We always joked about Suzie being a creepy cat. That’s what we’ll miss most about her. She was just this tiny little ball of pitch black hair with huge golden eyes. She never said a peep. She loved people, but its as if she never wanted to be a burden. So you would be sitting there and look over to find Suzie quietly staring at you. Who knows how long she had been sitting there staring. It was at the moment that you looked at her that she would let out a silent meow and then take the few remaining steps toward you and put one paw on you to indicate that she wanted you to pick her up. She is adorable.

We couldn’t be happier with her new home, either. She is heading up to Vermont with Tessa and Jojo – two friends who have spent that past few months hanging out in Indiana to help with the sanctuary. We are sad to see them go, but at least they get to take a cuddly part of the sanctuary home with them.

Join us in wishing Suzie a great time with her new family.

Also, don’t forget to donate to our Kickstarter campaign and help rescue more animals. http://kck.st/crFbgq

Children like a companion they can hold, and cuddle. That’s why stuffed animals are so popular. Rabbits are not passive and cuddly. They are ground-loving creatures who feel frightened and insecure when held and restrained. The result of a short-sighted purchase of an Easter rabbit: the child loses interest, and the rabbit ends up neglected or abandoned.

Thousands of rabbits find their way to shelters after the Easter holiday. Others will spend their lives neglected in small cages. This is no life for an animal that loves to hop, run, and graze in fields. We can do better for rabbits and children.

Perhaps equally as disturbing is the fact that these rabbits have never known what it means to live in the wild. Morrissey has just lent his music to the international animal rights group, Four Paws, for their campaign against factory farming rabbits. While many of these rabbits are bred to eat or for experimentation, others are bred to sell as pets. As Four Paws explains:

Factory farmed caged rabbits have limited space to lie stretched out or sit up on their hind legs. The rabbits are forced to live in cramped and barren conditions. It is not uncommon for bone disorders and foot inflammations to develop, as well as other excruciating conditions. Farmed rabbits may develop neurotic behaviors to relieve the stress caused by their unnatural living conditions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For this Easter holiday, why not celebrate by working towards a better world for rabbits. Shouldn’t the Easter Bunny be free to hop around the world, instead of locked up in a cage?

For this bill to pass, it must first pass through this committee, and then through the full Senate. Time is running out in this legislative session and Senator Steele has already killed three bills to crack down on dog fighting. We need to put a lot of pressure on Senator Steele and other members of the Senate to do the right thing.

As you may know, last year brought the largest dog fighting ring bust in Indiana history right in Steele’s district. We can’t allow the cruelty of animal fighting to continue in our state.

HB1258 will make it a felony to be a spectator at a dog fight and add it to the RICO statute making it easier to combat dog fighting in Indiana.

WHAT WE NEED YOU TO DO:
If you live in Senator Steele’s district, call his office TODAY and ask him to hear the bill and pass it as written.

Phone#: 1.800.382.9467

If you are not in Steele’s district, you can contact your Senator and say the following:

“Hello, my name is _________________ and I am a constituent of Senator _____________’s from _________________ (city/town). HB 1258, the animal fighting bill, passed the House and is now awaiting a hearing in the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal, and Civil Matters. I would like to request that Senator ______________ please do all she/he can to assure that Senator Steele give this important bill a hearing. Thank You.”

If you’re not sure who represents you, follow this link: http://action.humanesociety.org/site/PageServer?pagename=electedOfficials

This past week, the animal bill, HB 1258, passed out of committee with a strong bi-partisan vote of 11-0.

There were some minor changes to the bill while it was in committee, but it still addresses pet store posting/disclosure, dog fighting, and shelter for horses that is free of standing water. The latter was added as an amendment. You can read the full language of the bill here.

Next, the bill will have to pass through the full Indiana House of Representatives before going to the Senate. We will post on our blog to let you know when we will need to start making phone calls to legislators again.

For now, take a quick minute to call the members of the House Courts and Criminal Code Committee and thank them for voting in favor of HB 1258. Your call doesn’t need to be long to make a big impact. Here is a template for what to say:

“Hello, my name is_______________. I am calling to thank Rep___________ for voting in favor of HB 1258, a bill to protect Indiana’s animals. I hope that Rep___________ will continue to support this bill as it moves through the process. Thank you again.”

