MSPCA-Angell’s Post

Many people abandon their cats when they move or are unable to care for their pets. 😿 Then, these cat’s offspring are born feral. TNR (Trap, Neuter, and Return) has been proven to be the only humane method to reduce the population of unwanted felines who have never experienced contact with humans. While we may think of them as ‘homeless,’ in fact they exist in colonies and are self-sufficient. There can be anywhere between 10 and 200 cats living in a colony. The Wild Cat Foundation was created to support no-kill solutions to the stray cat overpopulation in Lafayette and the surrounding area. As part of their work, they train and advise colony caregivers on how to humanely trap feral cats which are then transported to feral-friendly veterinarians for vetting, then returned to their colonies. 😻 It can be difficult to trap feral cats, so please reach out to Wild Cat/SpayNation for assistance. IMPACT! 🎉 Since 2010, the Wild Cat Foundation has supported the operations of SpayNation which offers high-quality, lost-cost spay/neuter surgeries to the public and rescue organizations, and incredibly, over 70,000 animals have been neutered since the organization’s inception. 👍 While Wild Cat Foundation is not a rescue organization, they do have adoptable pets at all times. For more information and to donate to this tremendous group visit https://lnkd.in/gxdyWT-A for more information.

2023 RECAP. As the year draws to a close, it's a time of reflection and gratitude for our organization's significant strides. In 2023, our organization achieved remarkable milestones, including 1. The opening of a new clinic. 2. Computerization of our shelter 3. Initiation of in-house sterilizations 4. Addition of a hematology machine. 6. A significant highlight was the successful relocation of 12 Indian street dogs to the USA, with 9 already adopted into loving homes and 3 awaiting adoption. 7. Our dedicated team of 20, spanning veterinary, shelter, cruelty prevention, and adoption departments, has been instrumental in these accomplishments, setting the stage for continued growth and impact on animal welfare. 8. Treated and sterilized 950+ animals. 9. Sterilized 300+ dogs and cats. 10. Housed around 60 disabled & senior animals 11. Investigated 220 animal abuse/cruelty cases 12. 60 dogs, 4 cats and one cow adopted. Added spacious open claustrophobic dog kennels Looking ahead to 2024 1. We plan to transport 7 more dogs to the USA. WE HAVE BIG GOALS FOR 2024: 1. Increase sterilizations to 200 per month. 2. Expand the education program to include more schools, universities, and residential associations. 3. Increase adoptions of Indian breed dogs. 4. Equip the clinic with an LFT/KFT machine & a portable X-ray machine. 5. A second ambulance for sterilizations. 6. Train and enhance surgical expertise among our in-house veterinarians. 7. Equip the clinic with state-of-the-art surgical equipment.

Great article by Kirstyn Brendlen. TLDR: 1. We can't adopt ourselves out of the shelter overcrowding and resulting euthanasia crisis that's happening right now. Intakes are too high, and the majority aren't spay/neutered. 2. Owning a pet is too expensive for many. It's hard to find affordable housing that accepts pets. And the cost of veterinary care is skyrocketing. 3. With VC's aggressively buying up vet clinics across the county, vet care is only going to keep increasing as vets are compensated for the services they do (the same flaw we have in human medicine?). 4. Affordable vet clinics could help solve the problem by TNR'ing community cats and making it financially feasible for more people to have a companion animal. Two questions this raises: How would we do this with the current veterinarian shortage? And is there any benefit to addressing the fact that adoption may be down even among people who can afford pet ownership (perhaps people no longer feel a moral imperative to "adopt, don't shop")?

Today, on #WorldSpayDay, we're thrilled to announce a transformative grant to COMMUNITY ANIMAL MEDICINE PROJECT, INC. (CAMP)! Since their launch in 2007, Michelson Found Animals has been an integral partner to CAMP Clinics, in which time CAMP has spayed and neutered over 300,000 dogs and cats. The $1 million grant will be used to: - Expand access to affordable veterinary care: Fund a portion of the purchase of a new property in South Los Angeles, transforming it into a low-cost veterinary clinic and high-volume training center. This expansion will significantly increase the number of pets served annually by CAMP Clinics. - Increase spay/neuter surgeries: Support CAMP’s spay/neuter program, offering affordable surgeries to pet owners in historically excluded communities. This will help control pet overpopulation, reduce the number of animals entering shelters, and ultimately save lives. - Enhance veterinary training: Fund training programs for veterinarians in HQHVSN surgeries, a proven method for increasing access to affordable spay/neuter services while maintaining high standards of care. This grant is a giant leap forward for animal welfare in SoCal!  Together with CAMP Clinics, we're building a future where every pet receives the care they deserve. Read more about this monumental collaboration here: https://lnkd.in/gf9_gUjF

As reported by The New York Post, a PETA undercover investigation into The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank (TVBB)—an operation in Indiana that keeps nearly 900 dogs and cats perpetually confined to barren kennels and crowded pens and sells their blood to veterinary clinics—found that workers bled animals who were elderly, emaciated, and sick with upper respiratory infections, bone cancer, and other issues. Many of the animals were born and bred at TVBB, although the facility acquired some as strays or from staff who answered ads seeking homes for unwanted animals. Most animals at the facility remain there—homeless and deprived of joy and affection, among other necessities—for life. TVBB says that it supplies blood products to major veterinary hospital chains, including BluePearl, VCA Animal Hospitals, PetVet Care Centers, Ethos Veterinary Health, and MedVet. Please join us in urging BluePearl and these other chains to reconsider any relationship that they may have with TVBB. Ask them to obtain blood only from healthy animals who live in homes as beloved members of a family and are volunteered for periodic blood donations by their guardians, and urge your own veterinarian to do the same. https://lnkd.in/gncXdQGp #endspeciesism #activism #activist #advocate #advocacy #animaljustice #animalliberationnow #experimentation #crueltyfree #animalcruelty #animalrights #animalliberation #notourstouse #crueltyfree #animalsinexperimentation

