Kapone disappeared on June 24, when he and the family’s other dog, Jersey, got out of their fenced yard. Neighbors witnessed both dogs being loaded onto an MAS truck. Over 3,000 IDA members sent emails complaining about MAS to Memphis city officials and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. Click here to read our news release about this from July 2011.

Well, Kapone is now back home for the holidays!

Kapone reunited with his family!

Our dear friend and animal advocate Beverly King learned that yet another dog had simply vanished without a trace of paperwork or documentation after being picked up by Memphis Animal Control. Beverly and associates alerted the media, and helped Kapone’s family push the city to prosecute Animal Control Officer Demetria Hogan for Kapone’s disappearance and the death of another dog Hogan left confined in the back of her city truck. Beverly alerted IDA and we offered a reward. PETA joined us, as did a private source, and the reward grew to $8,000.  A banner with the reward information and a photo of Kapone has hung prominently since his disappearance. Just days before Christmas, a tip that Kapone might have been seen in Senatobia, Mississippi broke the case, and, after investigation, Kapone was reunited with his family.

The case is not closed, but is solved, and very satisfying. Kapone is relishing his playtime with his family, while Hogan’s animal cruelty charges are surely to be added to a felony animal abduction charge.  We refuse to use the word theft – “theft” is what happens to property, and Kapone is nobody’s property. He is, however, back with his guardians. How awesome this is!  Oh, by the way, the tipster has asked for and received only $3,000 of the $8,000 reward.

Additional notes:

Jersey was reunited the day after she was picked up.  She was at MAS.

The cloth on Kapone’s neck is his bandana.

Hogan is charged with cruelty.  Theft, we don’t know yet.

As far as we can assume, Kapone could have been used for breeding, even at his age.  He was unneutered.  He was unharmed when found so he hadn’t fought.

To support our work please click here.

Kendall & Lily were rescued by IDA's Hope Animal Sanctuary.

It’s estimated that an unfathomable six to eight million dogs and cats enter shelters each year. Half of them, tragically, are euthanized. Most of us cannot even get our minds around the fact that three to four million cats and dogs are euthanized, every year, in the United States alone.

The biggest thing you can do to reverse this trend is to support spay and neuter efforts in your community. Find a good local program and donate your time to help. Become a messenger in your community for spay/neuter programs, by supporting them where they exist, or working to start them where they don’t. Convince your neighbors and elected representatives that funding spay/neuter is the most cost-effective way to help dogs and cats. Write letters to the editor supporting increased public funding for low-cost spay/neuter.

Next best thing you can do is adopt furry family members from shelters, rather than supporting pet stores and breeders. There is no good reason to ever choose a pet store or breeder when so many animals in shelters need homes.

A few important things to remember:

• Be certain you are ready to make a lifetime commitment to your new family member. If you’re a parent getting an animal mainly for your children, be sure you are willing to be the primary caregiver, as children often lose interest.

• Animals given as gifts are frequently unwanted and are returned. If you want to give an animal as a gift, first make sure the future guardian is ready to make the commitment. Give them a gift certificate for a shelter adoption, and then take them to the shelter to see who they bond with.

• About 25% of dogs and cats who enter shelters are “pure-bred,” so if you’re attached to a particular breed, odds are you can find them in a shelter. There are also a large number of breed specific rescues. But consider, instead, a mutt – if you’re looking for love and companionship, the breed is not very relevant.

• If you’re looking for smaller animals, most shelters also have rabbits, rats, guinea pigs and birds. But don’t presume that “small” equals easy to care for – learn the special needs of any species before bringing them into your home.

• Consider adopting an older cat or dog. Shelters have a harder time placing older dogs and cats and they are often the first to be euthanized. There are a great number of advantages with an older animal companion. They have generally already been trained and will be calmer. Black cats are also hard to place due to unreasonable superstition, and black dogs are often bypassed simply because it’s harder to see their facial features in a shelter setting. Tell shelter staff you’d like to meet the cat who has been there the longest, or the eldest dog. The shelter staff will love you!

