September 22nd, 2012 by Kezia

There are fewer households with pets, and fewer pets in U.S. homes, according to the latest AVMA numbers. Most attribute the decline to the economy. As most who work in pet rescue can attest, the number of pets given up in shelters is increasing as people face unemployment and foreclosure.

If this guy can keep his dog, so can you.

An “owner surrender” due to loss of one’s home elicits sympathy: someone facing hard times, presumably through no fault of their own, loses not only their house but their best friend. Rental units that allow animals are difficult to find – every time I see a real estate sign that says “for rent, no pets” I want to pelt it with eggs. (I don’t, because that wouldn’t be vegan.) The lack of available housing for people with pets is a serious issue in cities today. Civic action to compel more property owners to accept pets is very needed, particularly when so many people must downsize.

While this is a real problem, people who abandon their pets for housing reasons don’t get a free pass. (I was delighted to read this news story about a local pet-friendly homeless shelter.)

A decent person would rather live in a tent city, a car or a cardboard box with their pets than take them to a shelter where death is certain. These animals haven’t done anything wrong to justify being abandoned. People who throw their animals away like trash don’t deserve sympathy. There is no justification for indifference to the animals who love them and depend on them.

You cannot convince me that this person exhausted all options. There are dozens of alternatives, only one of which is to move to a place that accepts pets. Cats and small dogs are easy to sneak in and out of a building.

Rather than sentencing a pet to death, they could have placed them with a friend, family member, coworker, or neighbor – at least then they could continue to visit their pet. They could have found them a new home with a kind stranger through an ad. They could have contacted a rescue organization or even a sanctuary. They could have put them temporarily in a foster home or even a kennel until they found more suitable housing.

There are times when the care of a pet becomes too expensive for people with shrinking means, and in this specific circumstance, it can be better for the animal to live elsewhere rather than suffer hunger or neglect. However, these are not the financial hardships we’ve heard lately. (Putting two kids through college is not cause to abandon your dog, but it is cause to insist your brats get part-time jobs in the dining commons.) As with housing, a decent person would give up satellite television before they’d give up a dog.

I am not sure why animal lovers seem to think playing the financial hardship or foreclosure card is an acceptable reason to abandon an animal. Is it sad? Yes, it’s sad – for the animal who is left in a cage to die alone, scared, and unwanted, with no idea what they’ve done to warrant it. But it’s not sad for the human who abandons them.

My thanks to Pets of the Homeless for the above photo, and for their important work.

animal rescue, companion animals

January 5th, 2012 by Kezia

Many vegans lament that there are dog/cat rescuers and other animal activists in their communities who are not vegan. I’m with you, believe me. I get it. It is shocking when humane societies serve animals on plates at fundraisers. It is a head-scratcher that someone who works to save whales would order sushi in a restaurant, failing to recognize he is destroying the ocean habitats and food chains that support those whales.

I understand your frustration that nonvegan companon animal rescuers don’t recognize that a pig is every bit as lovable as a dog, and a turkey can be just as cuddly as a cat. They work hard for one or a few species but not every species – just like there are people who feel called to get active on behalf of sea turtles, elephants, wolves, or other specific animals.

Although it would be wonderful if more dog/cat rescuers were vegan, I’d also like it if more vegans gave a crap, and actively helped animals in need. Not eating, wearing or exploiting animals is the absolute bare minimum a person can do. It is the default setting. It is the “moral baseline,” as some say.

Over the years I’ve worked with people and organizations who rescue dogs, cats, birds and other domestic pet species, those who are doing the dirty work of animal liberation. There should be much more respect, and less derision, for “dog and cat people” from the vegan community.

The animal rescuers I know do things that most vegans wouldn’t deign to do – such as run into traffic with a leash in one hand and a can of dog food in the other; wake up every two hours to bottle-feed kittens, crawl through mud to save a lost cat who scratches the hell out of them as a thank-you, cut the chain embedded in the neck of an auto yard pit bull who has never known a kindness from a human, pay their unemployed neighbor’s vet bill, not to mention clean up piles upon piles of shit.

Animal rescuers are willing to trap, trespass, surveil, steal, and otherwise do whatever it takes to do the right thing for an animal, right now, regardless of what the law says. As activists, most of us don’t hold a candle to these people. Too many vegans do very little to proactively help animals.

But what about the estimated 100 animals a year we save by being vegan? Let’s not strain ourselves patting each other on the back.

Going vegan doesn’t “save” 100 animals a year. 100 animals don’t go to sanctuaries or aquaria each year because you are vegan. In theory, you are preventing the future births of 100 animals a year. But with the realities of animal agribusiness, I’m loath to consider that anything more than theory. The minor losses the vegan population causes to animal processors are more than made up for by government subsidies and bailouts, plus exports to developing countries.

Ordering a pizza without cheese or buying cruelty-free makeup doesn’t make you a hero. Going to a potluck or a protest a few times a year is a nice opportunity to have your picture posted on Facebook so other people can congratulate you for changing the world. We should do those things. They feed us – literally and emotionally.

But there are no photo galleries for people who spend their entire weekend doing home checks to make sure that companion animals are being adopted by loving families instead of creeps. There are no awards for people who foster yet another animal because the “owners” are having a baby and don’t want him or her anymore, or people who go out night after night to trap homeless cats so they can be treated for mange, vaccinated, and fixed. They don’t get a prize for every box of starving abandoned kittens they find on the side of the road or every injured, bleeding dog they rush to a 24-hour vet. It is thankless, unglamorous work. It saves animals.

So be kind to dog and cat rescuers. Befriend one who isn’t vegan. Walk some dogs, scoop some poop, volunteer at an adoption event, help feed a feral cat colony. Buy them lunch and ask why, since they do so much for animals, they aren’t vegan yet. Give them a popular cookbook. Take them grocery shopping. Find out how you can be supportive and encouraging.

Then find out how you can do more for animals than signing a few online petitions and clicking ‘like’ to give a nonprofit a dollar.

A rescuer spotted "Reese" running across Exposition Boulvard in South L.A. near USC. She was one foot away from being killed by a van. When she got to campus, people helped catch her, but would do no more. To adopt Reese email SCAadoptions@yahoo.com.

Los Angeles area rescues with vegan cred:

ARME

Stray Cat Alliance

Strangest Angels

Molly’s Mutts and Meows

activist, animal rescue, companion animals, liberation, liberationist, speciesism, Vegan Outreach