Zoe's Story September 16, 2009
Posted by Shannon Phillips at September 16, 2009 11:30 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 8 ) | TrackBackAbout six months ago, I met an amazing girl with a personality to match, and we quickly became best friends. Like a best friend should, she doesn't care what I look like in the morning, she supports every decision I make, and she's there for me between laughter and tears. My only complaints about our friendship are that she can't go shopping with me, we're unable to go out for fancy vegan dinners, and the strangest of all? She doesn't talk. All of this might sound a little off, but it makes a little more sense when I let you know that my best friend is a dog.
As a regular volunteer at the city animal shelter, Norfolk Animal Care Center, I see a lot of animals come and go, and my best friend is really no different. She came to the shelter as a stray from one of the worst neighborhoods in Norfolk. She was lethargic, scared, had visible scars on her legs and neck, and was a little skinny. While I genuinely love each and every dog that comes through the shelter doors, there was just something different about Zoe. In the beginning, Zoe didn't even want to leave her kennel to go on walks, and she curled up on her bed and slept for the entire day. There was no doubt in my mind that she was depressed, and I wanted to do everything I could to change that for her. Over the weeks, I spent more and more time with Zoe and eventually gained her trust. We went on long walks, played fetch, and the amazing staff made sure that she got her favorite pink comforter to lay on every night at bedtime.
Over the next few months, I showed Zoe to just about every family that walked through the doors looking for a new companion. Unfortunately, a lot of people judged Zoe by her appearance and opted to look at smaller dogs, puppies, or purebreds. After multiple rejections, I started to feel like I was letting Zoe down. More than anything, I wanted someone to give her a chance and a forever home, but little did I know ... that person would be me. After about three months in the shelter, I heard word that Zoe had a chance of being euthanized as no one seemed to be interested, and the shelter was full of other dogs who also needed forever homes. At that moment, I knew I had to do something. I scribbled a note for the shelter manager on a post-it and stuck it on his office door. On May 8th, 2009, I picked up my new companion and we've been inseparable ever since.
It feels so great to know that Zoe has a second chance in life, but more than anything, I wish that so many other dogs in shelters could have that same chance. Every year, approximately 6 to 8 million animals are turned into shelters, and 4 million of those animals are either euthanized or end up in no-kill shelters where they may spend years living in a cage. Many animals come in as strays, but some are even surrendered by their guardians for reasons like "allergies," "we're moving," "can't keep anymore," "too expensive"—there are just too many to list. If there's anything I've learned from Zoe and volunteering at the shelter, it's the importance of spaying and neutering (the world doesn't need any more puppies, trust me!), only getting an animal companion if you have the time, money, and means to do so, and avoiding pet stores and
So if you're looking for a friend and have the time and the means to do so, please adopt a companion from your local shelter—they will thank you with a lifetime of unconditional love.
xoP.S. In her new life, Zoe loves the PETA dog park, cuddling on the couch, peanut butter biscuits, playgrounds filled with children (she absolutely adores kids), car rides, trying to play with my cats—Mr. Chow and Bean, and grooming my bunny, Princess Bun-Bun. I'm also happy to say that Zoe is now a PETA office dog and comes to work with me every day! In fact, she's curled up at my feet as I type this.
Why We Euthanize, Part II (Warning: Graphic Photo) May 13, 2009
Posted by Marta at May 13, 2009 5:17 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 48 ) | TrackBack
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No one likes to think about euthanasia, and that's understandable. Unfortunately, it's a reality for so many dogs and cats. We recently posted a blog about our stance on euthanasia, and as a follow-up, I hope you will read the below post from PETA.
-Marta
PLEASE NOTE: There's a picture below that is very disturbing, but for people who are concerned about animal suffering and homelessness, it's important to face the tragic reality of the overpopulation crisis and its consequences. Animals can't afford to have people look away.
Her name was Big Girl, but there was almost nothing left of her. She was so still, so slight, and so cold to the touch that field workers thought that she was already dead. But the tiny 6-month-old pit bull was still alive. Barely.
Big Girl never knew the love and care that we wish every dog experienced; by the time we arrived, she had endured prolonged, incomprehensible agony. When we found her collapsed on the ground, she weighed less than the chain she was tied to. She had clearly been starved—she was a pile of bones and had raw, mostly hairless skin with absolutely no body fat. A veterinarian later told us that Big Girl's stomach contained nothing but dirt, leaves, a piece of corn cob with two kernels on it, and a piece of dry, caked fecal matter. Big Girl had been left to suffer for so long that she had begun to decompose. Four different generations of maggots were eating away at her body. When we gently peeled her off the ground, she moaned. She could not see us or hear us, but we hope she knew that we were there to help her.