• If you decide to adopt a dog please consider a vegan diet.  Dogs can be very healthy and thrive on a well-balanced vegan dog food.

• Be certain to spay or neuter the new addition to the family. Accidental breeding is one of the biggest reasons for the overpopulation problem.

Vegan was a sick and malnourished feral who was trapped by a shelter worker. After she was diagnosed with FeLV, and deemed unadoptable, the shelter worker (and current IDA staff member) decided to adopt her.

If you go about it the right way, the holidays can be a great time to add a new family member and to give him or her all of your love!

For more tips on how you can be a great guardian and help keep animals safe, please visit our Guardian Campaign.

To support our work please click here.

Work every day of your life to right what is wrong.

We all know that they love to get into everything they can (this is their job, after all), so be sure they don’t have access to the foods, beverages, cleaners, chemicals, and other products that will harm or possibly even kill them.

Please share the following list of poisonous foods and products with everyone in your household.

• Chocolate
• Xylitol (commonly found in gum, candy, baked goods, and toothpaste)
• Alcoholic beverages
• Hops
• Milk and other dairy products
• Coffee
• Tea
• Caffeine
• Apple seeds
• Peach pits
• Apricot pits
• Cherry pits
• Grapes
• Macadamia nuts
• Walnuts
• Mustard seeds
• Onions and onion powder
• Raisins
• Yeast dough
• Avocados
• Moldy foods
• Raw (or undercooked) meat, eggs, and bones
• Garlic
• Chives
• Mushroom plants
• Potato leaves and stems (green parts)
• Tomato leaves and stems (green parts)
• Rhubarb leaves
• Salt
• Tobacco
• Marijuana
• Eggplant
• Prescription and over the counter drugs
• Fat trimmings and bones
• Ham and other salty meats
• Liver (can cause vitamin A toxicity)
• Tuna (can lead to malnutrition or cause mercury poisoning)

Consult with your veterinarian or animal nutritionist before feeding your animal companions food not specifically intended for them.

Additionally, more than 700 plants have been found to be harmful to animals.  Please research all plants and flowers before bringing them into your home.

Many commercial animal companion foods contain reject meat from diseased animals that isn’t fit for human consumption, and it is believed that this is causing higher incidents of cancer in our animal companions.  If you want to keep the inedible slaughterhouse waste out of your dog’s diet, a vegan dog food might be the healthiest choice for your dog.  Regrettably, many of the leading food companies also test on animals, so please be sure to choose a food manufacturer that doesn’t.

For more tips on how you can be a great guardian and help keep animals safe, please visit our Guardian Campaign.

To support our work please click here.

Work every day of your life to right what is wrong.

Activists at last year's Fur Free Friday!

Last night the City Council of West Hollywood passed a historic ordinance unanimously prohibiting the sale of fur apparel products within the city!  This great success culminated after months of canvassing and rallies spearheaded by the Fur-Free West Hollywood Campaign made up of activists from In Defense of Animals, Last Chance for Animals, Animal Alliance, PETA, OCPA, ARME, APRL and many hard-working individuals, most notably Ellen Lavinthal, Ed Bucks, Shannon Keith and Bryan Monell. Several stores in West Hollywood had voluntarily removed fur items from their stores prior to the City Council’s actions.

In 1989, West Hollywood passed resolution number 558 proclaiming West Hollywood a “cruelty free zone for animals”.   Since that time West Hollywood has passed legislation banning the declawing of cats, prohibiting pet stores from selling puppy mill animals and resolutions banning cosmetic testing on animals and steel-jaw leg hold traps.  In February of 2001 they adopted IDA’s guardian language which substitutes the word “guardian” for “owner“ in all discourse.

West Hollywood is the first city in the United States banning the cruel commerce of fur.  It is a remarkable historic  victory.

Want to help animals killed for their fur in your city? Click here for some ideas on what you can do!

This year’s Fur Free Friday is right around the corner. Click here to see what activists from around the world did last year and start planning your own events soon… more details on that coming soon!

