Animal Welfare // Current

Preview: Planet in Peril: Battle Lines

Anderson Cooper, Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Lisa Ling host the CNN Worldwide event -- "Planet in Peril: Battle Lines." ... more

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Polar Bears Eating Each Other Due to Starvation

VIDEO REPORT: Scientists claim Arctic polar bears are so hungry they are eating other bears. ITN's Lawrence McGinty reports.... more

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Mountain Gorillas Under Attack

Guerillas threaten gorillas in African park - The new conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo has forced dozens of rangers to... more

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PUPPY BEATEN BY LA OFFICIAL

The 6-month-old shepherd mix is euthanized because of extensive injuries. The suspect, who has been placed on administrative... more

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PUPPY MILLS BUSTS!

Puppy Mill Awareness Day - Awareness Day is the home for information pertaining to puppymills, pet stores and the movement to end... more

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Economy forces people to give up pets |

As the recession forces more and more Americans to downsize, leaving their homes and struggling to pay their bills, animal welfare groups report a dramatic rise in pets given up for adoption or abandoned on the street.

"We got a call from a young couple last Sunday," said Bill Smith, founder of Main Line Rescue. "They were on a payphone in a parking lot at a Burger King in West Chester (Pa.) They said they were on their way to a (homeless) shelter themselves and needed us to take their dog and cat."

A passing social worker saw the couple and, realizing they were in trouble, stopped to ask if she could help, Smith said. "She drove them here." The dog, 10-year-old Chance, is a cross between a cocker and a springer spaniel. The cat, Charlie Brown, is 6 and has a deformed leg.

Two regional shelters recently received dogs after neighbors reported that the animals were kept in cars all day. In both cases, the owners were homeless and living in the cars with their pets.

When people come to a shelter to give up an animal, they are not required to explain their financial circumstances. So there is no firm data on how many animals have been left because of the recession, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Anecdotally, however, shelters across the country are reporting an increase not only in the numbers of pets coming in, but also in the emotional straits of their owners.

"It's a different kind of surrender," says Smith. "Usually, when people drop off animals, they're just not willing to take care of them anymore. But more and more, they would like nothing more than to keep them."

Some pet owners who are managing to stay in their homes give up their animals because they can't afford to feed them or treat their illnesses.

United Animal Nations, one of several groups that provide emergency funding for veterinary care, reports a 52% increase in applications this year.

Pet owners are under economic pressure, which increases demand at shelters, which are running out of room and money. Meanwhile, local governments are cutting back support for the shelters they run. And finally, private donations are dwindling.

"The last number I heard was that 6 million Americans are potentially looking at foreclosure. We expect 60% of these homeowners have a pet. That means 3 (million) to 4 million pets are at risk."

At the shelter on Hunting Park Avenue, staff members regularly go home in tears, says John Pastor, shelter manager. "This place has plenty of 'Oh my God's,' " he says, passing a cage with a mother cat and her 2-week-old kittens.

Animal shelters are busting at the seams nationwide. Most people know what happens to pets that don't find homes. In recent years, the number of adoptable animals being euthanized at shelters in the US already reached millions/per year, it is devastating to imagine what the 'numbers' in the near future will be...As the recession forces more and more Americans to downsize, leaving their homes and struggling to pay their bills, animal welfare... more

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2 days ago

Help Close L.A. Zoo Elephant Exhibit And Send Lone Elephant Billy To Sanctuary

SPEAK UP FOR THE VOICELESS! Thirteen elephants have died at the L.A. Zoo since 1975. More than half never lived to age 20.... more

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2 days ago

World Congress on Animal Alternatives Set for Next Summer

Late next summer, scientists and others committed to the advancement of animal alternatives in experiments will gather in Rome,... more

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5 days ago

Class B animal dealers under federal scrutiny

Class B dealers. Their ranks have dwindled to less than a dozen. The research community continues to move away from the... more

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5 days ago

Barack Obama Presidential Pooch Pardon - Sign Petition and Tell Your Friends!

Please sign this asking petition asking for a 'Presidential Pooch Pardon'. This action would help not only one very... more

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6 days ago

Japan's whaling industry in crisis: Greenpeace

PHOTO: A mother whale & her newborn calf are caught for 'scientific experimentation' purposes by the Japanese... more

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6 days ago

Lies of the Fur Industry

This footage shows some of the horrors of fur farms. This does affect you because these are what fur farms look like, regardless... more

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6 days ago

Scottish seal populations plummet

October 2008 - New figures reinforce importance of Advocates for Animals' campaign to end needless seal killing.

Advocates for Animals has renewed its call on the Scottish Government to end the killing of seals in Scottish waters as new research shows a frightening fall in the numbers of common (harbour) seals around the coast.