Names and phone numbers of committee members to call:
Chair – Rep Pierce – 317-232-9647
Rep Dvorak – 317-234-9290
Rep Dembowski – 317-232-9676
Rep Porter – 317-232-9634
Rep Smith – 317-234-9016
Rep Tincher – 317-232-9999
Rep Koch – 317-232-9793
Rep Clements – 317-234-3827
Rep Foley – 317-232-9815
Rep Steuerwald – 317-232-9677
Rep Truitt – 317-234-3827

The bill has now entered the Senate Committee on Corrections, Criminal and Civil Matters. Because of the great success of the bill in the House, the pro-breeding lobby (including Indiana Farm Bureau, Pet Breeders Association and the Amish puppy millers) has begun to meet in great numbers to try to kill this bill in the committee. It is vital that animal lovers contact the members of this committee to let them know that you support HB 1468 and to encourage them to do the same. You can call any of them at (317)232-9400 or (800)382-9467. The committee members are as follows:

Brent Steele, Committee Chair
Mike Young, R.M.
Richard Bray
Mike Delph
Randy Head
Brent Waltz
John Waterman
Lindel Hume R.M.M.
Tim Lanane
Karen Tallian
Greg Taylor

Despite what some may claim or even believe, this bill does not affect small, responsible breeders. You can read the full bill at http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2009/HB/HB1468.1.html

Indiana House Bill 1468 passed through committee yesterday and is entering a vote in the House of Representatives in the next week. It is important that everyone contact their representative to let them know that you support HB 1468 because it will strengthen what is now a very weak animal cruelty code and will help put a stop to puppy mills in the state.

If you are not sure who your representative is or how to contact them, go to http://www.in.gov/apps/sos/legislator/search/

Although emails help, we strongly encourage you to take the time to call your representative. Calls are always brief. You will need to identify yourself as an individual from the representatives district and tell them you want them to support HB 1468.

Please act now and pass on to your own network of family, friends and coworkers! Your House Representative needs to know that you want to put an end to puppy mills and animal cruelty in Indiana.

To read the full bill, go to http://www.in.gov/legislative/bills/2009/HB/HB1468.1.html

Measures to protect pets from being sold for experimentation, and also from the horrors of dogfighting, are being considered right now for inclusion in the final Farm Bill. A small committee will decide the fate of these provisions, and you live in a district that has more influence than others in the country. Please take action right away to protect pets.

Both the House and Senate Farm Bills include provisions to stop the abuses of Class B Dealers, who acquire dogs and cats through methods such as pet theft and fraudulent response to “free to good home” ads. The Senate Bill also includes a provision to strengthen the federal law to combat the barbaric activity of dogfighting. These provisions are in jeopardy and we need your help right away to ensure that they are retained in the final Farm Bill.

You should call your senators and representatives (calls have a greater impact). You can reach your elected officials by calling the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or click here to look up your legislators and office phone numbers.

Those of us in Indiana have even more of an impact because Senator Lugar is the chair of the agriculture committee, the committee that determines the fate of the companion animal language in the bill. Calls are quick and can have a big effect on protecting animals. Here is a sample call from HSUS:

“Hello, my name is [your name] and I am a constituent from [your town]. I want to urge [legislator's name] to make sure that the final Farm Bill includes the Senate-and House-approved language that will put an end to the sale of random source dogs and cats by Class B Dealers for experimentation, and the Senate-passed language to crack down on dogfighting. These issues are very important to me. Thank you.”

The Pet Safety and Protection Act is in danger! This act prohibits experimentation facilities from buying dogs and cats from Class B dealers. It was passed as an amendment to the Farm Bill by both the Senate and the House of Representatives. However, as the Senate and the House work out differences between their bills, animal experimenters are pressuring Congress to drop the pet-safety provisions altogether.

Class B animal dealers, also known as “random source dealers,” often acquire animals through theft and deception and are known to sell lost and stolen cats and dogs to laboratories.

Please contact your senator today and ask him/her to keep the Pet Safety and Protection Act in the Farm Bill.

from PETA

Yesterday marked the beginning of Puppy Mill Action Week (it also marked the beginning of 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence), so expect to see a lot about puppy mills and what you can do to stop them in the coming days.

