The ASPCA's killing of Oreo remembered

News and headlines for November 12 - November 19, 2022

This week was the solemn anniversary of the ASPCA’s killing of Oreo, an abused dog, despite a rescue group offering to save her. Two volunteers went to the ASPCA but were escorted out after the ASPCA refused to meet with them. On a cold Friday morning 13 years ago, Oreo was killed, not by her abuser, but by those whose mission was to protect her. Legislation to make that illegal has been introduced almost yearly but defeated by the ASPCA, condemning over 300,000 other animals to death despite rescue groups ready, willing, and able to save them.

These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:

A Dallas, TX, ordinance banning the sale of commercially-bred puppies and kittens in pet stores went into effect after a lawsuit by a pet store failed.

According to plaintiffs, There is no evidence that a single puppy mill has been shut down as a result of a ban. None. A ban does nothing to improve animal welfare.”

This is false. And thankfully, the Court disagreed.

Because of these laws, the number of USDA-licensed breeders has declined by 30%, and “Nebraska Department of Agriculture records show that half of the state’s commercial dog and cat breeders have left the business.” 

Indeed, the Dallas ordinance serves three purposes:

1. Encouraging people to adopt/rescue;

2. Educating the community about dog and cat (and rabbit) abuse in mills;

3. Stopping that abuse.

Pet stores generally get their animals from Commercial Breeding Enterprises (CBEs), commonly known as ‘puppy mills.’ And CBEs engage in systematic neglect and abuse of animals, leaving severe emotional and physical scars on the victims. As a result, one in four former breeding dogs has significant health problems and is more likely to suffer from aggression. Many are psychologically and emotionally shut down, compulsively staring at nothing.

Plaintiffs also claimed the new ordinance would put them out of business, but pet stores in similar jurisdictions are thriving. How? The store benefits whenever anyone adopts an animal by having the new pet owner buy their supplies. PetSmart, Petco, and other pet stores have been doing it for years.

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“A plan by a Monmouth County [NJ] town to trap feral cats and kill them after a week if they went unclaimed has been abandoned after fierce backlash from residents and animal advocates.”

Meanwhile, the Bayonne, NJ, city council approved a community cat program. That is good news as a community cat program reduces killing, complaint calls, illness in the shelter, and wasteful taxpayer spending.

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Rescue groups have filed a lawsuit against the pound in Orange County, CA, for killing animals in violation of the law, refusing to work with rescue groups, and closing their doors to stray/needy animals. 

The shelter has embraced Human Animal Support Services (HASS), which mandates that shelters stop taking in “healthy” stray animals (both dogs and cats), claiming that if people just leave them on the street, “they will find their way home.” Recently, a pregnant cat showed up in the Orange County yard of a Good Samaritan, who took her in. She quickly gave birth. The shelter told her to release them all — mother and kittens — on the street.

In addition, taxpayers spent $35 million for a new shelter, but the shelter remains closed without an appointment resulting in a significant increase in killings. 

The complaint in Hueg vs. OC Animal Care is here.

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Rescuers and animal advocates falsely claim that Los Angeles has as many as three million “feral” cats, just shy of one cat for every person living in the city. This is absurd. The claim is based on the false belief that two cats and their offspring would yield 370,000 kittens in seven years.

According to an analysis by the University of Washington, they would most likely result in less than 200 cats after seven years. A mathematician put the number as low as 98. Even that number may be too high, considering that some of the cats will get adopted or sterilized. Exaggeration undermines the movement’s credibility, and those who hate cats — like nativists who blame them by falsely claiming they are decimating bird populations — use these figures to promote round-up and kill campaigns. We arm them with weapons against cats when we propagate misinformation.

That doesn’t mean that L.A. cats don’t need help. They do. The city pound and the county’s “shelter” are failing cats by killing them, turning them away under HASS, or failing to fully embrace TNR by offering free sterilization. For the last 12 years, the city has done nothing to help. And it has done nothing because of its uncaring, incompetence, foot-dragging, and corruption by enablers like Best Friends.