrote a post in in which she proposed all our readers to demand the use of lethal injection instead of gas chambers in all kill shelters across the nation.

This is in line with the demands of the Humane Society. Lethal injection is, in the views of many a necessary compromise, a middle way that will, supposedly, one day, lead onto permanent change.

… and here where the problem lies… Middle ways have never led anywhere. Defending the middle ways are just a way to perpetuate the status quo, and the status quo is that every year millions of companion animals are being killed (not euthanized, KILLED) in a country that proudly describes himself as an animal loving nation.

Lovers of the “mid way” tell me that we are a radical in our approach. Radical because we refuse to accept killing as a way to deal with the inefficiencies of the system?

Will Let’s Adopt! compromise and accept killing as a viable alternative?

No. Never.

Accepting massive and widespread killing (regardless of the method) is not about compromising on small issues. This is about compromising on the single most important issue affecting animal welfare in North America, an issue that has made animal welfare a travesty of what it should be.

What we are discussing here is the Death penalty applied to innocent living beings for expediency reasons and because animal organizations such as the Humane Society and PETA have realized that is better to prolong the status quo than actually changing anything at all.

Let’s Adopt! is about saying ENOUGH! and  creating a network of people who refuse to accept the unacceptable.

So those who believe the mid way is the option to follow don’t have a place in this network or nonconformist and radical dreamers who believe there is a better way, and that right now, not tomorrow, not next generation, the time to change things is RIGHT NOW.

Let’s Adopt! is not only alighted with the No-Kill Movement. Let’s Adopt! IS the No-Kill movement. We all are.

For more information about No-Kill please visit Nathan Winograd’s blog

For the Animals

Viktor Larkhill

Almost every one of my childhood photos includes an animal.

I’ll be the first to admit it:

I’m not a kid person.

But my friend Jaime is.

A kindergarten teacher from New York, Jaime is the mother of two small children, Sam and Kate. We met while volunteering at Doggie Rescue back in Sydney, Australia, long before she had any children.

I asked Jaime if she could offer some tips on how to raise kids alongside pets.

I think this is a very important topic. The more we educate children, the better chance we have of creating lasting changes in animal welfare.

Every memory of my own childhood is dotted with pets, from Myles the Bassett mix who slept in my playpen and under my crib to my beloved Tonkinese cat Cookie who loved to fall asleep on my chest and steal the Doritos I subsided on as a teenager.

Myles was my constant companion as an infant.

For me, pets have always been the difference between a house and a home.

The Journal of the American Medical Association printed a study back in 2002 which showed that children raised in homes with two or more dogs or cats during the first year of life may be less likely to develop allergic diseases as compared with children raised without pets.

This is very interesting indeed because far too many families dump their pets once they decide to have a child. I’ve heard it all – from the woman not being able to scoop the litter box during pregnancy to the dog being jealous of the baby. And yet I’ve never heard an excuse that actually warrants dumping your pet because you want to have a baby.

Minor adjustments at home combined with a responsible approach to pet ownership can help anyone maintain a great home environment for people and pets.

Cookie: the smartest and most amazing cat ever

Even if I’m not a kid person, I am very much a book person. And one suggestion I can offer all parents is to seek out a copy of Be a Dog’s Best Friend: A Safety Guide for Kids by Payne and Gladysz. Borrow it from your library, or invest $10 to buy a copy of your own and then donate it to a local elementary school. This primer on how to behave around dogs is written for children between the ages of six and ten, but parents can use the photos to teach younger kids the same lessons offered in the book. All children should read this book.

Pet-proofing your children is worth it.

There are huge rewards for children who grow up alongside family pets. Pets can teach our children wonderful lessons in loyalty, empathy, compassion, responsibility, and love.

Jaime with her son Sam and dog Prince

I’d like to share Jaime’s story and her tips with you:

My dog’s name is Prince, and second to my partner and children, he is the love of my life. My partner and I adopted Prince from a rescue organization shortly after I moved to Sydney. Prince had a few quirks that made living with him a bit of a challenge at times. For example, he had an inability to tolerate any dog that was even marginally bigger than him. Even the most benign dogs would set him off. From behind the door, visitors often mistook him for a German Shepherd. He was impossible to walk, always a mile ahead, pulling with all the energy he could muster. But after extensive training and lots of love, Prince evolved into a happy, obedient, and social dog.

