Last week, the agricultural subcommittee of the Virginia House of Delegates considered House Bill 429, which would add the add the following sentence to section 3.2-6546 of the Virginia Code:
However, no pound may euthanize, or prohibit the adoption of, any dog based solely on breed.
AWLA Executive Director Kay Speerstra traveled to Richmond to testify in [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in AWLA Policies, Principles on January 29, 2010 | 5 Comments »
Here’s a post sent to us by an AWLA insider who read the front-page article in AWLA’s Pawpourri newsletter about dog evaluations and felt compelled to present a less whitewashed view of those evaluations.
*****
When a dog is brought into the AWLA shelter, either as an owner surrender or as a stray, a lot happens before [...]
Read Full Post »
Majority Leader Morgan Griffith recently submitted House Bill 429 for consideration by the Virginia House of Delegates. HB 429 proposes adding the following words to section 3.2-6546 of the Virginia Code:
However, no pound may euthanize, or prohibit the adoption of, any dog based solely on breed.
This language would prevent animal shelters from killing dogs [...]
Read Full Post »
The front-page article in the winter edition of AWLA’s Pawpourri newsletter is about behavior evaluations for dogs. It’s much longer than a typical Pawpourri article — seven full columns — and includes an excerpt from a 2003 article in Animal Sheltering, a magazine published by Wayne Pacelle’s HSUS.
(This is the same HSUS that in [...]
Read Full Post »
Frenchie, the cute 3-month-old Rottweiler mix that we cited in a post last weekend, was put on view for adoption yesterday. AWLA did the right thing for her, and we hope she finds a home soon.
AWLA did not do the right thing for Rome, a one-year-old male pitbull and the other dog cited in [...]
Read Full Post »
My “Random House Dictionary of the English Language” includes this definition:
euthanasia: the act of putting to death painlessly a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition.
From now on, we’ll adhere to that definition when discussing animals, i.e. animals put to death painlessly when suffering from an incurable and painful disease or [...]
Read Full Post »
AWLA’s “Lost and Found” dogs page currently lists three dogs, one of which (Blanche) is also listed for adoption.
The other two are Frenchie, a cute 3-month-old Rottweiler mix, and Rome, a one-year-old male pitbull who for some reason does not have a picture. Presumably this would make it hard for his owner to find [...]
Read Full Post »
In 2007, experts from rescue organizations were sent to evaluate the pitbulls rescued from Michael Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels. Only one of the 53 dogs was judged to be too aggressive to be rehabilitated, despite the fact that these dogs had been subjected to enormous stress and rewarded for aggressive behavior.
The 48 surviving Vick [...]
Read Full Post »
Posted in AWLA Policies, Yardsticks on January 4, 2010 | 1 Comment »
A reader sent this link to a USA Today story about shelters that have waived adoption fees for some or all cats and seen dramatic increases in adoption rates:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/lifestyle/pets/2010-01-03-cat-adoptions_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip
This is something AWLA should try for cats that have spent more than a few weeks on view at the shelter (though to avoid scammers, it should [...]
Read Full Post »