Dear Friends Of Let’s Adopt!

Cheeta during initial critical treatment

Cheeta was rushed to our clinic last week with a totally destroyed leg.

The damage was so great that it had to be amputated.

Cheeta recovering- finally a safe place to cuddle and exhale

She is now a gorgeous three legged kitty.
…
Hairy Steak (named that way because Peke sees her as a potential lunch) had an equally tragic story.. she fell into a semi-empty pool and she was left there for two days.

By the time she arrived,  she was in a coma and blind.

Hairy Steak’s first steps recovering
Lots of care made her get out of her state and she is now an amazing kitty as you can see in the pictures.

snuggle time “zzZZzzzZZzzZZ”

Bearing in mind that they are very good friends and have gone through so much, we were keen on re-homing them together.

UPDATE: Cheeta + Hairy Steak have been adopted to TEXAS!!

and moved with the help of a flight volunteer!!!

kisses goodbye….

Thanks to all of you who are making our mission possible.
As you can see, we are all volunteers with no federal grants or deep pockets. We finance all of our rescue missions with kind contributions to our Simba Fund + out of pocket.
What’s unique about Let’s Adopt! is that we have zero overhead. Every single cent of your contribution (after PayPal fees) goes directly the care of our animals!
Chances are that most of the funds you see listed on the Simba Fund Chip In, have already been spent and put into action.

Thank You for your continuous support and making our global vision a reality.

BE The Change
Misha Dee

Dear Friends,
last month I asked whether, we as a community could save 100 animals this summer.

What has happened since…

I’ve met Mary Ann, a wonderful lady from NC.She saved several cats from a property, who’s owner threatened repeatedly

Using cats for target practice for procreating? An oxymoronic situation considering who's doing the shootin'

to just use the cats  for target practice.
Mary Ann and her patient husband set up traps, and over the course of a week were able to catch all of them.

trapped kitty - ready to be spayed

All have been altered, vaccinated and an older kitty is being treated for a couple of fighting wounds.
Stay tuned for Mary Ann’s story…..

a new lease on life instead of a never ending cycle of kittens

Then there is Daniela, who literally took us up on our challenge the very next day. She lives in Atlanta, went to a high kill shelter in Rome, GA and saved a beautiful English shepherd mix from death row.

Daniela named him Borgo, after a district in Rome.

Borgo on Death Row at the Rome, GA animal pound

Within days Borgo came down with the kennel cough. Daniela spent hours taking him to the vet, treating him, comforting him.

After several baths, a trip to the groomer, lots of love, vaccinations and finally getting neutered – Borgo is ready to move to his new home, which is already waiting for him in Indiana.
Unfortunately, Daniela is a poor student, with a minimum wage job on the side and has exhausted her resources.

She needs help with transport and/or shipping Borgo to Indiana. Please contact Daniela if you can help. dragomirovad@yahoo.com

What about the challenge?

We are a community of over 2000 members in the US. I think we can do better. Daniela, a student, with a minimum wage job, living in a small apartment has proven that there’s always a way to save a life.

Borgo and his personal angel, Daniela

Every life is worth saving. No matter how old or broken an animal is. We owe it to them to make things right.
If we don’t intervene, who will?
What can WE – as a community, as individuals do this coming month?

Step ONE: sign up as a volunteer with us.
if you can’t volunteer please consider supporting us via the Simba Fund.
100 cents of each dollar go to the care of our animals, and funding of special rescue operations. Let’s Adopt! does not have any overhead, because we are ALL volunteers.
This sets us apart from any other big organization.

• Send me your stories and pictures of the animals you saved.
• Sign up to volunteer for us. We are looking for volunteers in ALL 50 States and also in Canada RIGHT NOW.

Shoot me an email with your information:

• Name
• Location
• Volunteer Interest

Let’s make this summer one to remember…

Let's Adopt! Summer Of Luuuuv 2010

The summer we saved 100 animals - TOGETHER!

BE The Change
~Misha

See a bit of yourself in this video?

Welcome Home!

Join the Let’s Adopt! USA network on Facebook

add yourself to the regional volunteer/activist network
in the discussion area:  http://bit.ly/LA_volunteer

Invite/Share/RT – we need to grow as an organization to be ready to cover the US.

Invite/Share/RT...it only takes a few clicks

Donate a couple of clicks to this great cause, and share this post on your FB/Twitter pages.

BE The Change

~Misha

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

I wrote a letter on Monday to a parenting website called Moms Like Me with groups all over the country. Their Louisville group is offering several sets of free circus tickets to families who leave a comment on their blog about their favorite part of the circus. Circuses with animals are not family-friendly activities.

Circuses.com publishes three great reasons to never take your children to a circus.

I encourage every one of you to take a stand against the use of animals in circuses. I challenge you to educate mothers about why they should never take their children to circuses which include animals. Many people may not know or may never have stopped to think about the cruelty of the circus. In fact, most people do not automatically make the connection between animal cruelty and human cruelty.

Here are three easy ways you can make your voice heard:

1. Help spread the message to moms that the circus is not a good choice for a family outing. You can sign here to help parenting website Mom Central realize that they should end their marketing partnership with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. It just doesn’t make sense to link the raising of our children with the torture of animals.

2. Talk to your school boards to discourage circus promotion in schools. There is already enough violence in our schools and neighborhoods. Let’s make sure our schools are not doing themselves and their students a disservice by promoting animal cruelty.