Until we had children…

My son Sam was born in 2007 approximately 2 years after we got Prince. Initially, Prince showed little interest in Sam. He sniffed and licked Sam to death the day we brought him home from the hospital. Prince showed some curiosity when Sam cooed and cried but very quickly adapted to living with a baby in the house. I thought to myself, “Too easy!” and patted myself on the back for all the effort I put into training Prince.

However, once Sam started crawling, the whole game changed. Prince started to feel threatened and acted accordingly. In an effort to put Sam in his place and keep his position as top dog in the hierarchy in the family, Prince started growling and showing his teeth to Sam any time Sam got too close. Prince became territorial of the furniture such as the sofa, Prince’s bed and rugs. If Sam tried to pull himself up on the sofa Prince would go on the defensive and try to dominate him. I was brokenhearted and despondent that my sweet little dog was showing signs of aggression toward my son and threatening his safety. My hope of Sam and Prince becoming the best of friends was quickly fading.

I sought the advice of my local vet who explained that my dog was behaving in a perfectly natural manner for the role of top dog. Dogs are pack animals, and Prince saw our family as his pack. Prince felt the need to dominate Sam because Sam was smaller and newer to the pack. So I had to rearrange the hierarchy in order to create balance and harmony in Sam and Prince’s relationship. I took the vet’s advice and everything is working very well. Prince has never harmed Sam in the slightest way despite all of Sam’s poking and pushing.

Sam and Prince

These four things worked for our family:

1. Creating boundaries. Not allowing Prince to have free rein of the furniture. Not allowing him to sit on the couch or sleep on the bed to prevent him from becoming territorial of those spaces. This was very important at the beginning. Once the hierarchy was established, I was able to relax this.

2. Feeding ourselves before we feed Prince. It was especially important for him to see Sam eat before he got fed. Dogs are pack animals, and pack leaders always eat first. So I made a point of always feeding Sam before Prince to help cement the hierarchy.

3. Making sure Prince is always behind the stroller when we go on a walk. When Prince tries to get his nose out ahead, I pull him back or even turn around and head in the other direction. The Gentle Leader has worked very well in preventing Prince from pulling excessively while out on our walks.

4. Making sure Prince gets plenty of exercise – at least 2 walks a day. The walk is so important to a dog’s well being. Most dogs are working animals by nature, and they need a job or a purpose. Walking around the neighborhood gives them the job of patrolling the neighborhood for any potential dangers. It allows them to channel their energy in a healthy and constructive way rather than through aggression and anger. If you have a larger dog, you can even place a working vest on them with a can of soup in each side pocket so that the walk is even more work for your dog.

The right techniques will vary from dog to dog. The important thing is to think in terms of a hierarchy. If you understand the need to act in a way which impresses upon your dog that he comes below the child in the hierarchy, then the appropriate action in any given situation will come to you. You can always spoil your dog after the children go to bed!

Prince fast asleep with Jaime's partner Simon

Of course, in addition to training Prince to respect and coexist peacefully with Sam, I also needed to teach Sam to interact safely with Prince.

Teaching Sam proper pet etiquette not only bettered his relationship with Prince but changed the way he interacted with all animals.

Here are some of the techniques I used:

1. Showing him how to pat Prince under his mouth, not on top of his head which most dogs find threatening. Sam needed to understand that Prince was not a toy and that he could feel pain.

2. Teaching him to respect Prince’s personal space. This includes making sure he understood that he should never wake Prince when he is sleeping. In addition, I taught him to always stay out of Prince’s food and water. And it goes without saying that approaching Prince’s food at mealtimes is a big no-no in our household.

3. Teaching him to respect Prince’s toys and bones. Sam used to try to take Prince’s toys and play with them. Prince wasn’t territorial with his toys, but a lot of dogs are, so I created a box for Prince’s toys. Sam knows those toys are off limits to him.

4. Involving Sam in caring for Prince. I allow Sam to help bathe and brush Prince. Sam also enjoys giving Prince his food and water. Children should be involved in the care, feeding, grooming, and training of the pet.

Sam and Prince

Do you have any other tips you can share with the Let’s Adopt! community about how to raise kids alongside pets? Please share your thoughts in the comments section.

This two-level feral cat house was built by a volunteer at Ohio Alleycat Resource. We purchased it to support OAR and to give our feral cats a warm, safe place to enjoy their cat naps.

