Why do we need to advocate for the humane treatment of dogs?

[Evo]

What good are the late-night commercials claiming to "sponsor" an abused animal?

The ASPCA commercials? Yes, the ASPCA is good, although I have have a few local shelters I give to, I have worked with the ASPCA and they are wonderful and I plan to start donating to them.

Veterinarians donate their services to the ASPCA and they helped me with a capture, spay and neuter program for all of the feral cats when I lived at the pit of doom. ( I lived in the country surrounded by farms) They were excellent and really risked themselves with those feral cats. I just trapped them and brought them in, they wrangled with those wild cats, so careful not to hurt them, and then after they were fixed, I would pick them up, feed and observe them for a couple of days (in their cages) then release them.

 

[turbo]

I won't send money to them. My wife and I contribute generously to the local Humane Society shelter. We don't give food, bedding, etc. We give money, because the shelter's needs change constantly. Do they need disinfectant, detergent, food for dogs or cats, etc? We have no way of knowing for sure, so we just give money and trust that they will use it wisely.

BTW, this is how we ended up with Duke. My wife went to the shelter with a co-worker to donate money, and she convinced my wife to "audition" the dogs to see if we would take one home. My wife fell in love with Duke and came home and made it impossible for me to NOT meet her at the shelter the next day and meet him. Game over.

 

[turbo]

In the past, when my wife saw bargains on food, cleaning supplies, etc, she would snap them up and one of us would visit the shelter and donate those. After getting a better understanding of the way their needs change, we have settled on just giving them money. We could show up with 100# of dog food, but what if they really needed laundry detergent and bleach? Now we just give money unless it's something out-of-the-ordinary. For instance, when my wife decided that Duke and Max (our neighbors' dog) deserved to have only home-made healthy treats, we rounded up all the commercial treats, dog biscuits, etc that we had and I dropped those off at the shelter along with a check.

If we got a killer deal on pet-food that was just too good to pass up, we'd still snap it up and donate that, but you don't get killer deals on bleach, disinfectant, detergent, etc, that the shelters need day after day. Sales, yes, but I hope that the Humane Society has some friends in the retail-sales market that will give them discounts for necessities.