We sent Big Girl off to heaven with kind words and a gentle lethal injection. We wished we could have ended her misery much, much sooner. Those who condemn open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA for having to euthanize sick, injured, dying, and unwanted animals must look closely at the source of the overpopulation crisis—people who breed animals, those who neglect and abuse them, and consumers who choose to buy animals from breeders and pet shops instead of adopting from their local animal shelter.
No one hates the ugly reality of euthanasia more than the shelter workers who hold the syringe. Sometimes, especially when animals have known no kindness and are suffering, the best that we can offer an animal like Big Girl, Asia, and others is a painless and dignified release from a world that showed them no love or compassion.
-Jeff Mackey, PETA
P.S. The man responsible for Big Girl's horrific condition (as well as that of another dog, who suffered from a vaginal prolapse) was charged and convicted for the condition of both dogs, and he was prohibited from owning animals.
Why We Euthanize March 31, 2009
Posted by Marta at March 31, 2009 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 35 ) | TrackBack
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Euthanasia is not something anyone likes to think about, but unfortunately, sometimes it's a necessity. I wanted to share with you PETA's stance on euthanasia straight from PETA President Ingrid Newkirk herself. This is long, but it's really important, so please do read it all the way through. And a heads-up: The images are graphic and disturbing.
-Marta
In my first year working at a grossly substandard animal shelter in Maryland, I forced myself to go in early to euthanize dogs by holding them in my arms and gently helping them escape an uncaring world without trauma or pain and to spare them from being stabbed haphazardly—while they were fully conscious, terrified and aware—in the general vicinity of their hearts with needles blunt from reuse and left to thrash on the floor until they finally died by the callous people who would arrive later to do the job.
I always wonder how anyone cannot recognize that there is a world of difference between painlessly euthanizing animals out of compassion—aged, injured, sick, and dying animals whose guardians can't afford euthanasia, for instance—as PETA does, and causing them to suffer terror, pain, and a prolonged death while struggling to survive on the streets, at the hands of untrained and uncaring "technicians," or animal abusers.
It's easy to point the finger at those who are forced to do the "dirty work" caused by a throwaway society's casual acquisition and breeding of dogs and cats who end up homeless and unwanted, but at PETA, we will never turn our backs on neglected, unloved, and homeless animals—even if the best we can offer them is a painless release from a world that doesn't have enough heart or homes with room for them. It makes it easy for people to throw stones at us, but we are against all needless killing: for hamburgers, fur collars, dissection, sport hunting—the works. PETA handled far more animals than 2,124 in 2008. In fact, we took in more than 10,000 dogs and cats and work very hard to persuade people to spay and neuter their animals and to commit to a lifetime of care and respect for them. We go so far as to transport animals to and from our spay/neuter clinics, where they are spayed or neutered and given vet care, often for free! Since 2001, PETA's low- to no-cost spay-and-neuter mobile clinics, SNIP and ABC, have sterilized more than 50,000 animals, preventing hundreds of thousands of animals from being born, neglected, abandoned, abused, or euthanized when no one wanted them. And on a national level, PETA is focusing on the root of the problem through our Animal Birth Control (ABC) campaign.
If anyone has a good home, love, and respect to offer, we beg them: Go to a shelter and take one or two animals home. The problem is that few people do that, choosing instead to go to a breeder or a pet shop and not "fixing" their dogs and cats, which contributes to the high euthanasia rate that animal shelters face. Most of the animals we took in and euthanized could hardly be called "pets," as they had spent their lives chained up in the back yard, for instance. They were unsocialized, never having been inside a building of any kind or known a pat on the head. Others were indeed someone's, but they were aged, sick, injured, dying, too aggressive to place, and the like, and PETA offered them a painless release from suffering, with no charge to their owners or custodians.
Every day, PETA's fieldworkers help abused and neglected dogs—many of them pit bulls nowadays and many of them forced to live their lives on chains heavy enough to tow an 18-wheeler—by providing them with food; clean water; lightweight tie-outs; deworming medicine; flea, tick, and fly-strike prevention; free veterinary care; sturdy wooden doghouses stuffed with straw bedding; and love.
What we see is enough to make you lose faith in humanity. One pit bull we gained custody of, named Asia, looked like a skeleton covered with skin when PETA released her from the 15-pound chain she had been kept on for years. Asia suffered from three painful and deadly intestinal obstructions, which prevented her from keeping any food down. She faced an agonizing, lingering death, so our veterinarian recommended euthanasia to end her suffering. We pursued criminal charges against those responsible for her condition, leading to their conviction for cruelty to animals. That is just one of the dozens of cases we see every week.
The majority of adoptable dogs are never brought through our doors (we refer them to local adoption groups and walk-in animal shelters). Most of the animals we house, rescue, find homes for, or put out of their misery come from miserable conditions, which often lead to successful prosecution and the banning of animal abusers from ever owning or abusing animals again.
