Latest on MJJC

To Catlovers

A Federal Judge in Rhode Island has upheld a local law that bans the sale of dogs and cats from pet stores. Pet stores in the city are now only allowed to adopt out rescued animals from shelters and rescue groups with which they partner. The law was passed based on concerns about the treatment of dogs in puppy mills and in order to increase the number of rescued animals in need of homes who find them. It also strikes to the heart of so much animal suffering: their commodification. When there is profit to be made on the backs of animals, history shows that those backs are often strained and broken.
Specifically, the law makes it “unlawful for any person to display, offer for sale, deliver, barter, auction, give away, transfer, or sell any live dog or cat” in a commercial establishment. But it allows pet stores to provide “space and appropriate care for animals owned by a city animal shelter or animal control agency, humane society, or non-profit rescue organization and maintain those animals at the pet store retail business or other commercial establishment for the purpose of public adoption.”
https://www.facebook.com/nathanwinograd
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:jump::clapping::yes:
 
Kittens from a colony
[video=youtube;T8aUXR4aD3M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8aUXR4aD3M[/video]

WELCOME TO CATS IN MY YARD
Cats In My Yard promotes TNR: Trap-Neuter-Return, the most effective, humane way to control the feral and stray cat overpopulation. Outdoor cats are trapped in humane traps, brought into Chicago’s low-cost clinics for spay/neuter surgeries, and then the ear-tipped cats are returned back to where they are living in colonies that are fed and cared for.

Cats In My Yard has been TNR’ing cats since 2004, and is a registered Colony Caretaker in compliance with the 2007 Cook County Managed Care of Feral Cats Ordinance [07-O-72]. Cats In My Yard shows neighbors how to TNR and care for cats in their own yards.

OUR 2014 TNR CASE STUDY

A total of 177 cats were TNR’d within one square mile since 2007. 59 of those cats remain outside here at 20 colony sites where they are fed and sheltered. Outdoor cat population decreased at 18 of those locations.

http://www.catsinmyyard.com/
 
Anti-cat advocates claim that cats should not be allowed outdoors because they are an “introduced” or “non-native” species.
Although some of them claim they do not want them killed, this is disingenuous since free-living, community cats who are not social with humans often have no other place to go.
The outdoors is their home.

In calling, either explicitly or implicitly, for the round up and killing of cats, these nativists engage in a great hypocrisy: forcing onto cats a standard they refuse themselves to obey.
They are also "non-native" to North America.
They belong to a species that is the most “invasive” the planet has ever experienced, causing virtually all of the environmental destruction, including the tragic decline of songbirds.
And while they blame cats for harming birds, they kill or pay others to kill birds so they can eat them, supporting a vicious industry that kills billions of birds annually. And yet for reasons based entirely on narrow self-interest, they do not hold their own actions to the same standards which they impose upon cats: they do not force themselves to live exclusively indoors, they do not pack up and move back to Africa (the continent where humans first evolved), they do not stop eating birds, and they do not impose upon themselves or their fellow humans discriminatory standards which judge the worth of an individual based solely on the lineage of their ancestors.

We need a kinder, gentler, and more tolerant way of viewing the world and the distribution of animals upon it.
We also need one more firmly grounded in science.
Each species on Earth, writes Biology Professor Ken Thompson, “has a characteristic distribution on the Earth’s land surface… But in every case, that distribution is in practice a single frame from a very long movie.
Run the clock back only 10,000 years, less than a blink of an eye in geological time, and nearly all of those distributions would be different, in many cases very different. Go back only 10 million years, still a tiny fraction of the history of life on Earth, and any comparison with present-day distributions becomes impossible, since most of the species themselves would no longer be the same."

This never-ending transformation—of landscape, of climate, of plants and animals—has occurred, and continues to occur, all over the world, resulting from a variety of factors: global weather patterns, plate tectonics, evolution, natural selection, migration, and even the devastating effects of impacting asteroids.

Close your eyes and randomly stick a pin on any location in a map, then do a Google search of that region’s history and what you will invariably find is that at some point in time, that location looked very different than it does today, as did the plants and animals who resided there.

Over 10,000 years ago, a sudden burst of monsoon rains over the vast Sahara desert transformed its dunes into a savannah which could sustain life, including people and giraffes who migrated into the area which today is once again a barren expanse of sand. Roughly 74 million years ago, Tyrannosaurs, Ceratopsians, and Sauropods roamed the continent of North America which was divided down its middle by a vast, ancient sea.
In the distant past, the now frigid polar regions of the Earth were moist, temperate and blanketed by forests.
The geographic and fossil records tell us that there is but one constant to life on Earth, and that is change: http://bit.ly/1NNUxlQ

So under what pretense does an arbitrarily picked “single frame from a very long movie” chosen by people who refuse to practice what they preach trump the right of cats to live, wherever they may be?
https://www.facebook.com/nathanwinograd/posts/964896576867920:0
 
A man and his wife in their house in Montesinos heard a car pull up outside and they looked out of the window. They saw a modern all white Porsche car had stopped on the road. A woman aged approx 30 years and a slightly older man, both well dressed and both with dark hair, stepped out of the car and opened the boot at the front. They lifted a cat out and placed it on the pavement then closed the boot, they got back into the car and drove away! Since then the cat has not moved very far, she has been seen wandering around but looking very stressed. After calling us to tell us about this incident the lady in the house agreed to try to befriend the cat over the next few days. It soon became apparent that she is a young small and gentle female cat approx 8 months, she is lactating so has recently had kittens. She was so relieved that someone was taking notice of her, she is very sociable and probably has been a house cat before being abandoned by these totally heartless people. Today the lady brought the cat to us and we took her to the vet clinic to be examined. Blood test results for feline diseases were negative and although very stressed out and thin she seems to be in relatively good health. Our great new friends Janet and Alan in Dolores are fostering her, we have named her Nina. Does anyone recognize the white modern Porsche car and the description of the couple from anywhere on the Costa Blanca, or perhaps you recognize the cat?
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[video=youtube;5BJcWec8WMg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BJcWec8WMg[/video]

