Animal Cruelty

As many of you know, June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month, and it’s also the height of feline breeding season. During this time of year, animal shelters around the country are flooded with homeless and newborn cats—and the ASPCA is no exception.

Janet, Chrissy and Jack were rescued by the NYPD in early May. The three Shih Tzus were malnourished and their coats were so matted that their vision was impaired. They were rushed to the ASPCA Animal Hospital where our expert staff provided medical care, grooming and a gradual feeding schedule to help the dogs gain weight safely. While this trio is making good progress, it is still too early to discuss their availability for adoption.

Guest blog by Brianne Goutal, a highly respected top international equestrian on the United States show jumping team. She represents Cloverleaf Farm, Remarkable Farm and her own stable, Brianne Goutal LLC. She is currently ranked 10^th in the United States and 54^thin the world and is the only rider to have won all four coveted equitation finals for junior riders, the crown being the ASPCA Maclay National Championship in 2006.

This afternoon, most members of the North Carolina State Legislature publicly reaffirmed their commitment to catering to the interests of deep-pocketed factory farmers when they raced to pass H.B. 405, the dangerous ag-gag bill, for a second time. Although they succeeded by just eight votes in the House and a slender margin of four in the Senate, there is now no stopping this overreaching, wildly unpopular bill from becoming state law.

At the ASPCA, we often encounter heartbreaking cases of abuse, cruelty and neglect. It’s one of the most difficult aspects of the work that we do. But with that heartbreak comes a silver lining: inspiration. Nearly every single day, we watch in awe as the incredible animals we serve overcome their pain and suffering and go on to become happy, loving pets. Their resilience is what keeps us going, so when we heard the story of Waffles the pit bull, we knew it was too good to keep to ourselves. Here is Waffles' Happy Tail.

Yesterday, Foster Farms—one of the country’s largest chicken producers—announced that it is aiming to remove from its chicken flocks all antibiotics that are also used in humans (barring exceptional cases). This follows similar announcements by other companies like Tyson, Perdue and McDonald’s.