Month: May 2012

Adopt-a-Pet.com began as “1-800-Save-a-Pet.com” in the year 2000, and was a comprehensive program proposal to end the overpopulation of companion animals in shelters in Los Angeles, CA. That program was based on a year of research into the nature of the problem, and proposed scientifically-based solutions and projections. To sum it up, ending pet overpopulation begins with a realization that the problem is largely under human control and is solvable. It also begins with a commitment in a community by the residents and leadership that killing companion animals in animal shelters as a way to deal with the shelters being full is an unacceptable solution, and it is unfair to ask the people who work at shelters to do it.

Pet overpopulation in any community has a varying mix of three causes:

1. Too many pets being born (either being bred by people intentionally or breeding on the streets).
2. Pets not remaining in homes. This could be for reasons such as the death of an owner, owner relocation to a rental that does not allow pets, inability of owners to afford the medical or general care of a pet, pet behavior issues, and even lost pets who do not have tags or microchips and so cannot cannot be returned home.
3. Not enough people adopting pets from shelters.

Adopt-a-Pet.com created target goals and specific program ideas to deal with all of the problems listed above for the city of Los Angeles.  Unfortunately, we did not receive the major grant we had hoped for to implement the entire program, so with our limited private funds, we created one small portion of that program, a pet adoption website, and turned our attention to becoming the marketing agency for all shelters and shelter pets to get pets seen and adopted.   Our goal was to save pets’ lives, and our goal for funding was to ultimately create value for pet-related companies, so they would sponsor us.  This would leave private donations able to go to shelters and rescues, but getting the attention of these large companies proved difficult.

We grew steadily, and in August 2005, when Katrina hit New Orleans, we were in a position to help.  We contacted our database of shelters to assist with the animals being rescued from New Orleans, and were also called upon to be on the ground and help lead the actual rescue effort.  We answered the call and were there for 6 months, volunteering our time and leadership skills.

Our contacts and visibility with major animal organizations grew as a result of our work with Katrina, and within several years, we caught the eye of Purina, the world’s largest pet food company.  Purina saw our potential and our effectiveness at our mission, and began sponsoring us in 2008.  Bayer Animal Health, joined suit shortly thereafter.

Adopt-a-Pet.com is now North America’s largest non-profit homeless pet adoption website, sponsored by the passionate pet lovers at Purina and Bayer Animal Health. Adopt-a-Pet.com is more than just a pet adoption website, however. We consider ourselves to be a marketing agency for shelter pets, getting pets seen both online and offline via a variety of publicity efforts and campaigns.

You may be surprised to learn that not all dogs know how to play. Some pets were not given exposure to play as puppies and therefore might not know what to do with a ball or toy. Other dogs may not have ever been given proper socialization, and might be overall timid, uncertain, or fearful. This week we got a question posted to our Facebook wall by one of our fans named Sharon, asking our resident dog trainer, Katya, how to help a shy dog learn to play. Sharon recently rescued a puppy mill survivor who is scared and unsure of the world around her. We are so grateful this dog is now safe and loved as part of a family! But we want to help her come out of her shell and be the most well-balanced pup she can be. Check out the response video for tips on how you can help a nervous or scared dog feel more comfortable and learn to let loose with a little play time.

Playing is a great way to bond with your dog, and it’s good for them too! It allows them to enjoy, to interact, and to use many of their natural instincts and ways of communicating. Also, there are tons of tricks and behaviors you can teach your pup through games! Dog training should always be a positive experience and fun for your canines, making them want to learn from and work with you. In our latest video Katya also included some tips that may help your pooch feel safer and less anxious in general.

And please feel free to post your own questions on the Adopt-a-Pet.com Facebook wall or on our Twitter page! Just include the hashtag #AskKatya, and once a week we’ll be choosing a question to feature! We’ll have plenty of other videos to share with you as well in our new series of pet-related training tips, Woof University. We hope we can help set up everyone in your home to succeed so that all the two-legged and four-legged family members stay happy.

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Dogs aren’t the only animals who get excited to see us when we come home.  Cats can give some of the cutest best welcome homes ever, too!  Just check out Fats’ video!  This adorable rescue kitty isn’t afraid to show his family how he feels when they come home.  Is there anything more precious than the offering of a fluffy, white belly waiting for some love?

If you have a hilarious, sweet, or funny video of your own pets welcoming you home, we’d love for you to share it with us!  Just click here and you can easily submit your video, and watch other entertaining video submissions while you’re at it.  Perhaps best of all, we’ll be creating a Public Service Announcement from the submissions we get!  That’s right, it means your pet could be a star!

Thank you for helping us promote pet adoption and for encouraging everyone to adopt a welcoming committee of their own from a local shelter.