I heard over the weekend that there was snow on the ground in 49 out of 50 states, and this made me think about the feral cats who are outside trying to stay warm and find food.

I’m sure you don’t need the reminder, but you might find this list of 20 reasons to keep your cats indoors useful in educating others about why it’s irresponsible to allow their cats to roam outdoors.

Feral cats are the offspring of domestic cats and are primarily the result of pet owners’ abandonment or failure to spay and neuter their animals. Feral cat colonies can be found behind shopping areas or businesses, in alleys, parks, abandoned buildings, and rural areas.

We found a feral cat colony living under our house a few months ago, and that’s how we met Charlotte, Frida, and a few other cats who are still feral. Charlotte was still a kitten when we caught her, so we moved her inside immediately after spaying her. Frida was quite fierce with us before we trapped and spayed her, but after we did that, she changed her personality completely and decided she wanted to be an indoor lap cat. So that she is! We believe Frida and Charlotte are mother and daughter, so we are pleased that they can remain together.

Charlotte stayed in our bathroom for a couple of weeks after she was spayed so that we could socialize her and allow her to adjust to her new home.

So what’s the difference between a stray cat and a feral cat?

A stray cat:

• may be vocal
• may approach you and may approach food as soon as you put it down
• may look unkempt or poorly groomed
• may be seen at all hours of the day

A feral cat:

• will be silent
• will not approach you and will wait for you to move away before approaching food
• will appear groomed
• is generally nocturnal

Caring for a feral cat colony begins with spaying and neutering all the members of the colony. It works!

One pair of breeding cats, which can have two or more litters per year, can produce 420,000 offspring over a seven-year period.

Always seek the advice of your local cat rescue. They often will lend you humane box traps and offer low-cost or free spay/neuter surgeries for feral cats, and many of them also maintain feral cat food banks to help you offset the costs of caring for feral cats.

Here are some instructions for trapping feral cats.

These companies sell humane box traps:

Tomahawk Live Trap Co.
PO Box 323
Tomahawk, Wisconsin 54487
800.272.8727
http://www.livetrap.com/

ACES (Animal Care Equipment & Services, Inc.)
P.O. Box 3275
Crestline, California 92325
800.338.ACES
http://www.animal-care.com/

Heart of the Earth Marketing
205 High Street
Fruitdale, South Dakota 57742
P: 800.526.1644
F: 605.892.0154
http://www.animal-traps.com/

Lucy came from the streets of Turkey to join Frida and Charlotte.

Once your colony is spayed and neutered, there is still much more you can do!

Ally Cat Allies, the nation’s feral cat advocacy organization, provides some great tips on how to care for feral cat colonies.

You can also provide a feral cat shelter.

If you have a feral cat organization near you, they might have feral cat houses for sale. But you can also make them yourself with a few inexpensive supplies. You can even search Craig’s List, FreeCycle, and your local junkyards for free materials to use.

This multi-part video gives instructions for how to make very inexpensive cat shelters.

Here’s a print-out which explains how to make a feral cat shelter, and here’s another set of plans for an inexpensive feral cat shelter.

Alley Cat Allies offers instructions on how to construct an array of wonderful shelters for feral cats. You can use styrofoam boxes, plastic tubs, an old garden shed, or even old truck camper covers.

Fresh, dry straw (not hay) is the best lining material for your feral cat shelter. Don’t put blankets or towels inside because they can freeze and will not keep the cats nearly as warm.

Feral cats also need food and water.

Providing a feeding station for them is a very kind thing to do, and Alley Cat Allies provides a great set of instructions for how to build one.

I’m not an engineer and am pretty hopeless when it comes to construction. Some of you might be the same way. But that’s no reason to be deterred from helping cats. Gather some friends together, and help each other build feral cat houses and feeding stations. Or contact your local feral cat organization to see if they can help you or put you in touch with others interested in doing the same thing.

Bella is a stray cat we met while trapping the feral colony we found. She lived with us until she found her forever home with two other cats and a wonderful couple who are both nurses at our local children's hospital.

It can be tricky to provide fresh water for cats during the winter, but here are some tips to help prevent the water from freezing:

• Use deep, narrow bowls.
• Keep the bowls in a sunny place.
• Refill the bowls with hot water.
• Add a small pinch of sugar to each bowl when you refill it.
• Purchase heated electric bowls.

