The Animal Rescue Site is sponsoring a petition to make pet care more affordable via tax breaks for pet owners – this is the proposed bill known as HAPPY. Please join and support their efforts by signing the petition!
Click on this link here
http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/campaign.faces?siteId=3&campaign=HAPPYAct3501
A bill pending in Congress known as the HAPPY Act, would entitle pet owners to a tax deduction up to $3500 per year for expenses related to pet care including veterinary care.
Read more about this bill and how you can help pass legislation that will save animal lives and keep more pets in their homes.
http://www.animallawcoalition.com/animals-and-politics/article/1019
I was recently contacted by Adopt-a-pet.com, and since I share their passion for combating the pet overpopulation crisis and promoting pet adoptions through animal shelters and animal rescue groups, me and my cats have given Adopt-a-Pet.com all our collective PAWS up!!!!
PetAdmin. Note: On the heels of the issues with the Vermillion Rabies Control Center in Kaplan, Louisiana, reported earlier this month, comes this news alert, courtsey of NOLA.com
Louisiana SPCA to investigate Jefferson animal shelters
by Richard Rainey, The Times-Picayune
Tuesday August 18, 2009, 11:20 AM
The Louisiana chapter of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals will begin investigating allegations today of high euthanasia rates and cruelty at Jefferson Parish’s animal shelters, parish officials said.
Parish President Aaron Broussard’s administration requested the local SPCA examine charges from animal activists that Dr. Marci Miranov, the shelters’ senior veterinarian, had improperly disposed of dozens of animals last week to quell overcrowding at the Elmwood facility.
Tim Whitmer, Broussard’s chief administrative officer, said Monday the request was made in response to dozens of e-mails circulating Friday among local animal rights groups.
Jefferson Parish’s two animal shelters, one in Elmwood and another in Marrero, have come under intense scrutiny after the abrupt resignation Wednesday of Shelter Director Lee Ann Matherne.
Local animal activists sounded an alarm Thursday that Miranov had killed 18 dogs and more than two dozen cats. The SPCA will examine the allegations and determine if proper protocol was taken to select the animals for euthanasia and that the proper procedures were followed to dispose of them, said Deano Bonano, Broussard’s chief administrative assistant who oversees the shelters.
Bonano said he checked the average daily euthanasia rates last week and discovered that the number killed Thursday was not unusual. Late summer is a busy time for shelters, which are accepting abandoned pets at an alarming rate, Bonano said.
However, it was best to bring in an independent arbiter, he said.
It was unclear this morning how long the SPCA’s investigation would take.
Be sure to check your local PBS station listings for a documentary called “Fifteen Legs” to be airing soon! The documentary is based on Bonnie Silva’s book, “Fifteen Legs”
In Fifteen Legs: When all that stands between death and freedom is a ride… Silva recounts her travels as an uninvited and sometimes suspiciously eye-balled guest aboard an Internet enabled escort service for last-chance animals.
Smitten by an inner urge to tell the public at large about the largely undiscovered world she stumbled upon, Silva writes, This notion of volunteers connecting in cyberspace on behalf of desperate, unwanted animals had stolen my heart. The thought of perfect strangers coming together and working as a team to shuttle society’s non-human cast-offs out of harms way was too wonderful a story to pass up. I had to tell it.
Today I am posting links on this blog to two very good websites that address the issues brought up by the recent publicity surrounding the Vermillion Parish Rabies Control Center in Lafayette, Louisiana and the reinstatement of Michael Vick by the NFL. I strongly urge you to visit these websites and become better enlightened.
Since I’m deaf, I can’t hear my cats purr, but I definitely can feel these purrs when I snuggle with them! I saw this great article over at The Daily Cat, and wanted to share this with my blog visitors – Enjoy!
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How and why cats purr
From The Daily Cat
By Susan McCullough, Studio One Networks
Did you know that, like vibrating piano strings, the sounds and vibrations your purring cat emits are in perfect musical harmony with each other? Those positive vibrations form the basis of one of the most soothing and pleasurable means of communication in the entire animal kingdom. Usually, your cat is telling you, “I’m feeling good.”
In addition to the messages purring can send to you and others, it offers physical benefits to both felines and the lucky people petting them.
From KLFY-Channel 10 news in Lafayette, Louisiana:
Vermilion Animal Shelter Concerns
Posted: Aug 6, 2009 07:49 PM CDT
Animal advocates around Acadiana are sharing their concerns about conditions at the Vermilion Parish Animal Control Center.
Those concerns are focused on what animal rescue advocates say is the lack of an ongoing adoption program, which has led to an extremely high euthanasia rate, and the method used to perform that euthanasia.
One of the major allegations being leveled by animal advocates is that Vermilion Parish Animal Control, whose headquarters are actually known as Vermilion Rabies Control, makes little effort to find homes for adoptable animals, and as a result, as many as 200 animals are euthanized each month in a gas chamber that witnesses say is malfunctioning, and allegedly requires two cycles to leave the animals lifeless.
After months of concern, animal advocates are finally speaking out.
“The main situation is that the public does not know that it is a strictly kill shelter, it’s a high kill shelter, it’s one of the highest kill shelters in the United States, they do not have an adoption program, animal aid rescues the dogs when we have room….that’s our main goal is to notify people that after four days, if you don’t reclaim your pet and we can’t find a home, it will be put down in the gas chamber” says Vermilion Animal Aid’s Darline LaBry
LaBry and her fellow volunteers say they want the public to be realistic about the situation, and as a community, to take action.
“We just would like to see people understand that this is a strictly kill shelter and we can only do so much, and we need everyone to band together to help out.”
For those of you out there who are devoted fans of Ron Moore’s reimagined Battlestar Galactica series (which recently ended its 4 year run on Sci Fi channel this past spring), you know Tricia Helfer as “Number Six”, “Caprica Six”, “Natalie”, “Gina”, and a host of other cloned personas based on the Cylon model #6.
Well, did you also know that Tricia is an avid cat lover and a passionate advocate for animal rescue? I came across this PETA promo photo featuring Tricia with her cat, Mister Nix.
Mr. Nix isn’t the only cat that Tricia adopted, she has five others, as you can see by the photos at her official website, http://www.triciahelfer.com
All my cats here say TWO PAWS UP for Ms. Helfer!