Kittens are adorable but when they become sexually mature and mark territory with urine it´s not funny anymore.Or if the cat has kittens but you want to go on holiday.
I suppose they couple killed the kittens
 
Re: to catlovers

We Believe in Miracles

At the sanctuary our mission is to provide a home for cats with no other option, and to do everything we can to give them the wonderful lives they deserve. A big part of that is caring for cats with the feline leukemia virus. FeLV is incurable, causes many serious health problems, usually greatly shortens cats' lives, and can be transmitted to other cats. In many shelters and vets' offices cats are routinely euthanized when they test positive for the feline leukemia virus. But we believe that every cat deserves a chance at life, no matter the odds against them, and we have a special area - Cookie's Place - where FeLV+ cats live. Sometimes it's for only a few weeks or months, sometimes for several years, but every day is filled with all the TLC we can give them in a safe, loving, and stimulating environment.

In 2014 one of our FeLV+ cats, Marley, was in the hospital being treated for a minor problem. They retested him for FeLV, something they do periodically when one of our cats comes in for treatment, and to their great surprise he tested negative! Several different types of tests confirmed it, and Marley got a new lease on life. He moved to another area of the sanctuary and suddenly faces a future filled with all kinds of new possibilities - a longer life, better health, and even the potential for adoption since he's now a young, healthy adorable cat with no problems or issues.

We assumed that Marley was just extraordinarily lucky - it's uncommon for an FeLV+ cat to "convert" and shed the feline leukemia virus. But later one of our volunteers was playing with Jodie and just had a special feeling about her - she seemed so healthy and vibrant, so she asked us to get her retested. We did....and Jodie also tested negative!

Jodie lived in the bedroom area with just a handful of other FeLV+ cats, so we got them all tested and found out that Ginny was also negative for FeLV!

When that happened we decided to immediately retest every FeLV+ cat at the sanctuary. There are two kinds of tests for FeLV. One is the Elisa test, quick and easy to administer and commonly used in vets' offices and shelters. Five more cats tested negative! One of those cats was Valentino, who has become quite a celebrity and has fans and admirers all over the world.

The other common test for FeLV is the IFA test - a sample must be sent off to a laboratory and it takes several days to get results. The IFA tests confirmed the good news with negative test results for those cats. Ann Margaret was among the lucky kitties - like the others, she's been very healthy and active ever since she arrived at the sanctuary several years ago....and now will hopefully have many more years ahead.

When we have space available and take in a new FeLV+ cat at the sanctuary, they've already tested positive someplace else. We always do another test when they arrive, just to confirm their FeLV+ status - mistakes do happen occasionally, and several cats have come to us as FeLV+ and turned out to be negative. So every cat in Cookie's Place has tested positive multiple times...and sometimes again if they wind up in the hospital for other treatment. But now we have found that a number of them, like Tiptoe, have somehow inexplicably converted to a negative status after living among other FeLV+ cats for several years.

The first Elisa test result for Juno was questionable and so a second test was done using serum that showed her to be negative. Her IFA test result came back also negative, so she will be moving to a different part of the sanctuary and beginning an exciting new phase of her life.

There is still much that's not fully understood about feline leukemia. What we do know now, though, is that some cats manage to survive this terrible virus. And although we don't know exactly how that happens, it strengthens our belief that every cat deserves a chance at life - and that if we give them that chance, sometimes their life will turn out to be much longer and better than anyone could have expected.

We gladly open our hearts to every cat we can, even knowing that some won't be with us for long, especially those with the feline leukemia virus. But now for these eight cats a miracle has happened and they suddenly have good prospects for living long, healthy lives. Your support is what makes it possible for us to step in and provide a home for the helpless, the overlooked and forgotten, the cats with the odds stacked against them and no other options. And that support helped to give these eight cats a chance at life that has turned out better than we could have wished for in our wildest dreams. Yes, we believe in miracles!

This will be a continuing story - we're going to retest of all our FeLV+ cats every six months. And there's one more cat, Lulu, whose test results were such a faint positive that we think there's a chance that she's in the process of shedding the virus and may test negative in a few months...so stay tuned!

UPDATE: Several months passed and all the kitties were retested...and now Lulu's negative too!

And in the same batch of retesting, Pria also showed up as negative! She's only been with us a year or so....but what a year! Rescued from Austin Animal Center with feline leukemia, now she's living the good life in the Outback.

And our latest miracle kitty is a very special one - Polly! Rescued from the desert in Nevada in 2007 as part of the Great Kitty Rescue, Polly came to us through Best Friends Animal Society along with 16 other feline leukemia kitties. Polly is the only one of those kitties still with us...and now, after all these years, she's not only beaten the odds - she's beaten the feline leukemia virus!

http://www.shadowcats.net/read more/miracles.php
 
[video=youtube;If7MeLUheRc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLsmHBgbkKIERsX0faHHQWq9UdQskxJnVJ&v=If7MeLUheRc[/video]

Last week we rescued a tiny orphaned bobcat kitten and named him Journey. He was approximately 9 days old. We will raise him – he is now at our sanctuary and being fostered by one of our domestic mama cats -- and then release him back into the wild where he belongs when he is grown.
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Big Hearts

Anyone who loves cats usually loves the idea of getting to know and care for all the wonderful little angels at our sanctuary. And it certainly is fun and rewarding for our staff and volunteers. But it takes something else to be a kitty nanny or sanctuary volunteer....you have to have a really, really big heart.