As long as animals are still purposely bred and people aren't spaying and neutering their companions, open-admission animal shelters and organizations like PETA must do society's dirty work. Euthanasia is not a solution to overpopulation but rather a tragic necessity given the present crisis. PETA is proud to be a "shelter of last resort," where animals who have no place to go or who are unwanted or suffering are welcomed with love and open arms.
Please, if you care about animals, help prevent more of them from being born only to end up chained and left to waste away in people's back yards, suffering on mean streets where people kick at them or shoo them away like garbage, tortured at the hands of animal abusers, or, alas, euthanized in animal shelters for lack of a good home. If you want to save lives, always have your animals spayed or neutered.
- Ingrid Newkirk
Fighting Animal Abuse In Your Neighborhood November 4, 2008
Posted by Rachel-O at November 4, 2008 11:20 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 7 ) | TrackBackAs the winter begins here in Norfolk, Virginia, I'm bracing myself for another season with PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP), a program in our Cruelty Investigations Department. This is where PETA staffers volunteer their weekends to deliver straw and sturdy doghouses to dogs kept outside in the colder months. As I think about how eager I am to start again, I think back to last fall and an entry I wrote in my own personal journal:
"This weekend I got the honor of working with PETA's Community Animal Project—or CAP, a program that offers free to low cost spaying and neutering services to low-income families, delivers straw in the winter, and food and shelter all throughout the year for dogs who live at the end of chains or confined to pens in North Carolina and Virginia.
For whatever reason, there is one dog from this weekend that I cannot stop thinking of. I cannot forget. He was a large German Shepherd/black lab mix. We saw him from the street. He was chained tightly to some worn down fencing next to a garage, in a small grassy area of a backyard. His house was a two-tone plastic dog crate, covered in dirt and mud. His living area was a pile of dirt and unraked leaves, and he was surrounded by his own waste on every side. There was no food or water in sight, except for a small plastic baggy filled with raw shrimp. He instantly got up to greet us, his large frame moving fast and his tail wagging. His eyes told stories we'll never understand, and you could tell inside them was hope that we would never leave. The neighbor said the house had been abandoned three years ago, and that whoever owned the house came to "feed" the dog daily. Still, this loving, feeling creature begged us to stay with him, and as we wrote down all of the information we could get, we got up and walked away. We loosened his collar, gave him food, water and straw, and left him behind. We must leave him behind because the law was on the side of misery. (Although when we do find animals like this, in trouble, our cruelty investigators follow up with every case).
Three days have passed now. My life has continued: I've come home, eaten, laughed, played, talked, gone to work, relaxed. It has been day and night, warm and cold.
Still outside, he lingers. In the same place, on the same chain. In the same dark alley way next to the same garage. Smelling the same wretched stench of feces and urine, laying in the same dead leaves as the previous months. His life will never change, for him, simply existing in those horrible conditions is life. From the look of his body and the way he acted, he once knew love, now he knows nothing but memory. Now he knows nothing but loneliness.
For those three nights since I met him, I've thought of him every time I close my eyes. When I'm tucked away in my warm bed, he is still out there. He is still out there in the cold, wet night. He is still waiting for someone to come along and pet him, he is still hoping that one day that love he once knew, will return.
We will return for him, but only to finally end his solace. To end his isolation. We cannot erase his months of betrayal, or his months of depression. We can only alleviate his suffering, not replace it with love. There's not enough love in the world to make up for the wrongs of human beings. If they could understand our language, what could our society ever say? Would we tell them that their lives mean nothing? That they're useless, worthless, nothing? That they deserved to fall asleep every night in the dampness of their own waste? Would we, as a society, tell them that yes, we think that's just fine?
If we truly had to answer for our actions, what would we say?
Two of the thousands of dogs that CAP sees every year.
Fortunately for us, our victims can't speak. Most of only fight for the ones who can, because it makes us feel less guilty. We turn our heads to those who can't because they're simply easier to forget."
So what happens when we can't forget?
Sometimes being in the animal rights movement can feel overwhelming, and that's just part of fighting for such an important cause. Millions of animals suffer every day, but for animals in your local neighborhood, and your local shelters - you can help directly. I spend every Sunday at the local animal shelter here in Virginia, and even though every day working for animals is rewarding, there's nothing quite like finding a new home for an animal who is just waiting for a second chance. Not every community is lucky enough to have a program like CAP, but every one has a shelter. You make all of the difference for animals in those shelters, so find one near you and change a life. Who doesn't love spending hours playing with dogs and cats? Especially ones that are especially grateful to be shown love. Sadly, dogs and cats are often overlooked by some people who believe they have it easier, when in a lot of cases, they have it just as bad. Every day working for PETA is rewarding, but it's always some of the hardest, most gut wrenching work that makes me realize why I fight for all animals.
Please, do every little bit that you can, because they have no other choice to make other than to simply wait.
Stay Loud
-Rachel
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