Advocacy Center

National Pit Bull Awareness Day, which takes place on October 25, was created to bring positive attention to the Pit Bull Terrier. By combating myths about the breed, we have the power to restore its good reputation and save thousands of lives. Here’s how you can help:

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the agency responsible for protection of wild horses and burros as cultural icons, is considering a plan to ship many of these burros to Guatemala to become working animals. Once off of U.S. soil, the fate of these animals becomes largely unknown. What’s more, if carried out, this plan establishes a dangerous precedent for other federally protected equines.

Guest blog by Deborah Press, ASPCA Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs

It’s hard to believe we’re only a month out from Election Day! For midterm elections like these, where there are no presidential candidates keeping our attention focused on the race for the White House, it can be easy to forget there are still a lot of important elections happening this November. But that makes it even more important that your voice is heard!

New York City Council Member Paul Vallone has introduced a bill that would require full-service animal shelters to be established in the boroughs of Queens and the Bronx. Queens and the Bronx have a combined estimated population of over 3.6 million (if the two boroughs were an independent city, that city would be the third-largest in the nation), yet they currently have only “receiving centers” for animals. Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island do have full service animal shelters.

Guest blog by Jessica Johnson, Senior Manager of Grassroots Advocacy for ASPCA Government Relations.

Is your pup patriotic? Today is Dogs in Politics Day!

Officially called “Checkers Day” after the famous 1952 speech by then-Senator Nixon, this day celebrates the importance of our four-legged friends, even in Washington! Canines have had the run of the White House for decades and have joined members of Congress on Capitol Hill.

We have a soft spot for chickens: they’re feathery and friendly, curious and even cuddly. And did you know they experience REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, associated with dreaming? But nearly 9 billion birds in this country are not living a dream. They’re suffering on overcrowded, unsanitary factory farms, bred to grow in such rapid, unnatural ways that they often collapse and spend much of their lives lying in their own waste.

In a huge step forward for our nation’s companion animals, U.S. Representatives Katherine Clark (D-MA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) have come together to introduce the Pet and Women Safety (PAWS) Act (H.R. 5267), landmark legislation extending existing federal protections to pets of domestic violence victims.

Guest blog by Daisy Freund, Senior Manager of the ASPCA’s Farm Animal Welfare Campaign