We provide lifetime care to cats who have serious problems and had no other options. For some, that lifetime can be many years, and getting to know the cats and become part of their family is one of the great rewards of helping out at the sanctuary. But for some of our cats - especially those with feline leukemia - their lifetimes can be all too short. When we welcome an adorable new kitten into Cookie's Place, as we're cuddling them it's also in the back of our mind that the odds they face are daunting and there's a good chance that they won't be with us for long. We are often asked how we can deal with the pain of so many losses and still continue opening our hearts to the next kitty in need.

Everyone at the sanctuary would tell you the same thing - that while the grief can be overwhelming, for most every cat we take in we are their only chance at life. Especially feline leukemia kittens, who are vulnerable to the effects of the virus and routinely euthanized in many shelters. But it's those kittens who perhaps need us the most. Even though their lives are often painfully short, they get to experience all they joys of being a cute, inquisitive, adventurous kitten, and the feeling we get when we see them running around joyously playing is indescribable.

It's difficult giving your heart to a kitten who you know may only survive for several months. But if we don't, who will? So our staff and volunteers open their hearts and arms to each little soul, despite the heartbreak that they know will come when we have to say goodbye. To be a kitty nanny or sanctuary volunteer you have to have a really big heart....and you have to be willing to have that heart broken over and over again, but to look through your tears at all the others who still need you.

Not many people can do this, and do it so well. We salute our kitty nannies and volunteers for everything they do to make a difference in so many lives. Day in and day out, they're cuddling, feeding, cleaning up after, playing with, medicating, and doing countless other things to help all our sanctuary cats live the wonderful lives they deserve for every single day they're with us. Being part of the sanctuary is like having 80 more cats of your own, and every time we lose one it hurts our kitty nannies and volunteers every bit as much as losing one of their own cats at home. But just look at their faces, and the faces of the kitties, and you can see what big hearts they have.

http://www.shadowcats.net/read more/big-hearts.php


“If you enter this world knowing you are loved and you leave this world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”
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Despite what these cat have been hrough at least they get some love and care before they die
 
Why Isn’t Big Cat Rescue Rescuing More Big Cats?
http://bigcatrescue.org/why-isnt-big-cat-rescue-rescuing-more-big-cats/

When the phone stops ringing from people trying to abandon their exotic cat, our job will be done.
Thanks to all of you who write letters and fund our mission, that day is getting closer and closer to being a reality.
Saying “no” is the hardest thing we do here, but our commitment is to a life time of care and we won’t jeopardize that by taking on more big cats than we can safely handle or feed.
In just the last few years there have been 16 big cat facilities that have gone under where they had from 10 to 60 big cats at the time.
We know that it will cost us about $10,000.00 per big cat, per year to care for them until they die of old age.
In most cases people are trying to get rid of last year’s cubs that they cannot use any more.
With proper care those cats will live another 20 years.

People often ask if it is hard to start a sanctuary and it is not.
What is hard is doing it in a way that doesn’t add to the problem.
When people found out we had rescued the cats from the fur farms back in 1993 they started calling and asking us to take their lions, tigers and leopards that they had foolishly obtained as pets, when they were cute little cubs, but now did not want.
By 2003 we had to turn away 312 big cats that we did not have the finances to rescue for their 20 year lives.
Every other year that number was doubling. We knew that if we couldn’t take them in they would almost always end up in miserable conditions or thrust back into the breeders’ hands to create more animals that would be discarded the following year as they matured.
It was heartbreaking to have to be turning away a big cat almost every day.
It made all of the hard work we were doing to care for a big cats seem pointless when the bad guys were increasing the number of
suffering cats faster than we could raise money to save them.
A bill had stagnated for six years in Congress that would have stopped a lot of the problem, but it is hard to get lawmakers to hear a bill about protecting big cats when there are so many other issues vying for their time. We used every opportunity to inform our volunteers and visitors about the importance of the bill and in Dec. 2003 the Captive Wildlife Safety Act passed.

One Law Saved More Big Cats Than All of Us Combined

The Captive Wild Animal Safety Act made it illegal to sell a big cat, across state lines, as a pet. There were a lot of parameters but the breeders must have seen the hand writing on the wall, and many stopped breeding.
The following year, instead of turning away, what we expected to be 500-600 big cats, we “only” had to turn away 110. By 2011 that number dropped to 15 as 10 more states have banned the private possession of big cats and many more are cracking down on an industry that has been largely left to run wild. There have been a couple of spikes in numbers since 2011, but it is usually from “sanctuaries” who rescued their way to bankruptcy, who then became part of the problem, rather than the solution.

Now the number one reason for unwanted big cats is that they are used as pay to play props and as a way to attract the public to zoos, pseudo sanctuaries and con artists who assure the public that the cats have been bred to save the species from extinction. None of these back yard breeders are involved in any real conservation efforts and there are no release programs for big cats because there is no appropriate habitat reserved for them. Cubs are bred, used and then discarded as yearlings to well meaning rescuers who love being able to help a big cat. These same “rescuers” often post pictures of themselves petting the big cats, silently saying to the world, “Do as I say, and not as I do,” while proclaiming, “These animals don’t make good pets.” And so the cycle of abuse continues.

Fewer Big Cats in Peril

A couple years, and a hundred big cats later, these pseudo sanctuaries realize that they can’t rescue their way out.
A rescue brings in money up until the day the cat gets to the sanctuary.
After that most donors and volunteers are usually looking for the next “feel good” event where they can rescue a big cat.

