Cause: Animal Welfare & Rescue
WHY?
Adopting Hendrix and Frankie has brought so much joy to our lives. Learning their stories, their personalities, and watching them interact with our friends and family enriches our lives daily. The fact that there are animals out there not being cared for or loved is just unacceptable to us. We must make a change- as a community, as a nation. As you read this, multiple innocent animals are being neglected, abused, and/or forced to fight. The first step to creating positive change for these animals is recognizing and understanding the cruelty that terrorizes them.
FARM ANIMAL WELFARE
94% of Americans agree that animals raised for food deserve to live free from abuse and cruelty. Yet the majority of the nearly 10 billion land-based animals, plus countless more aquatic animals, farmed for food each year in the U.S. live in unacceptable conditions that do not align with consumers’ stated values. Animals are not the only ones suffering because of these unnatural, inhumane conditions. Consumers’ health, rural communities, farmers and food chain workers, and the environment are being hurt by the intensive farming systems employed on factory farms.
PUPPY MILLS
Each year, approximately 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized (670,000 dogs and 860,000 cats). This sad statistic has many causes, but the main source of this problem is puppy mills. Puppy mills are commercial facilities that make money by breeding and producing large numbers of puppies as cheaply and quickly as possible. These facilities are poorly regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), permitting dogs to live in very small, overcrowded, dirty cages, where diseases are easily spread. Dogs receive minimal veterinary care and are forced to breed non-stop—even if they are sick, weak or have serious hereditary issues that they could be passing on to their pups.
The common consumer never sets foot in a puppy mill. The USDA is failing animals across the country, and Americans that care about these issues, especially during the COVID-19 Pandemic, by ignoring its already-weak inspection policies and giving licenses to puppy mills that have not been properly inspected.
DOG FIGHTING
Dogfighting is one of the most heinous forms of animal cruelty. It’s crazy to believe that people still engage in this kind of activity-- but they do, in overwhelming numbers. Dogs used for fighting are typically kept isolated, spend most of their lives on short, heavy chains, and are conditioned for fighting through the use of drugs, including anabolic steroids to enhance muscle mass and encourage aggressiveness. Although dogfighting is a felony in all 50 states, it continues to occur in every part of the country and in every type of community.
A COMPLEX ISSUE: ANIMAL HOARDING
Animal hoarding is a term used to identify when an individual is housing more animals than he or she can adequately care for. It is a complex issue that includes mental health issues of the hoarder, animal welfare, and public safety. Animal hoarding is defined by an inability to provide even minimal standards of nutrition, sanitation, shelter and veterinary care—often resulting in animal starvation, illness and death. In the majority of cases, animal hoarders believe they are helping their animals and deny this inability to provide minimum care.
HOW NO ANIMALS HELPS SUPPORT THESE ISSUES
The ASPCA is a national organization that deploys teams to assist in animal cruelty cases when brought to their attention. We’ve partnered with this organization solely for the breadth and detail in which they investigate animal cruelty, collect and process forensic evidence, resuce animals of all kinds and transport them to safety.They set up temporary facilities to shelter and treat the animals, then place them with local shelters once they’re ready for adoption. They also provide legal services to ensure that those involved in the abuse of the animals are brought to justice. ASPCA also provides grants to local animal shelters, helping to support the shelters that support them.