Due to the hard work and dedication of local animal advocate, Brandon Yanak, Ohio has its first Guardian Community. Not only did Brandon convince the Parma City Council to change their animal related ordinances, but he also convinced the Parma Animal Shelter, and the Middleburg Heights Animal Foundation to make the choice to use “guardian” instead of owner as well. See this great 30 second news clip from Tuesday’s victory here!

For more information on how you can make this happen in your city check out IDA’s Guardian Campaign.

One of the neglected dogs being rescued.

On Wednesday, June 29th, HAS volunteer Sarah Thomas, a vet tech, wildlife rehabilitator, and activist, and I set out to locate three horses in Grenada County, Miss., reported to be starving.  On our way, I got a call from my buddy Kevin Hodges, an animal control officer, water-meter reader, and part-time law enforcer for Charleston, Miss., only an hour from us, asking for help with six dogs also reported to be starving. Kevin knows he can count on our support and guardianship of animals we seize.

We located the first property where the horses were, but a privacy fence prevented “plain view” and an uncooperative sheriff meant the groundwork would have to be laid before there would be intervention.  I called Kevin to tell him that we were on our way to meet him. At 704 East Chestnut Street, Charleston resident Sherri White showed us six chained and horribly neglected dogs.  She claimed two to be hers and four to be those of her boyfriend’s relative.
After a visit to the police department, we prepared a seizure order, and crossed the street for Municipal Court Judge Steve Ross to sign. We returned, warrant in hand, and documented the heart-wrenching plight of the dogs and removed them. White protested the taking of her dogs and informed us the other “owner” refused to come when she called him. The chief and a fellow officer arrived to insure a smooth operation.

We immediately took off for Veterinary Associates, HAS’s vet clinic, to settle the dogs in and supervise as they dove into the nourishment they’d long been denied. White had stated she fed her dogs, but only fed the others if she had extra food. One of her dogs was as emaciated as the boyfriend’s relative’s dog to whom she was chained.  I listened in amazement as she told us she wouldn’t interfere when the other dog jumped her dog and would bite going for the morsel of food she gave her own dog.

The extraordinary density and inhumanity of seemingly conscious people is beyond my grasp. The gross neglect of the dogs has been recorded, they’ve been secured in a private kennel, and I’ll be filing criminal affidavits after meeting with the city attorney. Why can’t all community leaders have it so together like Charleston’s?

The plight of horses is worsening. Some blame the economy; others say banning horse slaughter in the U.S. meant “owners” who couldn’t sell their horses let them starve. I say it’s both selfishness and ignorance. Horses are being overbred just like other companion animals. Those who think they can make a buck breed and then find out there are no buyers, at least at the prices they want, and they don’t want to feed what they can’t make money off of and certainly don’t want to give away what they might someday sell. The glut of horses means you can buy a horse for $50, or get one from someone who wants to “unload.”  It’s cool to have a horse and to tell folks you have a horse. Horses are like “trophy brides”: they express status, and, of course, there are some who actually think they’ll ride. The question is how many of these people are caught up in a whim with no thought of how to actually care for horses.

Three weeks ago, I traveled to Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, to look at three horses, two on one property, and another nearby.  The mailbox to one of the properties was open so I couldn’t see the house number. As the numbers weren’t in a cohesive sequence, I’d passed the property by a mile and spotted two other horses at residences along the road. The majestic but thin black horse was chained in the back yard, without water. A neighbor had three horses, one who looked pretty good, one a bit slight, and one clearly needing attention. I left cards as no one was home, took pictures and video, and headed back to where I’d spotted emaciated pit bulls.

From the western direction I could now see a horse behind the mobile home. A young man was working on a truck in the yard and I got out and spoke with him.  He was working on the resident’s truck, who was at work. I gave him my card, told him the dogs seriously need to gain weight, and to ask the man to call me. I told him I wasn’t going to take pictures as I entered the property to speak with him and that I’d take the matter up with the resident.  At that point I could see the horse was tethered to a stake that was in the center of a pile of debris, metal, junk, you name it.  The horse couldn’t raise his head and he was severely malnourished. No water. The young man untangled him and untied the tether and moved the horse under a tree to which he tethered the horse. He got the horse some water and I thanked him, but told him the condition of the horse was grave and asked that he make certain the man understood to call me.