This lack of planning for the long term quickly reaches a tipping point. The animals already rescued begin to go without vet care, regular meals, and their cage space is filled with more and more big cats, often causing injuries and death. Before long the pseudo sanctuary is calling around the country looking for someone to take all of their “rescues” off their hands. But there is no place for them to go.

The state and federal government don’t intercede until the situation is so dire, that public outcry won’t let them ignore it any longer, because they know there is no where for the cats to go, and they don’t want to be perceived as bad guys stepping in and seizing a bunch of charismatic tigers.

We have seen abuse and neglect that will turn your stomach in facilities that are currently “in compliance” with all state and federal agencies.
Recently Ohio and New York have really cracked down on back yard breeders and have seized big cats. We have assisted in those raids and in placement of the animals they take, but sometimes the cats have to be held in state facilities while the owners drag it out in court.
Just this week we have offered to help take in or place animals from seven exotic owners who were given their last warning in Ohio. We make the offer first to the owners, if we can find them, such as Kenny Hetrick of Tiger Ridge, and then to the authorities, to let them know there is a safe place for every cat they seize. Just last month we offered to take in and help place 27 white tigers, owned by John Cuneo of the Hawthorn Circus. In that case I spoke with his tiger manager who said they currently spend about a quarter of a million dollars a year just on food and vet care for the cats, which is what it would cost us. I told him that Cuneo was made rich off the suffering of these tigers and can afford to provide for them until they die of old age. He had tried to dump them in Ohio, right before Ohio passed their ban, so now he was getting desperate to unload them so he can retire to his mansion in Sarasota. The jury is still out on whether or not he will set up a trust fund for their care and let them come here, or go to a good sanctuary, but I’m not holding my breath.
The number of big cats in peril have been dropping dramatically and others in the sanctuary field have reported similar findings. Two of the most telling are that some sanctuaries are dropping the reference to feline (cat) in their names and are turning their attention to wolves and bears. (A similar bill the the Captive Wild Animal Safety Act is expected to pass soon that will restrict the primate trade, which is sure to decrease the number of monkeys in need of rescue.) Valori Russell, CEO of the American Tiger Rescue said during a recent visit to Big Cat Rescue, “I was getting 50 calls per year from 2004 – 2007. I’ve only had 2 calls by mid 2008 but by the time I returned their call they had all ready placed the cats.”

Scratching Emotion From the List

Big Cat Rescue adheres to a strict Acquisition Policy. It is a set of guidelines we developed to take the emotion out of the decision and use facts. Two key facts for us to consider are: Can we afford to take this cat in and care for him until he dies? The other is: Who is going to clean his cage and deliver his food each day? We have an excellent safety record because we require two years of training and a commitment of at least 8 hours per week for our Keepers to be allowed to care for Leopards, Lions and Tigers. Up until then, they care for the smaller cats of cougars on down.
Of the 62 cats who were abandoned in 2014, we took 9 and offered to take 16 more but there was one issue that kept us from taking those 16 cats; the owners refused to sign an agreement that they wouldn’t just go right back out and buy another one. We aren’t ending the problem if we just allow irresponsible people to dump last year’s baby on us, so they can go out and buy or breed more.

There is a Solution and YOU can be a part of it

There is a solution and we are making that legislative agenda a priority. The ultimate answer is to end the practice of keeping big cats captive and we have been championing a bill before congress during the last two sessions. We hope to have it reintroduced soon and will be asking you to help us take it across the finish line this year. It will ban the private possession of big cats. Owners can keep the cats they have, but cannot buy or breed more. Once this passes, 99% of the abuse will end, because cubs won’t be bred for pay to play sessions and then discarded. Once we have ended the problem at its root we can take on more animals without the need for the contracts because the owners won’t be allowed to continue buying and breeding more big cats for life in cages.
Make sure you hear from us when your voice can help persuade a lawmaker by signing up for our monthly emailed Big Cat Newsletter. Take the pledge to be Circus Free and you will be added to our mail list. Don’t worry, we won’t share your info.
 
It´s not unusual that cats are looing for birds, but these cats are blind..
[video=youtube;hmmQk3CHmFU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmmQk3CHmFU[/video]
 
Re: to catlovers

What Age Can A Kitten Leave Its Mother?

A kitten should stay with his mother until an absolute minimum of 8 weeks, preferably 12 weeks. Even though he is relatively independent by 8 weeks and can survive without his mum, there are social benefits to staying with her and his siblings.
Weaning:
4-5 weeks - Kittens begin eating small amounts of food (which should be soft, such as canned), however they are still very much dependent on their mother's milk..
6-8 weeks - Kittens are now eating around 4 small meals a day, but still nursing from mum.
9-12 weeks - Some kittens may still be nursing at this age, but can survive without her milk. Nursing is mostly for comfort.

Social skills:
Kittens learn cat behaviour from their mum and their brothers and sisters. This includes body language, grooming, litter box habits, how to play and boundaries.
There is no better way to learn these skills from family members.
Have you ever watched littermates playing? They are rough and tumble, but if a kitten pushes a sibling (or mum) too far, they will be quickly put in their place with a swipe, a bite or a hiss.

Not all cats removed from mum grow into adults who have bad habits, but to reduce your chances, and raise a well rounded kitten, plenty of time with mum, siblings and humans is an absolute must.

Immunity:
When a kitten is little, he gets antibodies via his mothers milk, these help to keep him safe from infection. From 8 weeks of age, he has a series of vaccinations, spaced 4 weeks apart (8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks). The reason for this is the antibodies the mother has provided can affect the effectiveness of a single vaccine. A young kitten separated from his mother may not have as much protection as an older cat who has been weaned and fully vaccinated.

