CreativePAW

I was finally contacted from someone through CreativePAW.org a few days ago. I’ll be helping to update and maintain the website for Friends of Charlie’s Place in Dumont, Colardo (www.friendsofcharliesplace.org). I’m not doing any design work, but keeping adoption information and available pets updated is extremely important for shelters now. Personally, I found both of our dogs through shelters’ websites.

It’s getting ever harder to find time to do volunteer work. College, grad school, work, then we moved, bought a house… there’s always something lurking around the corner, waiting to suck up your free time. Which is why I was excited to find this website – it’s much easier to find time to volunteer when you can do it from home in your pajamas.

Could you be supporting a puppy mill?

Working at a vet’s office, I’ve seen first hand what can happen when people buy animals from puppy mills and irresponsible breeders. When purchasing from a pet store, most people don’t know where their animals came from. Many are bred in puppy mills, where dogs are caged and bred as often as possible. This often results in animals that are sickly or weak. Inbreeding is a problem among irresponsible breeders, and can cause some costly medical problems. In addition to poor breeding, many of these animals are not properly vaccinated or cared for, and close quarters breeds disease. So what can you do? If you are interested in getting a pet, or know someone that is, here are some tips to protect yourself.

Pet stores are notorious for acquiring animals from breeding mills, and it can be very difficult to find out where the animal came from. Consider adoption instead. You can save the life of an animal, while being sure that your money isn’t going to a substandard facility. Puppy mills continue to make money, because people continue to support them with their purchases. Personally, both of our dogs were adopted from the local SPCA. They have both been very healthy so far, and beautiful dogs (I’ve been asked on several occasions how much we paid for them). If you have your heart set on a particular breed, adoption could still be right for you. An estimated one in four animals in shelters across the country is a purebred, and there are breed-specific rescue organizations for almost every breed.

If you’re not interested in adoption, make sure that you’re buying from a responsible breeder. Some warning signs are breeders that won’t allow you to see the facility, or to meet either of the pup’s parents. They should screen you are thoroughly as you are screening them! A good breeder has the dog’s best interest at heart. You should also ask for an adoption contract, explaining the breeder’s responsibilities and health guarantees.

Never buy a dog from the internet. You have no way of seeing where the animal was bred or how it’s been cared for. Plus, people selling animals on the internet are not held to the Animal Welfare Act regulations, which means they aren’t inspected by the USDA.

Interested in being an advocate for animal welfare?
Let your government officials know that you’d like to see legislation passed that ensures all animals are bred and raised in healthy conditions. By going to congress.org, you can easily email all of your federal and state representatives at once.

If you have a friend looking for a pet, let them know about the dangers of pet stores and irresponsible breeders. You can point them toward the ASPCA’s website as a good resource. (http://www.aspca.org/site/PageServer?pagename=cruelty_puppymills)

If you’ve adopted an animal from a mill, tell your story to the ASPCA. These stories give them more evidence to get legislation passed.

If you have your own website or blog, add a link to the ASPCA’s puppy mill information. You can also download and print flyers to leave in veterinarian and groomer offices, or pet supply stores. Or design your own! Being informed is always your best defense.

Voices for Animals

I’ve been lucky to be able to work with Voices for Animals (www.vfa-online.org), combining two things I’m passionate about – design and animal welfare.

I’ve done a few small projects for them, most recently putting together flyers for their South Side Park Wildlife Awareness Day. This wildlife awareness day is another step in their ongoing campaign to make Pittsburgh a no-kill community. Pittsburgh officials have opted to round up and kill most of the flock at the park, despite promising to put a comprehensive non-lethal strategy into effect. VFA will be passing out these flyers around the park to inform the community about some things they can do to cut down the goose population in a humane way.

Most of the people who feed the geese and ducks at Riverfront Park do so with generous intentions and consider the action helpful, but unfortunately it does more harm than good. The public must be educated on the reasons why this is harmful – the posted “Please do not feed the ducks and geese” signs do not explain the reasons behind the message.

Feeding the ducks and geese can cause a number of problems. These include: poor nutrition, spread of disease, unnatural behavior, pollution, overcrowding, and delayed migration (in migratory birds). The most generous thing you can do for these animals is to simply not feed them. Ducks and geese are wild animals and are capable of finding food on their own. In order for their natural behaviors to emerge, they must have this opportunity.

Overcrowding has caused serious problems in the past, and an abundant food source will only bring more waterfowl to the area. Last year, the RIDC (Regional Industrial Development Corp.) paid the USDA to kill many of the geese residing in Southside Riverfront Park due to the geese occasionally frequenting the property it manages across the river. The birds needed more land due to their numbers.

We must not allow this situation to occur again, so please, do not contribute to the problem. Observe and enjoy the geese as a close part of nature, but allow them to be the wild animals they are and please, do not feed them!

In addition to the problems of overcrowding, litter is becoming a huge problem in RIDC park. One piece of litter can be the difference between life and death for wildlife. Recently, a seagull whose neck was wrapped
with fishing line was found dead in the water at Southside Riverfront Park. This animal choked to death due to the negligence of those littering in the area.

Voices for Animals has investigated this and several other areas and has discovered that litter of this type is often found at many fishing holes. Major sources of litter stem from, but are
not limited to: cigarette butts, fast food waste, chewing gum, plastic bags, and fishing line.

Littering does far more than make an area look messy – it can cause unnecessary deaths in nature. Wild animals have suffered and died simply due to the gross negligence of campers, fishers, joggers, etc. Death and illness are caused by the entanglement, ingestion, and toxicity of this litter. Please be sure to do yourself, nature, animals, and aesthetics a helping hand and properly dispose of all trash and waste properly!

To find out more information about VFA or their Wildlife Awareness Day, go to http://www.vfa-online.org, email VoicesForAnimals@gmail.com, or call 1-877-321-4VFA.