You know you're on the right path when you can't see it anymore. Getting deeper into a complex issue, asking "why" at each turn, your questions evolve. Each one becomes more difficult to answer. Here are my top questions for the last eight kitten seasons (photo is one of our most recent scoops). 2017 - Why are so many kittens suffering outside? 2018 - Why are there so many feral cats on every block? 2019 - Why is it so hard to get trained in (TNR) trap neuter return? 2020 - Why aren't there enough spay/neuter appointments for TNR volunteers? 2021 - Why have NYC animal shelters been overcrowded for decades? 2022 - Why is veterinary care so expensive for pet owners? 2023 - Why is there a massive shortage of veterinarians and licensed veterinary technicians? 2024 - Why is the majority of animal welfare funding still centered around reactive / downstream measures like rescue, adoption and transport? Flatbush Cats is getting closer to the root cause (or as I call it, the final boss). But we need to move quickly, because there are fewer and fewer families who can even afford to adopt a pet. And that's just not right. Thank you for helping us ask better questions. 🐾

And considering that the number of animals entering shelters each year is a tiny fraction of what it was 50 years ago (and an all time low excluding the COVID years) and that’s only a fairly small fraction of the annual “replacement rate” of pets just assuming a long life and natural death let alone pet acquisition growth, why does the animal sheltering community still insist on the trope of “overflowing shelters”? If you want a forest, you plant trees. If you want a community to have access to vet care, you build hospitals (like Flatbush Cats has!). And if you want people to have the benefit of animal companionship regardless of their economic situation, you give them pets for free and then give them the supports they need to care for them. Free food costs mere pennies, basic vaccines and preventative care cost mere dollars. Maintaining an outmoded sheltering system solving last century’s problems costs BILLIONS. Will and Flatbush Cats get it. We’ve got to change if we expect change.

Meet our current and exceptional Veterinary Social Workers who work at the heart of our mission, bridging the gap between veterinary care and human social services 🐾 Leesa 🐾 Alyce 🐾 Jessica We’ve had 14 social work students on placement of which we have gone on to employ six. In 2023, we delivered over 2000 veterinary social work services! 🙌 But what do this amazing team do exactly? Working on-site, our Veterinary Social Workers collaborate with our veterinary teams to support people while pets are cared for. This enables our vet teams to focus on animal care, while our social workers support vulnerable clients and connect with social service agencies. With this support, individuals avoid more severe outcomes - such as increased isolation, worsening mental health conditions, or potential harm to themselves or their pets. And by providing accessible and timely support, our services preempt the need for costly downstream interventions such as emergency veterinary surgeries, prolonged medical treatments, or surrendering pets to shelters or worse, which have significant financial and emotional costs for individuals and society. With our social service agency partners reporting an 83% improvement in clients’ access to veterinary care and a remarkable 94% stating positive outcomes from the support provided, it is evident that vulnerable people with pets need to be appropriately supported to help meet their companion animal’s needs as well as their own. Our Veterinary Social Workers are a huge part of this solution. Together with the generous donations that make this possible, we're creating a more hopeful future for many people in our community. To learn more about what we do, check out our website: https://lnkd.in/e7UEFr_c  #veterinarysocialservices #veterinarysocialwork #humananimalbond #cherishedpets #fearfreevetvisit #socialwork Alicia Kennedy

Have you heard of Veterinary Social Workers? I hadn’t until I started working with Cherished Pets. These incredible professionals are transforming the veterinary field, supporting vet teams and the social sector. These stats reflect just some of the outcomes measurement we do at Cherished Pets, providing data-driven insights which complement the team’s daily firsthand experiences and feedback to determine if programs are on track. Impact measurement is fundamental for driving social change. #impactmeasurement #socialchange #veterinarysocialwork #systemschange #veterinarysocialservices

Learn more about how a national study of access to veterinary care from Program for Pet Health Equity was adapted to help understand the interests, needs, and perceived barriers to veterinary care of Knoxville's Latino community in the ASSOCIATION OF SHELTER VETERINARIANS INC's Journal of Shelter Medicine and Community Animal Health (JSMCAH). https://lnkd.in/g2WW55-V The primary objective of this study by jennifer weisent, Rebekah Debolt, Linda Daugherty, Alexis Niceley, and Jaime Norris was to better understand the interests, needs, and perceived barriers to veterinary care of Knoxville’s Latino community. Investigators adapted a national survey designed to understand access to veterinary care for distribution to the Latino population through a community-based participatory approach with an established community center. Seventy-six percent of survey respondents (n = 46) reported that they consider the pet as part of the family. Forty-eight percent said their pets were not spayed or neutered (s/n), and of these, 39% said s/n was cost-prohibitive, whereas 22% did not know where to receive services. Twenty-six percent identified an inability to obtain treatment for a sick pet, primarily due to a lack of access to affordable care. Participants expressed interest in vaccines and parasite prevention (64%), training and behavior (36%), and information on veterinary and pet care resources (29%). The survey tool (provided in English and Spanish) and community engagement approach can assist animal welfare organizations in identifying and addressing community veterinary needs and barriers to care. #ShelterMedicine #CommunityMedicine