My own personal story:
I adopted a 6 week old kitten from some markets many years ago. This poor little lad looked so scared and alone in his cage and I felt the need to get him out of there. So I paid $6 for him and took him home. The second day there he vomited roundworms all over my kitchen. Roundworms can and do happen in kittens, but when they are raised properly, they will be routinely wormed so this kind of thing can't happen.

The kitten grew into an adult with several behavioural issues. He had absolutely no idea how to interact with other cats, and would beat them all up, he constantly sprayed, he suffered from petting induced aggression, which I could manage (I knew the signs), but he took out many of my friends, and he would urinate and defecate all around the house. I truly do believe that all of these problems were due to his being taken away from mum way too early. I don't regret adopting him, he was in a bad place, but until the day he died (at 13), these issues never resolved.
Kittens are kittens for many months, letting yours stay with mum and siblings until 10-12 weeks ensures that you will get a well rounded kitten, but he will still be young enough to enjoy much more time as a kitten. It really is worth waiting the extra 4 or so weeks to avoid a possible lifetime of behavioural problems.

This is rules in Sweden
Kittens
As long as the kittens need milk and nursing from their mother, they must not be separated from her other than temporarily. The kittens should not be separated from their mother permanently until they are at least 12 weeks old. The kittens may not leave the breeder until at least 12 weeks of age.
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A minute for Maya‏

Maya's is a story of unbearable suffering and agony. But it is also a story that encourages me to keep going and continue my
It’s been two years since our team of undercover investigators first travelled to China. We went to expose the cruelty of the country’s dog and cat meat trade. mission on behalf of animals.

We didn’t know what to expect… And what we witnessed was beyond our imagination. To this date, it is still a haunting memory.

I remember seeing dogs and cats trapped in small metal cages on the back of a truck, ready to be transported to slaughterhouses. The animals were covered in dirt. Living amongst their own excrements and the excrements of their cage mates.

And I remember seeing Maya...

She caught my attention. I could feel her staring at me. The terror in her eyes spoke to me. It told me that she had experienced things that neither you nor I could ever imagine.
Maya wasn’t alone in the cage. She had six tiny kittens with her. The little ones must have been born in the cage. I guess they were just a couple of hours old.
As I moved closer, I realized that three of her babies were already dead - crushed to death by the metal bars of the transport boxes. Many of the animals inside the cages break their bones when being brutally unloaded from the trucks to be brought to the slaughterhouse.

The newborn kittens must have died due to the impact of the fall.
Maya was meowing desperately. You could feel the pain of a mother who had just lost three of her children. It was truly heartbreaking.

All I could do was film what I saw so that as many people as possible could witness the fate of these animals and speak out against this abuse.

M, all the tears, effort and commitment we’ve put into this investigation were worth it: A total of 33 stalls that sold dogs and cats on a market as well as a dog slaughterhouse were closed by Chinese authorities after Animal Equality‘s investigation.

In these facilities 1.5 million dogs and cats were sold each year to be brutally slaughtered. 1.5 million animals have since escaped this gruesome fate, because of our work.

But this is only the first step. Cats and dogs are still dying and I want to do all I can to stop it.

Together with my fellow investigators I will return to China very soon. Once again, we will infiltrate the dog and cat meat trade to shed light on this cruel industry and speak out for the animals that so desperately need our help.

I know it’s going to be tough returning to China. But we do this for Maya. For her babies. And for all the animals suffering in breeding facilities and slaughterhouses all over the world.


Sharon Nunez
Animal Equality
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A total of 33 stalls belonging to the ‘Three Birds of Dali Markets’ and a dog slaughterhouse, situated in Nanhai – Foshan (Guangdong Province), have been closed by Chinese authorities, following Animal Equality‘s latest investigation.
Chinese animal advocates from the organization Volunteer Centre of Guanzhou, used the footage obtained by Animal Equality -which highlighted the illegal and cruel trade in such establishments- to report the illegal trade to the authorities.

Footage obtained by Animal Equality investigators has been used by Chinese animal advocates from the organization Volunteer Centre of Guanzhou to report the illegal trade to the authorities. Non of the stalls had official or legal certificates for the dogs and cats, as most of the animals are pulled away from their homes and families to then be sold and slaughtered for their meat. During the raid, police have seized more than 600 dogs and cats.
Nanhai authorities have also shut down an illegal dog slaughterhouse located close to the markets. The slaughterhouse was used to provide dog meat to the local restaurants. Police found over a hundred dogs which were wounded and dehydrated, several of them were already dead.

The breeding, trade and killing of dogs and cats for food is not explicitly prohibited in China yet. The sentence which closed these establishments was based primarily on a health and food security issue, as the stall and slaughterhouse owners did not have valid vaccine certificates for each animal.
Until the Chinese government prohibits the dog and cat meat trade in the country, we are still able to help these animals and close down the markets, restaurants and slaughterhouses which sell dog and cat meat, by using these laws against these business, as the majority don’t comply with the law.
http://voicelessfriends.org/blog/victory-one-dog-slaughterhouses-and-33-markets-shutdown/
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There is a petition in the link against the cruel food and fur market.

Here is another petition from Animals Asia to stop Yulin Dog Meat Festival
http://itsnofestival.animalsasia.org/
Just one signature can make a difference in helping save the lives of these dogs. Choose to help. Please sign our letter and tell those you know to do the same. - See more at: http://itsnofestival.animalsasia.org/#sthash.1GNma5tt.dpuf
 
China’s meat dog farms are a myth – most are poisoned and stolen from rural homes

A four-year investigation into the dog meat industry, published today by Animals Asia, has uncovered no evidence of any large-scale breeding facilities in the country, supporting long-standing claims that the vast majority of so-called “meat dogs” are in fact stolen companion animals and strays.