There are many reasons I’m in awe of cats.  Number one, they’re so cool, calm and collected!  Number two, they’re confident – brazen even.   Personality wise alone, there is a lot I can learn from a cat!

A third reason I’m amazed by felines is that despite their independence, they have huge emotional capacity.  Cats feel things and express themselves accordingly.  For example, when kitties are stressed or frightened, often they begin to rapidly shed out of anxiety.  Just like us, felines also get stressed when they go to unfamiliar places or meet new beings.  This is a common occurrence in situations such as, say, visiting a veterinarian’s office!

Cats don’t get to write in their journals, or go to therapy, or have a cocktail.  Their psychological response to panic, fear, or strangeness is often just to shed.  So have extra compassion for your feline friend when your clothes are extra full of their hair, and give them plenty of love and kindness to ease their concern. For more information and insight on kitty shedding, click here!

Well, I guess that’s actually another reason to admire cats.  I wish all I did was shed when I got nervous!

We’ve got a new series of pet-related training tips to share with you! Check out our recent video by our resident dog trainer, Katya, showing you how to hold a treat in your hand when you’re working with your pup.  Believe it or not, it matters!  This tip can make it easier for you to teach your dog a new behavior or be used as a safety precaution – whether there is food in your hand or not!  When training your dog, it’s helpful to hold the treat in a fist in your hand.  Hiding the treat in your fist, your dog will learn to target on the fist, and not know whether there is food in there.  That means you won’t be teaching him to follow a command because he sees a biscuit!  Using a fist will allow you to pair down the use of treats as reinforcement so that you can use praise and petting to reward your dog sometimes, too.  It’s kinda like playing the slot machine for us.  Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t – but it’s always worth playing the game as long as it’s a positive experience!  But we don’t win every time, do we?  Still we learn to play the game!  All dog training should be fun and positive for your pooches, making them want to learn from and work with you.

Just imagine if you were to use a treat in your fist when you teach your dog to come to you.  If you practice “here, Rover!” with a treat in your fist and Rover learns to run to you and get a treat from your fist, you will then be able to start phasing out the treats.  You would still be able to use your fist for him to target on and he’d continue to run to it every time!  As you continue to practice calling him you can praise and pet him when he runs over to you, but once in a while surprise him by reintroducing the treat in your fist.  This new “here!” command is good for his safety as well because though we hope Rover never runs out your front door, if he did and you’ve practiced this drill enough times, you can shout “here, Rover!” with that trusted fist and he will run back to you even if you didnt have enough time to grab a treat before chasing him out the door!

Learning how to hold a treat can surely be your best friend when working with your real best friend!  Did you like this article? Click an icon below to share it on Facebook, Twitter, and more!

Giving away pets for free is a controversial issue in the animal sheltering world! Many animal welfare organizations advocate very strongly against anyone giving away pets for free, while others believe exactly the opposite, that zero adoption fees along with proper screening of potential homes can help even more pets find loving homes. You may have noticed in our website’s FAQ, in one part of our answer to an individual who’s trying to find a new home for their owned pet or a pet they’ve rescued, we give the following advice: “Do NOT give away a pet for free. Free pets are much more likely to be abandoned, and in some cases, someone might be seeking to obtain a pet for free to use for an illegal purpose such as dog fighting. You should charge an adoption fee that is equal to or greater than the adoption fee charged by your local animal shelter for that type of pet. Don’t be shy to charge money for your pet! Having someone pay money for a pet is one of the most important ways to be assured that the person who is taking the pet is serious about wanting them, and can afford to pay for the food and veterinary care the pet will need throughout his/her life. Consider posting your pet on Rehome by Adopt-a-Pet.com and The Petco Foundation, where we always make sure to charge an adoption fee. This fee gets donated to help even more pets get adopted!

But what if your local animal shelter or rescue is giving away pets for free?

It is not unheard of for a reputable pet adoption agency (shelter, rescue, humane society) to run special promotions, either ongoing or from time to time, that offer free pet adoptions for hard-to-place pets such as elderly or black pets; or as a community service, like offering free adult or senior pets to senior adopters. For example, Best Friends Animal Society (both at their Los Angeles shelter and Nationwide) has an promotion right now called “Back In Black” with “Zero Adoption Fees For All Black Pets” along with a “FREE bag of dog food or cat treats with every adoption in addition to our regular adoption perks: free collar/leash, free ID tag, cat carrier for cat adopters, and one month of free pet insurance.”

These agencies typically stand by their promotions saying they do as thorough a screening of a for-free adopter as they do for a paying one, before placing the pet into the home.

