Articles

The NY Times Becomes a Cheerleader for Animal Cruelty

I’m sorry for this photo. I really am. But this is from The New York Times which is cheerleading an Australian slaughter of up to 2,000,000 cats by peddling it as a scientifically-based public policy worth pursuing, dismissing the concerns of ethical people all over the world as misguided and “emotional.” They got it backwards. The piece, replete with photos of cats being gutted, includes the following celebration of killing: “Long after midnight, as the…

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Cruelty-Free Cat Food

A Canadian biotech company has announced it successfully created a cat food made from “cultured meat.” It is made from a one time draw of stem cells. The stem cells are then replicated in a laboratory and grown in an animal-free medium to produce real meat from animals without killing. It is not just similar to meat; it is meat. It expects to bring the first of these products — a cat treat made from…

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Articles PETA

New Study: TNR Reduces Killing by Over 80%

A new study looked at cat impound and killing rates in six city pounds before and after the implementation of a program to sterilize and release community cats. The cities involved were Albuquerque, Baltimore, Columbus (GA), Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Tucson. Once again, the study adds to a growing body of literature that Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) works. In all: A median decline of 83% in cat killing occurred at the six shelters compared to baseline. The…

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The Year of the Cat

Part II of a series of 2018 animal news in review. Early in the new year, I’ll be doing a radio interview highlighting the biggest shelter animal stories and trends of 2018 and what the future holds for 2019. I’ll be talking about community cat programs and pitty parties, and a whole lot more. Details coming soon: Earlier, I posted that 2018 marked a tipping point when it comes to dogs we classify as “pit…

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Delaware Mandates Community Cat Sterilization

Delaware Gov. John Carney signs the cat bill into law. The State of Delaware has taken another step forward by protecting community cats and making community cat sterilization the preferred method of “animal control” throughout the state. This week, the Governor signed HB235 which mandates that “visibly healthy cats admitted to a shelter, not placed for adoption, and lacking discernible owner identification, are sterilized, vaccinated against rabies, ear-tipped, and returned to a safe location where…

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Articles PETA

PETA Donations & Taxpayer Funds Used to Kill Kittens

  I just received documents obtained through the Public Records Act demonstrating how PETA delivers healthy cats and kittens to local pounds in order to kill them. These documents show that PETA uses donations given under the mistaken belief that the organization will use those donations to save animals to round up healthy cats and kittens and have them poisoned instead. Among the dead are 9-week old kittens, 10-week old kittens, 4-month old kittens, and…

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A “shocking” proposal: It is ok to allow cats to go outside (sometimes)

Reggie Watts, the cat (not the comedian). Last week, I posted an article on Facebook about a lawsuit over custody of Reggie, a cat. Rae Bees, a woman who adopted Reggie five years ago from a rescue group with an “indoor only” cat policy, is suing that group for refusing to give her her cat back. Reggie was found wandering by a Good Samaritan and traced to the rescue group through a microchip. After the…

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Ask Me Anything: Community Cat Edition

I get a lot of questions about animals on a wide variety of topics and I try to answer each and every one. When they have wider appeal, I’ll post my response. (If you would like to ask me anything, you can do so in the comments of my Facebook page or through the No Kill Advocacy Center, my organization.) This week, I was asked about the limits of community cat sterilization, specifically about cats…

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Articles PETA

Gone in (Less Than) 60 Seconds

PETA and the Norfolk, VA, pound team kill many community cats and kittens the minute they enter the “shelter.” PETA claims killing is a last resort; that all the animals they take in are irremediably suffering and that the killing they do meets the dictionary definition of “euthanasia.” It is a lie. In addition to putting to death the vast majority of cats they take in, they also round up to kill healthy community cats…

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Articles PETA

More Kittens Dead at the Hands of PETA

Last week I reported about all the kittens PETA rounded up and took to the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter in Newport News, VA, to be killed. PETA logged them as “live releases,” but only two (out of 20) were spared. Among the dead were unweaned neonatal kittens, six week old kittens, eight week old kittens, four month old kittens, seven month old juveniles, one year old juveniles, and adult cats.  They were listed as having…

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