3. Anyone anywhere in the world can take one minute to read and sign PETA’s online petition to take animals out of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus. There is also a petition to encourage the USDA to seize the 11 elephants used by Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s Circus based on the videos taken by PETA during its 2009 undercover investigation.

We need not be combative or aggressive in our mission to educate people about animal cruelty. The truth speaks for itself.

The Captive Animals Protection Society offers a step-by-step guide on everything you need to plan a circus protest.

As my friend Kaye says, speak your mind even if your voice shakes.

Hello, Moms Like Me!

I noticed that you are supporting the Kosair Shrine Circus by holding a ticket contest, and I wanted to share my opinions with you because I believe that it is important for groups such as Moms Like Me to educate their readers and take a stand on issues around how we raise our children.

It is more important than ever that we raise good global citizens, and it is our job to enable our children to recognize human and animal cruelty in all forms. If we take them to the circus to witness animals who are outside their natural environment performing unnatural “tricks” for human amusement, what are we really teaching our children? Are we de-sensitizing them to animal cruelty and teaching them that they should enjoy watching wildlife behave in unnatural ways?

Circus animals travel every day of the year in conditions that usually are not good, and they are often deprived of the companionship of other animals of their species. Nothing about the circus is natural or amusing. Think about it. Animals are afraid of fire just like we are. How much beating down of an animal’s spirit and physical body do you think it takes to get her to jump through a ring of fire?

It is not just so-called “radical” groups like PETA who recognize and condemn the cruelty that occurs in the circus industry. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals speaks up against the circus industry and suggests boycotting the circus. The ASPCA officials attend animal circuses in New York to inspect conditions and educate the public about the cruelty. Even the Humane Society of the United States opposes the use of wild animals in circuses. A simple Google search will produce plenty of information from unbiased sources like these.

How embarrassing not only that we allow this circus to happen in our backyards but also that we actually attend it.

Please note that the Shrine Circus is not a charitable event. Many people seem to believe that the money goes to help Shriners Hospitals and the burn victims they treat. This is not the case. The money goes to the Shrine Fraternity. The work done at Shriners Hospitals around the country is nothing short of extraordinary; people who want to support this work should absolutely make donations directly to the hospitals. I do exactly that.

I think you could write a brilliant piece with circus alternatives for moms and kids. Why not take your children directly to a Shriners Hospital and talk about burn dangers and good samaritans who work together to heal children who have suffered burns? Why not spend some time at home teaching your child about training the family pet and discussing the differences between domesticated and wild animals?

Why not read a children’s book such as _Saving Lilly_ by Peg Kehret or _The Chimpanzees I Love: Saving Their World and Ours_ by Jane Goodall so that you can discuss the importance of wonderful, wild creatures remaining in their natural habitats and continuing their natural behaviors? Most of us can not afford to take our children on a safari, but why not take your child out in nature to observe and learn to appreciate wild birds, squirrels, and perhaps even deer?

Elephants, tigers, lions, bears, monkeys, and other “circus” animals were not put on this Earth for our amusement.

You could even include a link to the ASPCA’s list of circuses which do not include animals. I would be willing to bet that the eyes of every child in the audience at a cruelty-free circus still light up in amazement.

Maybe you could even post the very informative brochure “The Truth Behind the Big Top“ from the Humane Society of the United States .

The bottom line? You would be doing a great service to moms in the Greater Louisville community if you wrote a piece on the truth behind circuses and encouraged them to patronize only circuses which do not include animals. There are many, many alternatives.

We live in a day and age where money is very tight, and we also live during unprecedented times in which our purchasing dollars have the ability to effect great change. My purchasing dollars will never go toward a ticket for a circus that includes animals. I, like many other women around the country, am committed to creating a positive, sustainable, and wonderful community by carefully considering my purchases and my actions.

Step up and meet your reading public. We do not support animal cruelty.

Most people go to the circus because they love to see the animals. What most of them do not know is that they are supporting an industry with a long history of animal cruelty. An article on Moms Like Me about the cruelty of the circus industry would be a great service to your readers.

Thank you.

Kind regards,
Julia

Are you in or around Louisville, Kentucky?

The Shrine Circus is coming to town Thursday February 4th thru Sunday February 7th.  Animal Lovers of Louisville (ALL) is planning a peaceful demonstration for the 2:00pm show on Saturday, February 6th, 2010. The demonstration will be held at the Main Gate at the Fair and Expo Center on Philips Lane. We need to assemble at 1:00 pm at the Main Gate. We will be there less than one hour.

The organizer will have all the signs and pamphlets we will need. Just bring yourself and a friend. Even if you have never attended a peaceful protest, please come and help educate others on this very important issue. We are making a difference!

Look for the orange cones, and we will be there. No permit is needed for this part of the demonstration because we will be on a city-owned street. Parking is always a problem. However, we can park in the Transportation Cabinets’ parking lot which is across the street (Philips Lane side) from the old Executive Inn or in the Bowling Alley parking lot.

Are you far from Louisvillle but still want to help?

Please take a few minutes and call these people to let them know what you think of animal circuses.

The Shriners hire George Cardin who is one of the worst in the business. He has multiple USDA fines for cruelty to animals. The Shrine Headquarters in Louisville can be reached at 502-587-0406 and 502-585-5863.

Kosair Charities (who support the Shriners circus) can be reached at 502-637-7696. Let them know you will not be donating any money to them and that you recommend they associate their children’s health charity with a more suitable event than the circus.

Have you ever protested a circus or any other acts of animal cruelty in your area? Have any tips or resources to share with us? Please leave your comments!