The dogs farms located and visited were found to be farming dogs on a very small scale nowhere near large enough to supply the country’s appetite for dog meat.
Media reports estimate up to 10 million dogs are slaughtered annually for meat in China, yet not a single farm visited during our investigation showed evidence of large-scale breeding facilities, where 100-plus dogs were bred and raised.
Animals Asia founder and CEO, Jill Robinson MBE said:
“Our investigations strongly point to what everybody familiar with the industry has long suspected – that the vast majority of China’s dog meat comes from stolen companion animals and that misinformation and illegality is rife at every stage of the industry supply chain.”
In Jiaxiang County, Shandong, considered one of the country’s most active dog-raising areas, investigators found scant evidence of industrial-scale dog breeding for consumption.

While more than 100 dog farms listed online gave the impression of a thriving industry, in reality many alleged dog farms were actually the same entity with different titles, while none had more than 30 adult dogs on site.


An anonymous worker at Fankuai Dog Meat Products told investigators:
“There were large breeding farms, but not any more, they couldn’t carry on. We also had one of our own before, but we found that the bigger it grew, the more diseases the dogs had, plus the costs were very high. The price of raising the dogs is higher than the market price of dog meat.

The report has added yet more weight to the belief that dogs cannot be cost-effectively farmed on a mass scale due to the high cost of a meat-rich diet, their highly territorial nature which makes them inclined to fight in confined groups, and the risk of diseases such as rabies.
In 2014, Xia Zhaofei, head of Clinical Medicine at the China Agricultural University in Beijing said:
“Our technology now can realise dog farming, but it entails considerable high technology, and it’s especially difficult, and once something goes wrong, it causes a large number of deaths. Meat from dogs raised on a farm would be expensive at around 100 RMB per jin [1 jin =0.5kg] if everything goes well."
Between 2011 and 2014, the price of dog meat has fluctuated between 6.5 and 23 RMB per 0.5kg.
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[video=youtube;htwzQ8xBOMc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htwzQ8xBOMc[/video]
I guess it wasn´t difficult to persuade this farmer from giving up the dog meat farm, it wasn´t profitable
The dog meat farm reminds me of puppy mills we have in the western world

I understand there are no cat meat farms, they are stolen pets too or stray cats.

The evidence and testimonies collected suggest that China’s dog meat doesn’t come from industrial scale farms with vaccinations and hygiene standards as required by law, simply because it is not cost-effective.
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It´s not forbidden to eat dog meat- or cat-but animal activists can use existing laws to stop it

Amazing women in China fighting dog meat industry & saving them!
[video=youtube;rP4ywey_EK4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP4ywey_EK4[/video]
I don´t see any cats rescued but it says she has rescued cats too

In the spring of 2013, Animals Asia investigated the circumstances of dogs living in rural areas of major Chinese cities and the severe threats they faced. A total of 1,468 responses from 771 villages in 28 provinces, autonomous prefectures and municipalities were collected.
An astonishing 70% of villages surveyed claimed to have suffered mysterious dog losses, 75.9% of which were believed to have been stolen to supply the dog meat industry.
Further evidence certainly supports the claim with 73.6% of dog disappearances occurring during winter, showing a correlating spike between traditional annual demand for dog meat and companion animal thefts.
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The newspaper cuttings reveal a history of serious animal cruelty being practiced by dog thieves who snatch victims using wire lassos, cyanide tainted bait and crossbows fitted with poison darts.
The violence inflicted upon animals often crosses over to bodily harm on villagers as 3.5% of the villages polled in Animals Asia’s investigation claim to have suffered brutal attacks at the hands of dog thieves during abductions.
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People are killed for protecting their pets, you can read about it in the reports in the link and why people become dog thieves.
You have probably guessed it´s all about money

https://www.animalsasia.org/intl/media/news/news-archive/chinese-dog-meat-trade-uncovered.html
 
How can we help cats and dogs in Asia?
If you live there you can be an activist, adopt cats and dogs.
Rescued cats and dogs need volunteers to care for them

We can support organisations who works to help the animals
It´s not forbidden to eat the meat so they focuses on that the meat isn´t good for human health


The Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA)- Promoting the protection of dogs and human health

An alliance has been formed in South East Asia comprising the Soi Dog Foundation, the Humane Society International, Animals Asia and Change for Animals Foundation. The alliance has been named the Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA). The primary objective of this organisation is to work together to stop the cruel and illegal trafficking of live dogs from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam, where they are slaughtered and eaten by humans.

Who Is ACPA?

The Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA) is an international alliance of animal protection organisations committed to improving the welfare of dogs in the region by ending the illegal trade in dogs for human consumption- a trade which represents both a severe and prevalent animal welfare concern in the region, and a risk to human health by facilitating the transmission of rabies and other diseases, such as cholera and trichinellosis.

In Vietnam, approximately 5 million dogs are slaughtered each year for human consumption. Many of these dogs are sourced from Thailand, Laos and Cambodia to ensure supply meets demand in the restaurant trade in Vietnam. The dogs are stolen from the streets, packed tightly into small cages, and transported overland for days without food and water. Numerous reports have documented the severe cruelty inherent in all stages of the dog meat trade; sourcing, transportation, sale and slaughter.

ACPA is determined to stop the trade in order to improve animal welfare in the region, and to stop the unnecessary suffering of man's best friend. This goal can be further justified on health grounds, as the unlicensed movement and human consumption of dogs in the region promotes the transmission of rabies and other diseases, such as cholera and trichinellosis. Given the governments of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam have made a joint commitment to eradicate rabies in their countries by 2020, ACPA's initiative can clearly help them in part to achieve this.