If you keep your colony on a regular feeding schedule, they will be ready to eat and drink when you bring out their food and water which means that the water will be consumed before it has time to freeze.

National Feral Cat Day is October 16, but we must care for our feral cats every single day of the year.

Thank you for doing your part.

Esmeralda, a Let's Adopt! dog from Turkey, found her forever family and some wonderful new canine siblings overseas.

We’ve been talking a lot this week about animals in Bali, Turkey, and other places. Today I’ve got some ideas that might hit a bit closer to home.

Here are three ideas for ways to show your love for animals this Valentine’s Day weekend…

1. Make a rescue kit for your car so that you’re prepared next time you find an animal in need. I keep a big bag of items in my trunk, and virtually everything in there came from discount stores like Big Lots. I always watch for sales and have been known to buy every collar in stock! Even if I don’t need it in my trunk, there’s always a local rescue that does. You don’t need to spend much money at all; in fact, you probably already have most of the items you need.

This list should get you started:

• cell phone
• phone numbers for local animal control, local ASPCA and Humane Society, local rescue group(s), and local wildlife rescue group(s)
• phone number and directions to your nearest 24-hour emergency vet
• cat carrier or cardboard box (Cat cardboard boxes are quite inexpensive and can be found at rescues, pet shops, and vet clinics.)
• collars (a small one for cats and one for dogs that adjusts to a wide range of sizes)
• leashes (heavy enough to hold a large dog)
• heavy blanket and towels
• large bottle of clean water
• bowls for food and water (I use inexpensive plastic ones.)
• several cans of tuna, sardines, or anything that smells good to an animal
• animal first aid kit (the basics: gauze rolls, adhesive/first aid tape, hydrogen peroxide, antiseptic cream, tweezers, and scissors)
• roll of paper towels and a bottle of cleaning spray (for any clean-up jobs)
• flashlight
• pair of heavy duty working gloves (to protect your hands and forearms from scratches or bites while trying to pick up an injured animal)

For more detailed information about pet first aid and emergencies, refer to my earlier blog post on this topic.

This Let's Adopt! kitten is one of three brothers who were lucky enough to find a home together!

2. Don’t forget that the 16th annual Spay Day is around the corner. It falls on February 23rd this year, and it’s all about spaying and neutering pets as well as feral cats.

You can put in your zip code to find out about Spay Day events in your local area. Why not help raise awareness in your community this weekend by publicizing some of these events by word of mouth, by using local blogs, or even by putting up posters? Many people might not know about low-cost spay/neuter options, but if we spread the word far and wide, more people might go ahead and spay or neuter their pets.

And if you’re up for a bit of fun…

There’s still time to enter the Spay Day online photo contest which helps raise funds for the Humane Society and helps make events like Spay Day possible.

There are some pretty fabulous prizes up for grabs!

Here are some resources to help with low-cost spay/neuter any day of the year:

• Love That Cat List of Spay/Neuter Resources
• SPAY/USA (not the same as Spay Day)
• Spay Alabama: 1-866-9-SPAY-AL or www.spayalabama.org
• Spay California: 1-866-PET-SPAY or www.spaycalifornia.org
• Spay Colorado: 1-877-654-SPAY or www.spaycolorado.org
• Spay Florida: 1-888-SPAY-FL or www.spayflorida.org
• Indiana Spay/Neuter Alliance: 1-866-957-SPAY or www.spayneuterindiana.org
• Spay Maine: 1-800-367-1317 or www.spaymaine.org
• Spay Massachusetts: 1-888-495-SPAY
• Spay Michigan: 1-888-5-SPAY-HELP orwww.allaboutanimalsrescue.org
• Mississippi Spay & Neuter: 1-866-901-SPAY or www.msspan.org
• Spay Ohio: 1-877-644-6446 (4 to 8 pm) or www.spayohio.org
• SPAY/TEXAS: 1-877-TEX-SPAY or www.spaytexas.org
• Vermont Companion Animal Neutering: 802-223-0034 or www.vt-can.org
• Spay Washington: 1-877-4-SPAY-WA or www.spaywa.org
• Spay Wisconsin: 1-877-510-PETS or animalfriendlywi.org/spaywi
• Kentucky: http://www.kycentral.org/spayneuter.htm

another Turkish puppy who found a forever home overseas thanks to Let's Adopt!