Not everyone agrees. Adopt-a-Pet.com does not have an official position on shelters and rescues charging or not charging an adoption fee. As we pointed out above, we do encourage individuals trying to rehome a pet to charge a fee. If you need to find a new home for your pet, give Rehome a try and you’ll be guided through the process of finding the best family for your cat or dog. Get started here.

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Now this is excitement!  This is love!  Thank you to Dolly the Doxie for submitting her Best Welcome Home Ever!  (You can watch Dolly the Doxie’s video on YouTube here.) There’s nothing quite like being welcomed home by your furry family member.  Do your pets do something silly, funny or endearing when you come home?  Share it with us by uploading your video to www.bestwelcomehomever.com before May 28th, 2012!  Our hope is that thousands of people will watch these videos and want to adopt a welcome home committee of their own from their local shelter or rescue.  You just can’t be lonely when you’ve got a loving pet there to welcome you home!  We looking forward to watching your pets in action, and we thank you for helping promote pet adoption!

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A dear friend of mine lost her beloved Scout last week. Shannon’s loss has prompted me to write this piece about losing an animal companion. I lost my best friend Willow 2 ½ years ago, which led me to begin writing a book about this very topic. Many of you know that I entered a worldwide spiritual author contest and made it to the top 25 entries. I have not finished the book yet, as I still find it too painful to complete, but do little bits here and there.

Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.“ ~ Anatole France

In my grief I discovered that society often treats this kind of loss as less important than others. I often heard the comment: “He was just a dog.” When I took my Pet Loss and Bereavement Counselling certification two years ago, one of the interesting things I learned was that statistics have found that it takes about 6 years to fully move through the grieving process. For me, the grief is the same… I don’t believe that one can say there is a difference between human loss and pet loss. One of my mentors, Dr. W. Sife Ph.D said this: “We grieve as deeply as we love.” And we love alright – we love our fur babies the same way as our human relationships.

Love is love – loss is loss. Period.

Our pets become our children, our best friend, our most devoted companion, trusted confidante and our greatest teacher – if we let them. They know us like no one else does. The love is wholly unconditional. I would look at my Willow (who could do no wrong) and say to myself, “If I can take this deep and unconditional love that I have learned with Willow, and now extend that out to all humans in the same way – then I have truly learned how to love.” We love them in such a giving, compassionate and non-judgemental way. They teach us lessons we can only learn through bonding with them.

We never forget our loved ones – furry or human. And, it is not about getting over anything either, but moving through the grieving process the best we can – not pushing it away or burying it. We need to talk about it, reminisce, look at photos, cry, be held and heard. Seek unconditional love and support from those who will not judge our grief or attempt to hinder it in any way. Telling someone to “shhhh” when they are crying does not allow them to let go of the energy of that grief. Others hurt when we hurt, and they can’t stand the pain it makes them feel inside, or perhaps stirs up within them – they may feel helpless – it is easier for them if we do not cry. But, we need to let the tears flow – for a time. Masking the grief through busyness only defers it and it will show up – maybe not in tears, but in some sort of physical representation like depression, anxiety, stomach issues etc.

Platitudes don’t work either and although well-intentioned, are honestly – annoying. People tend to say things like: “oh, you will get over it soon,” or, “don’t worry, things will be fine.” In the middle of all the pain and grief, these statements are not helpful. It feels like hell to have that kind of pain and acknowledging that pain is authentic. Therefore, be selective when you share your stories and your grief – you need the support; not encouragement to just get over it.

Most of us get (maybe) 3 days off and that is only for human loss, not the loss of an animal companion.

If someone you know is experiencing loss – hold them with your arms, hold them with your words, hold them with your loving gaze, let them cry and be heard. Just be there, even if it is loving them from afar. Simply offer your unconditional love – that is what sustains us and helps us heal.

RIP – Scout, Willow and all of the furry angels we have known and loved.

This article was written by Cheryl Hiebert. Cheryl is a Personal Wellness Coach with a mind body spirit approach to wellness. Her goal is to help you feel empowered on your individual path and help you jump out of bed every day loving your life. To help you create a life where you feel happy, full of energy and first on your list. You are worth it! Cheryl also wrks with people and their animal companions, such as offering Pet Loss & Bereavement counseling. To see how you can get more support from Cheryl, make sure to visit her website.

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Spring and Summer are kitten season. Yes, kittens have a season, even in parts of the USA that don’t have much change in seasons, like where I am in Southern California. Kitten season has an upside and a dark side. If you’ve been waiting to adopt a baby kitten or – for even more fun – a pair, during kitten season, there are bucketfuls to choose from. It’s still early in the season in many parts of the country, so the dark side hasn’t entirely taken over, and shelters and rescues aren’t overflowing with baby felines just yet. But by June, the tide turns, and as statistics show in so many communities, more and more unweaned kittens are pouring in each year. There are just not enough homes for them all.