The Issue: The Illegal Trade in Dogs for Human Consumption
Whilst dog meat is consumed in several regions of the world, including parts of Europe, Russia, Africa and Latin America, the availability of dog meat is most widespread in Asia, where the welfare concern is greatest due to the large numbers of dogs being taken from the street or sourced from farms, transported long distances and inhumanely slaughtered, to provide for the demand for dog meat.

After being sourced from the streets, either through catching roaming dogs or by stealing pets, the dogs are transported long distances, often lasting for days, tightly packed into small cages with no food, water or rest. Many die from suffocation, dehydration or heatstroke long before they reach their final destination.

For those who survive, the grueling journey ends at a slaughterhouse, market or restaurant. The method by which dogs are slaughtered varies between countries, provinces, slaughterhouses and restaurants, but hanging, beating, and bleeding out from a cut to the throat or groin are all common ways of killing millions of dogs every year, often in full view of other dogs. There is a common misperception in the region that the more adrenalin running through a dog when it is killed, the tastier and more tender the meat will be.

The Dog Meat Trade – A Human Health Risk?

Whereas dogs used to often be eaten for reasons of poverty, increasingly dog meat has become a delicacy, and often consumed for its perceived medicinal properties. However, there is a growing body of evidence highlighting the significant risk the trade, slaughter and consumption of dogs pose to human health. For example, the trade in dogs for meat has been linked to outbreaks of trichinellosis, cholera and rabies, and slaughtering, butchering, and even consuming dogs increases people’s exposure to these diseases.

Over recent years in Vietnam, for example, there has been a number of large-scale cholera outbreaks directly linked to the dog meat trade. This has led to warnings from both the Central Bureau of Preventative Health and the World Health Organization (WHO) that the movement of dogs and consumption of dog meat facilitated the spread of the bacteria that causes cholera (Vibrio cholerae), with the WHO stating that eating dog meat was linked to a twenty-fold increase in the risk of contracting the disease.

What role does the dog meat trade have in spreading rabies?

Rabies is a viral disease spread from animals (usually dogs) to humans, which is nearly always fatal. It represents a serious public health and animal welfare problem around the world, but is most commonly found in Asia, where an estimated 39,000 people die of rabies every year.

With rabies remaining endemic in most countries in the region, many of the dogs traded for human consumption are likely to be infected with the disease. The national and international transportation of dogs used for human consumption means that infections are easily spread. Even in places such as Thailand where dog meat is rarely consumed, the demand for the meat in neighbouring countries provides an economic incentive for traders to transport dogs between provinces. In this way, the unregulated movement of dogs is likely to impede local efforts to eliminate rabies.

The presence of the rabies virus in dogs destined for human consumption has been revealed in studies carried out in slaughterhouses and markets within China, Vietnam and Indonesia; and the risk posed by the dog meat industry to human health is similarly reflected by the reported transmission of rabies to those involved in dog slaughter, butchery and consumption in the Philippines, China and Vietnam.

However, this information isn’t new – throughout Asia where the trade in dogs for meat occurs, it fails to comply with national animal disease prevention measures, and is in breach of rabies control and elimination recommendations by key human and animal health advisory organisations such as the World Health Organisation and the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and the dog meat trade has specifically been cited as a contributing factor to recent rabies outbreaks in both China and Indonesia within various studies and by the World Health Organisation.

What is ACPA doing to end the illegal trade in dogs?

The dog meat trade is a highly contentious and emotive issue in most countries where it is popular, and as a result of mounting national and international concerns for animal welfare, rapidly increasing pet ownership in Asia, and a greater awareness of the human health risks associated with this industry, the opposition towards the production and consumption of dog meat has become increasingly vocal.

However, at present, insufficient resources are allocated to enforce existing disease control regulations. This results in the continuation of an industry that causes a significant cost to human health and the suffering of millions of dogs every year.

ACPA is committed to ending the illegal dog meat trade, and we will do this by ending the supply of dogs and demand for dog meat, by:
• Working with and supporting the governments and local authorities of Thailand, Laos and Vietnam to enforce existing regulations, so as to help ensure these countries’ fulfill their pledge to eliminate rabies by 2020.
• Highlighting the human health risks associated with the trade in and slaughtering, butchery and consumption of dogs;
• Providing humane and sustainable dog population management solutions;
• Promoting responsible pet ownership; and
• Encouraging a compassionate attitude towards dogs by highlighting the positive roles they play in society.
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I posted a youtube video with a female activists in an earlier post, here´s her organisations facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DuYufengBoAiCentre

The dog was probably the little girls best friend, the photo of her crying over her dead friend went viral on Vietnamese social media
http://www.thanhniennews.com/societ...up-dog-meat-debate-on-social-media-39873.html
 
12 Cat Thieves Arrested in Dailan, China
Posted on December 22, 2014 by Andrea Gung

We have some good news. Since December 6th, animal activists in Dalian, China have been investigating cat thieves who abduct pets and strays and ship them to Guangdong and Guangxi provinces, the only two places in China where both dogs and cats are consumed.

Finally on December 18 at 4:30 am, about 40 activists came with local authorities to the cat holding facility and more than 1,000 cats were rescued. The leader of the rescue team has worked 50 hours straight. 11 out of the 12 cat thieves were arrested on theft charges and one escaped. One of the thieves confessed that they targeted Dalian because they heard that in that city, locals fed the feral cats and so the cats were in good health.