3. Get registered with a rescue transport coordinator so that you can help by driving animals from shelters to rescues. This can take as little as an hour or an hour and a half of your time as you form part of a chain to move dogs and cats from Alabama to Maine or from South Carolina to North Dakota. There’s even one transport this weekend going from Bowling Green, Kentucky, all the way up to Prescott in Ontario, Canada, and they still desperately need drivers on a few of the legs. If you’re anywhere in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, or Ontario, Canada, and could help drive a leg on Saturday or Sunday, please check the run sheet and contact the coordinator, Lucy, at lmoye0617@sbcglobal.net .

This is a huge two-day effort to move about 20 dogs out of an extremely high-kill shelter in western Kentucky, and they need all the help they can get!

Here’s one great list of transport coordinators, but check with your local shelters and rescues to find out which transport coordinators assist them. Then get yourself registered and watch for weekend runs through your area. In many cases, your mileage will even be tax-deductible!

In the same spirit, get registered with your local shelter or rescue as a foster home. Unfortunately, there is always an influx of pregnant animals and babies every Spring. Getting registered now will save precious time when your help is needed.

Harley is another Let's Adopt! beauty from Turkey who found her forever home (and a new pair of glasses!) overseas.

And one last thing…

The USA Network will be running the 2010 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Monday and Tuesday. The show is sponsored by Pedigree.

I don’t even need to tell you how many animals there are in our pounds across America.

So why on earth do people keep breeding animals?

Well…

Dog shows such as this one are not helping in any way. In fact, Westminster decides each year to recognize “new” breeds which only encourages a ton of breeding in the lead-up to this recognition and in the fall-out afterwards as people decide they, too, want to own one of these “rare new breeds.”

Take a moment to tell the Westminster Kennel Club, the USA Network, and Pedigree what you think about dog shows. Let them know that you don’t value a purebred dog any more than a mixed breed one. Tell them that you would rather see sponsorship of and programming about the truly important issues in animal welfare. Why not suggest they sponsor or run programming about low-cost spay/neuter programs? Tell them about Spay Day 2010, and let them know that the breeding encouraged by groups like Westminster is part of the problem.

Ask them if they saw the study about how unaware most people are of the pet overpopulation in America, and ask them if they are doing their part to raise awareness and prevent 4 million animals from being killed in our shelters each year.

Have a great weekend, everyone. Help save one.

While you’re here, don’t forget to join the Facebook group of Let’s Adopt! (USA).

Sterilizing pets is not a priority for new owners.

Check out this article.

The survey cited in this article is the first large-scale effort to quantify the actions and perceptions of pet owners and non-owners relating to spay/neuter, pet overpopulation, and adoption of pets from shelters and rescue organizations.

Educating people about animal welfare must be one of our top priorities. Legislation is also key, but the national survey in this article reveals 3 important facts:

1. “Despite campaigns encouraging sterilization to reduce pet overpopulation, and despite expanding options for low-cost spay/neuter surgeries, nearly half of people who have acquired unsterilized pets in the last year haven’t fixed them.”

2. “Many pet owners are unaware of the scope of overpopulation: 62 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds and 47 percent of 55-plus respondents estimated shelters euthanize fewer than 1 million animals annually; 28 percent put the euthanasia number at 100,000 or less.” In fact, the Humane Society of the United States estimates that 4 million animals are killed in our shelters each year. And that number could be on the low end because there is no national system for tracking the amount of animals that are killed in our shelters.

3. “Southerners and the under-35 set are the least likely to sterilize their pets. … 42 percent of people who recently got a pet did no prior research, formal or informal.”

And we all know what happens when people don’t spay and neuter their pets…

Grace, a Sheltie mix, and her seven puppies made it out of a high-kill shelter in Memphis, Tennessee, at the last minute two days ago thanks to two very dedicated rescuers, Holly and Jill. One of Grace’s puppies was just too weak and died last night while in foster care.

Grace and her puppies will be up for adoption soon. Applications can be made by emailing Jill at dogscats6@yahoo.com .

And you can contribute to the enormous costs of caring for this momma and her babies by contacting their vet:

Dyer County Animal Hospital
410 Hwy 51 ByPass W
Dyersburg, TN 38024

731-285-2043

vet clinic contacts: Jessica Harrison & Amy Campbell