Scotland has internationally-important populations of harbour and grey seals in its waters and is guardian to 90% of UK seal populations. Advocates for Animals is calling on the Scottish Government to use its upcoming new Marine Bill to introduce full legal protection for seals.

SHOOTING SEALS - Although a number of different factors are thought to be responsible for the decline in seal numbers, the unnecessary shooting of seals is clearly an important issue. Many people are unaware that every year thousands of seals are needlessly shot in Scotland.

The existing Conservation of Seals Act 1970 is widely agreed to be ineffective and unenforceable, allowing seals to be shot even when they are pregnant or with dependent pups. The Act does not require any standard of marksmanship, meaning that seals can suffer and die at sea after being shot and wounded. Unbelievably, no records are required to be kept of the numbers of animals shot.

MARINE BILL - Advocates for Animals' Campaigns Director, Ross Minett, said: "This new research showing continuing declines in seal populations is most concerning and reinforces the need for the Government to use the new Marine Bill to give seals full legal protection. Now more than ever there are overwhelming animal welfare and conservation reasons to end the unnecessary killing of seals by members of the fishing and fish farming industry.

The vast majority of people of Scotland expect our Government to bring this slaughter to an end. Members of the public can quickly and easily support our campaign to protect seals at www.lookoutforseals.org."

Thousands of people have supported Advocates for Animals' LOOK OUT for SEALS campaign and responded to the Scottish Government's recent consultation on a new Marine Bill asking for an end to the killing of any seals on Scottish waters. Such a move would be supported by 75% of people in Scotland
October 2008 - New figures reinforce importance of Advocates for Animals' campaign to end needless seal killing. Advocates... more

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10 days ago

Election day brings two critical victories for animals in the United States

World Society for the Protection of Animals - Elections go to the dogs (and pigs, cows, and chickens)! The election results... more

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10 days ago

Make Yourself Beautiful

Act beautiful for animals WSPA has teamed up with international cosmetic and beauty chain The Body Shop to ask people around... more

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10 days ago

Dead manatee found in Croydon

BRISTOL TOWNSHIP - A dead manatee was found earlier this week near the banks of the Delaware River in Croydon. The mammal, an... more

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11 days ago

Asst. Fire Chief Admits Beating Puppy in Self Defense

RIVERSIDE -- This is one fence between neighbors that will never be mended.

Was the beating of a puppy self-defense, or animal cruelty? Now it's up to the Riverside County Sheriff's Office to try to uncover the truth. "I just think he's an evil person. How can any human being just murder a puppy for no reason?" dogowner Shelley Toole says fighting through tears her family can't sleep.

They say Monday, their next-door neighbor, in some kind of violent rage, beat their puppy so badly the dog had to be put down. Karley was a six-month old shepherd mix. What may surprise many people is the fact that the neighbor is Los Angeles County Assistant Fire Chief Glynn Johnson.

An online biography lists a stellar 30-year career with the department. It says he's an expert in counter-terrorism, among other areas. But his neighbors of the last ten years have a very different picture of the man. Jeff Toole, Shelley's husband, says he believes Chief Johnson "needs a lot of help." We tried to talk with the public safety official Wednesday night, knocking on his front door repeatedly and calling out for him. But no one answered.
He was home because we later discovered he had called police to tell them to make sure we stay off his property.

Riverside County investigators tell KTLA the fire chief admits to beating the dog -- but says it was in self-defense because Karley attacked him viciously. The Tooles say Monday evening, Karley got out and went to neighbor Travis Staggs' home. He lives on the other side of Chief Johnson's house.

Staggs says he was walking Karley home when Johnson stepped in and said he would take the dog back home. Staggs says he reluctantly handed over the puppy, and that's when it happened in Johnson's front yard. Travis Staggs tells KTLA that Glynn Johnson simply started beating the dog, and that the dog had not attacked Johnson first.

According to this witness, Johnson hit the dog repeatedly with a closed fist, put his hands in the puppy's mouth and tried to break its jaws, and eventually beat the dog over the head repeatedly with a large rock from the front yard. Staggs says he tried to stop the attack but couldn't. The Toole family later decided to have Karley put down because of the extent of her injuries.

"It scares me, knowing I live next-door to this man," says Travis Staggs.

The Tooles say they will take civil action against the assistant fire chief regardless of the outcome of the criminal investigation. Riverside County deputies tell KTLA they are conducting more interviews with witnesses in an attempt to determine what really happened in this case. If detectives find enough evidence that the dog beating was unwarranted, they will hand the case over to the district attorney for a possible animal cruelty charge, which is a felony.

The Tooles say there is a "history of violence" with Glynn Johnson, and deputies say they are looking into these claims as well. "This man needs to go to prison for what he did," says Shelley Toole. She adds, "Karley was my baby, and he took her away from me."

RIVERSIDE -- This is one fence between neighbors that will never be mended. Was the beating of a puppy self-defense, or... more