If we can put pressure on Guangdong (Canton) province, we can stop the brutalization of millions of cats and dogs that are taken for their meat. We believe that our “End the Dog and Cat Meat Trade in Guangdong” campaign is an effective way to reach that historic goal.

http://duoduoproject.org/blog/2014/12/12-cat-thieves-arrested-dailan-china/
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I know I´ve read about Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA) offered to help with the cats and that they were worried that the cats had been buried alive.

Le Duc Chinh, who investigated for the Asia Canine Protection Alliance (ACPA), said officials told him the cats had to be destroyed in case they spread disease. Mr Chinh said a waste treatment company was hired, and they used a truck to crush the cats before burying them in a special area, watched by police. He denied claims that some of the cats were buried alive.
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John Dalley works for Thailand-based Soi Dog Foundation, which led attempts to save the lives of the cats. He told the Daily Mail: "This is a particularly distressing case, not least because a number of organisations including ourselves offered to help.

"The fact that police intercepted the cats which were bound for restaurants and slaughterhouses is commendable, but what followed is not acceptable in any civilised country."
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http://www.esdaw.eu/dog--cat-meat---vietnam.html

Good things happens too
Cat Snatch Gang Rumbled By Pet Owners

Hundreds of cat owners are reunited with their pets after they help police catch a gang suspected of animal trafficking.

More than 1,000 stolen cats have been freed in northeast China after local police arrested a group suspected of stealing the cats and planning to sell their fur and meat.

Police in Liaoning Province said the cats - both wild and domestic - are thought to have been stolen by six people from other provinces who intended to traffic the animals to other places as food and clothing materials.

The suspected traffickers, who arrived in Dalian City at the beginning of the month, are said to have been searching the city for cats every night before being noticed by a group of pet lovers who share their pet raising experiences online.

With the help of the pet lovers, police located a cat den in a village and arrested six suspects.

More than 300 of the cats have so far been collected by their owners.

http://news.sky.com/story/1397559/cat-snatch-gang-rumbled-by-pet-owners
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A reporter asked me today about the differences between a No Kill shelter and an "open admission" shelter. Underlying the question was the false excuse used by regressive directors that a shelter can never be both No Kill AND open admission.
This is what I told her:

A No Kill shelter can be public or private, run by a humane society or by a municipal government.
While some have claimed that a No Kill shelter can’t have an open admission policy, this is false.
A No Kill shelter can be either “limited admission” or “open admission.”
And there are plenty of No Kill animal control shelters and thus No Kill communities to prove it.
By contrast, an “open admission” shelter does not have to, and should not, be an open door to the killing of animals.
In fact, using the term “open admission” for killing shelters is misleading as they are CLOSED to people who love animals.
They are CLOSED to people who might have lost their job or lost their home but do not want their animals to die.
They are CLOSED to Good Samaritans who find animals but do not want them killed.
They are CLOSED to animal lovers who want to help save lives but will not be silent in the face of needless killing. And so they turn these people and their animals away.
It doesn't have to be this way.
America is a nation of animal lovers, and our citizens, as well as the animals they love, deserve a shelter that reflects their compassionate values.
We now have a solution to shelter killing and it is not difficult, expensive nor beyond practical means to achieve.
No Kill is a humane, sustainable, cost-effective model that works hand in hand with public health and safety, while fulfilling a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers.
For shelters wanting to embrace life, the No Kill Advocacy Center has free guides to help them: http://goo.gl/C43MvJ
For those that don't, we have free guides for activists to force them to: http://goo.gl/aSRzWO
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https://www.facebook.com/nathanwinograd
 
Re: to catlovers

Reports from Bo Ai Animal Protection Centre Of Guangyuan
Yulin 2015
Our founder Du Yufeng has been left bruised after she was robbed of her money, taken to the markets to buy (rescue) dogs.
An angry mob of dog meat supporters intimidated her and our young volunteer Yang, taunting them.
In Yulin there are dog meat supporters everywhere and they don't like activists who try to stop it. Du has been to Yulin Dog Meat Festival for 4 years now and each time she has been vocal about the cruelty involved and the risk to health from eating dog meat. Each time, Du has been harrassed and intimidated but it hasn't stopped her from going back, from trying to stop the festival.
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Our founder Du Yufeng always talks to the media so that news of the festival is spread far and wide, throughout China and the rest of the world. While most people on social media know about the festival, there are still so many who don't have Facebook, Twitter etc so the news is spread through newspapers and news reports on the TV. This is very important because the more people who know about the festival, the more pressure it puts on the Yulin government and China's dog (and cat) meat trade.
Du was interviewed in 3 previous documentaries about the festival and we have subtitled and shared them for you to see:-
http://tinyurl.com/o5bc2kk
http://tinyurl.com/p8yebfk
http://tinyurl.com/q4ergqdn 2015
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Yulin 2015.
Our founder Du Yufeng visited the markets where dogs are taken by traders to be sold to butchers. The traders know that activists like Du will try to buy (rescue) the dogs and each year they have grown wise, upping their prices to the activists, knowing that they cannot afford to buy the dogs. Du was in this position when she tried to buy some dogs and the traders wanted more money than Du had on her. She was in the heartbreaking situation of seeing dogs suffering but unable to save them. Instead she shared her bottle of water with them to give them some comfort before their death. Dogs are transported sometimes for days and then they are left around in cages while traders haggle the price to buy them. In all this time they are given no food or water.
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We reported yesterday that our founder Du Yufeng had managed to rescue (buy) 4 dogs and a cat from Yulin Dog Meat Festival. Now we have more good news. Despite being robbed twice in 2 markets, as Du was getting ready to come home, she managed to negotiate with traders to buy more dogs and cats. In total against all the odds she rescued 15 dogs and 11 cats from slaughter.
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Here is the facebook page, maybe you want to like it

https://www.facebook.com/DuYufengBoAiCentre
 
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