Here is a video from a recent undercover investigation that the Humane Society of the United States conducted in Virginia.

What you can do to shut down puppy mills:

• Adopt from local animal shelters and rescue organizations, never buy from pet stores, websites or newspaper ads
• Boycott pet stores that sell dogs; tell the store owners why you are boycotting them and have your friends do the same
• Write letters to the editor of your local newspapers
• Educate your friends and family
  Sign up for our free monthly email newsletter or volunteer list-serve to stay up-to-date on events, actions and legislation.
• Help end the status of animals as property. One easy way of doing this is to refer to yourself as a caretaker, guardian, companion or friend rather than as an “owner” or “master.” Much of the suffering on behalf of animals is due to their status as mere objects to be done with as their “owner” pleases.

First, let me thank Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, for stepping in to what has become a very heated debate in the animal rights movement. As Pacelle said, if you aren’t familiar with the debate, you are probably better off. But we can’t just ignore the debate and expect things to fix themselves. Both sides have valuable points and we need all actors to make this play a success.

Let me first say, that I’m writing this in the same vain as Pacelle’s post. I’m asking that we set aside semantics for a moment and focus on the goals. With that said, I agree with Pacelle’s claim that “no kill as a philosophy is noble; no kill as an objective or aspiration is essential. Really, nothing else can be our goal.” So how to we get to that goal?

Obviously, we need to look at the causes of the high euthanasia rates (3-4 million cats and dogs a year). While I have little doubt that some shelters are unnecessarily euthanizing some animals, I find it hard to believe that they are unnecessarily euthanizing 3-4 million a year. So why are so many animals ending up in shelters? For one, domestic cats and dogs are not a part of the natural ecosystem and therefore don’t have the usual checks and balances of animals that do (natural predators, selective birthing rates, etc). This means that domestic cats and dogs are able to reproduce in great numbers without ecology stepping in to correct the imbalance. This is why spay and neuter programs must be implemented that are affordable and thorough in their reach. Trap-Neuter-Release programs for feral cats will help to regulate feral cat populations without having to take them in to shelters where, due to their undomesticated and unadoptable status, they will almost certainly be euthanized.

Another source of the problem are breeders. Puppy mills and backyard breeders in this state are largely unregulated bodies that are able to force dogs and cats into pregnancies that create an unsustainable population. Thus leading many cats and dogs to be euthanized. That 3-4 million figure doesn’t include the number of companion animals that are killed each year by breeders and others because they are deemed unprofitable. The solution to this is two-pronged.

One, increase the percentage of companion animals adopted from rescue organizations rather than from breeders. Even a small percentage change can save millions of lives. Two, we need to stop the breeding industry. This won’t be done over night, but it can be done by first regulating their practices and decreasing their sales and profitability.

I believe we must except the fact making shelters no-kill (or limited admission) without focusing on the source of discarded animals won’t solve the problem of killing domestic animals. What it will do is to skew our numbers by encouraging more people to take killing domestic animals into their own hands. Without higher adoption rates or increased funding for shelters, we are also looking at a problem of animal hoarding.

We also must be honest with one another in the movement and outside. Transparency is the only way we will be able to gain the trust of each other and our communities. We have to be honest about the rates of euthanasia, the turn-away rates, and our finances. In order for transparency to work, however, it should not be used as another wedge to split us apart. It should be used as an honest tool of discussion, growth, and strategy. We must be willing to set aside some differences in order to focus on working together to meet our shared goals. Working against each other and outright dismissing one another only slows down our progress. We also have to be careful not to be too judgemental. Constructive criticisms should be welcomed, but judgement should be left outside.

The most important thing to remember is that this won’t happen overnight and it won’t happen just because we want it to. We need to work together to create comprehensive plans that fully engage our communities in the process. Most shelters in this state and the country don’t have the resources that are necessary to simply end all euthanasia. They need the help of volunteers and coalitions of other groups. This means we must break down the defensive barriers that we have begun to build around ourselves.

This is merely a small portion of my thoughts on this topic. As I said, I will continue to write about the subject. You should also expect to see some official Deep Roots information on the topic as our coalition begins to solidify its strategy. I encourage all voices in this discussion.