How many kittens?

Statistical information from some city shelters is accessible, if overwhelming. Los Angeles Animal Services (LAAS) offers transparency in publishing all their intake & outcome figures online, with stats from every month from 2007 through today. Unweaned kittens, which are kittens under 8 weeks of age, even get their very own report.

The report showed 9,726 unweaned kittens were taken in by LAAS, with a one-month jump from 421 in March to 1,177 in April. That’s kitten season starting to lift its sad little head. Sad because 7,254 of those tiny babies were euthanized: that’s only 25% that are saved. (Compared to 40 percent of cats eight weeks and older, and 75 percent of all dogs including unweaned.)

So… protest at the shelters?

I don’t think getting mad at the shelters is helpful. Shelters are a band-aid. Here in LA, shelters make underage kittens available to all approved rescue partner immediately, and they follow up militantly for proof that the kittens were spayed and neutered before being adopted out. The shelters save as many as they have room for in their back cages, mostly the ones that are one or two weeks away from being adoptable, so they can save as many as possible. Rescues then step in and save as many as they can through foster homes and donations.

California state law says you can’t adopt out pets that aren’t spayed or neutered — a good thing since trying to track down and get pets fixed once they leave a shelter has a very high fail rate– but it does mean adopting out kittens can take longer because they have to be at least two pounds before they can be fixed. In the Los Angeles city shelters, spay and neuter, and rescue efforts resulted in hundreds of unweaned kittens being saved: in 2011 528 were adopted and 271 rescued. But still, that’s only 25 percent.

To stop the influx, you have to know…

Where do all those kittens come from?

Popular theories include:

1. Most people are unaware of the magnitude of the kitten epidemic, so breed and buy kittens from stores aka kitten mills.
2. Most people don’t know that kittens can get pregnant starting when they are about five months old.
3. Many people are unaware of (or can’t get to) the low- and no-cost spay/neuter programs available and think they can’t get their cat fixed.
4. Some people don’t believe in fixing their cat and don’t care which means so many kittens are killed as a result.

What can be done?

One part of the solution: educate the unaware. If they care, it will help. Talking about kittens with your friends, family, a co-worker, or someone standing next to you in line could convince more people to take action. I share my sadness over how many kittens don’t find homes, and over how many people don’t know how young kittens get pregnant. If they are interested, I will share my local statistics — not some un-graspable vague nationwide “millions” number, but that 7,000 baby kittens (and 13,000 kittens & cats) are killed each year in Los Angeles simply because there aren’t enough homes, fosters and rescues for them all.

The other possible solutions: get more people to fix their cats at four months old, try to move people away from buying at pet stores or from breeders that add to the numbers of kittens in the world to make a profit, and encourage more people to foster, rescue and adopt kittens from our shelters and rescues.

What do you think?

If your heart could talk, what would it say?  As animal lovers, our hearts would no doubt scream from the mountain tops, calling for greater compassion for all animals!  Our hearts would talk about how filled up they get from the joy our own furry kids bring us.  Our hearts would also speak about the breaking – the pain we carry for homeless pets, knowing so many still languish in shelters.  This kind of immense love we hold in our hearts for animals allows us to help them in many ways.

HeARTs Speak is an organization comprised of animal lovers who use their creative talents to help homeless pets.  By connecting artists with animal shelters and rescues groups, HeARTs Speak focuses on promoting pet adoption.  They encourage artists to use their skills to help animals in need by taking compelling photographs which often result in lives being saved!  Through beautiful, heartfelt photography and artwork, HeARTs artists and photographers are assisting shelters so that they can better market their pets to potential adopters.  These artistic efforts can lead to increased adoptions and reduced euthanasia, making HeARTs Speak artists true life-changers!  We at Adopt-a-Pet.com see it all the time: a good snapshot of a pet can better reach a potential adopter and help a furry friend go from shelter to home.

HeARTs Speak members believe in the power of collaboration.  They also believe in the power of education and communication, as they strive to inspire people to adopt their next pet and treat all animals with kindness.  Their beautiful art helps dispel the notion that shelter animals are inferior or damaged, and HeARTs Speak also advocates for a more positive and accurate image of Pitbulls!  This year they partnered up with The Unexpected Pitbull to create a gorgeous 2012 calendar full of incredible Pittie photos depicting them as the loving, loyal and wonderful dogs they are.

By providing an online community for its artist members and by giving them resources to develop their skills and businesses, HeARTs Speak makes it possible for artists to give back to their communities.  They even help find grants for artists who spend time in shelters using their gifts to feature adoptable pets in a more flattering light.  They offer financial support and programs to support these artists, keeping them able to help pets in need.