Feature Article
On Dec. 12, 2012, authorities in Lake Elsinore, Calif., were shocked when they entered Global Captive Breeders Inc. Tipped off by investigators from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, they discovered more than 600 half-dead snakes and 18,400 dead and dying rodents.
Feature Article
In cash-strapped California, the animal protection laws needed some protection.
Scoop
An industry on its last legs?
Advocates say the time is ripe to phase out New York's horse-drawn carriages
Helping animals on a Mass. scale
Massachusetts shelter models holistic approach to ending pet homelessness
Mutterings
A round-up of fun, inspiring news tidbits from the animal welfare world.
Partnering for pets and people
A collaborative effort between animal care services and the sheriff's department reaps rewards
Say "cheezburger"
Adoption campaign capitalizes on viral video trend
Mouthpieces
People take their dogs to the vet twice as often as they take their cats. Download this Mouthpiece to help encourage your community to take their cats to the vet for yearly checkups.
Unforgettable
After almost 20 years in a pet store in a very small cage, Fred had pulled out all her chest feathers, as well as most of those on her back.
I had taken a special interest in Fred for many years, as this store was near my home. So when she was relinquished to Phoenix Landing in 2004, my daughter Emilie and I gladly welcomed her for foster care.
Q&A
Back in the late-1980s, when Dave Duffield was relatively poor and uncertain about the prospects for PeopleSoft, a software firm he had founded, he always had a comforting friend in his miniature schnauzer, Maddie. Duffield and his wife Cheryl vowed that if they became wealthy, they’d repay Maddie for her love and companionship during difficult times by trying to help future generations of pets.
The business prospered, and the Duffields established a family foundation in 1994 that became Maddie’s Fund in 1999, a few years after Maddie’s death.
President's Note
A volunteer trapping feral cats for sterilization and then returning them to managed colonies.
An animal care and control officer investigating a hoarding case.
A shelter staffer bathing a homeless animal to ready him for adoption.
A worker feeding a tiger at a big cats sanctuary.
A wildlife rehabilitator releasing a pelican back into the wild after extracting fishing line from her stomach.
Behavior Department
Every dog surrendered has a story. Some are victims of a move or financial hardship. Some were beloved family pets; others never had a family at all. Some are surrendered for housebreaking issues, or aggression, or fears the dog would not get along with family members.
And still others have energy. A lot of energy.
101 Department
This is it—your big shot at a job in animal welfare. You’re incredibly excited to get in and start making a difference, and you’re ready to do anything from cleaning a kennel to fundraising as long as it helps the animals. All you have to do is ace the job interview. You take a seat, smooth out the wrinkles in your suit, and face the hiring panel.
“So,” the HR director begins, “tell me why you’re interested in this position.” Your confidence soars as you prepare to hit this softball out of the park.
Life Preservers
The story of Los Angeles isn’t a tale of two cities—it’s more like the story of 88.
That’s the number of individual cities within the enormous Los Angeles County. While many people imagine Los Angeles as a dreamy beachfront of Hollywood starlets and Beverly Hills boutiques, the greater LA area is incredibly diverse in terms of culture and income levels. Over 60 percent of residents speak a language other than English at home, and for all the glitz and glamour of some areas, 21 percent live below the poverty level.
Magazine Article
At a time of life when most people are savoring a more leisurely pace, Harold Sims of Cullowhee, North Carolina, is busier than ever and has no intention of slowing down.
Magazine Article
I came to the Humane Society of the United States in 2014 after a decade (more if you count those years I spent as a kid sitting in cat rooms and walking dogs way too big for me) overseeing operations at animal shelters. I wouldn’t say I was particularly excited about or motivated to fit policy into my daily workload of caring for homeless pets—until I worked for an animal shelter that was located in a city with breed-specific legislation, flawed policies that ban certain types of dogs based on their physical appearance.
Magazine Article
To see Teddy and Millie now—playful and friendly, outgoing and affectionate— you’d never guess what they’ve endured in their short lives. As part of an unnecessary test commissioned by Dow AgroSciences (now Corteva Agriscience), the beagles were force-fed a pesticide every day for more than seven months at a laboratory in Michigan.
Magazine Article
Vinnie Van Gogh, a reticent feline, spent four months at Dakin Humane Society before his photo appeared on the shelter’s website with the headline “The Socially Awkward Cat for the Socially Awkward Adopter.”
“Seriously all this guy requires is a couch and someone to give him his daily necessities,” the write-up by the Springfield, Massachusetts, shelter read. “Take him home, and have a perfect buddy for all those times that going out is just not worth the effort. He understands.”
Magazine Article
Two leaders in the animal welfare field, Washington, D.C.-based Humane Rescue Alliance and New Jersey’s St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center, announced a merger in early July to create what’s believed to be the first organization of its kind in the country.
As a result of this unique combination—two community-based, but regional-focused, animal welfare groups working across state borders—the joint organization has more resources to make a bigger impact in the areas it serves and beyond.
Magazine Article
If you watched the Golden Globes back in 2016, you couldn’t miss her: Collecting a Golden Globe for best actress in a television series, musical or comedy, Rachel Bloom was visibly ecstatic, motor-mouthed and breathless, practically leaping from the screen.
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