By the time I’d gone to look at the other two horses I’d heard about, I found nine horses in substandard to horrific conditions. The deputy I normally request aid from was in court but when I reached the sheriff’s office my deputy friend was there. He and another deputy listened to me relay the plight of the horse, and my friend jotted down the addresses of the horses and said he’d checked on a couple of them before. He also said he’d catch up with the “owners,” clearly not guardians of the horses, and advise them that IDA would be gaining custody if they didn’t care for them. A naïve stance at best.  How do you just tell someone to do what he clearly doesn’t know how to do, or care enough to do?  There are some animals a person can be given time to make provisions for, but not a delicate horse who’s already at the brink of no return.

I was just sick, but I knew the kindly deputy saw things his way and would have to see for himself. My urging immediate action was of no avail.

The deputy told me he’d tell the people I’d be back in two to three weeks. I was, and three of the nine horses had disappeared—the horribly pitiful horse among them. A woman in the yard said the “owner” had come to get him. I told her the man to whom I spoke who was in the yard said her husband was the “owner.” Finding the horse may be impossible, but the dogs are there, and I gave her advice on their care and two weeks to improve their condition.

The majestic black horse was in pasture now, and I had the blessing of giving his guardian a ride to pick up a lawn mower part down the road. We talked about his horse, and he assured me that he loved him and wouldn’t chain him anymore. He said he did it to let the horse eat some of the grass he’d been unable to cut without the mower part. We parted friends, and I told him I’d keep him to his word and check back.

I will be following up with my deputy to see what he can learn as to the disappearance of the three horses and ask for his aid in pressuring seizure or compliance on the other horses.

Yesterday I went on my own to see about a horse reported to be starving. The caller said two other horses had already died in the small pasture. This horse was also in Tallahatchie County. I found the horse and she was thin. A quick stop at a neighboring residence, and I learned the uncle of the man failing the horse lived just across the road.

Four big dogs greeted me. One wasn’t sure this stranger should come around, one smothered me in nail-gripping affection, and the other two were content to run beside me. I heard a whistle from the edge of the woods and saw two men approaching. They were imbibing in liquid libation. The men were polite, but the elder man, the uncle to the man I was looking for, clearly would have preferred to meet me under different circumstances. This man didn’t know I was informed that one of the horses who died was his. To be certain he covered himself, he told me he’d told his nephew to care for the horse and had told him he didn’t want to have “nothing” to do with horses anymore. I told him the horse was starving, and he needed to let his nephew know it would be better to speak with me than law enforcement. In less than an hour I got the call.

The younger man started with, “My uncle said I should call you.”  I told him his horse was malnourished and I new another horse had just been buried. He said, “I don’t know what’s wrong with that horse.” The conversation was pat, like a script from so many cases. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with the horse—she’s starving,” I responded. “Well I don’t know what to feed her. Everybody keeps telling me something different to feed,” he said defensively. “Something would have been better than nothing,” I retorted.  “Well, what should I do.” “You’ve got two choices. You can grain her twice a day and provide quality hay, or you can surrender her to us. We don’t make any money off the horses we rescue.  We care for them until they can be placed with people who will care for them,” I concluded.  He already knew there was the threat of arrest. I wanted a “free will” surrender without the implication of threats. “Well then, just come and get her, “ he said.  And I did.

This morning I spoke with the Roger and Peggy Brister. Roger keeps our large horse trailer at his home until our pasture entry is widened, and he just put new tires on our double horse trailer.  He had a job to do, I had errands I needed to tend to, and as Elizabeth and I finished unloading supplies the Bristers drove up.

When we arrived at the pasture site we had to park on the small side road. The pasture was at the slope of a levy without any space for parking. We parked in front of a hedged yard where four women and a child sat enjoining the day on the porch. I called to the women to tell them we’d be parked for a brief time. We’d just come to remove the horse. I knew they were aware of the horse I spoke of.

Roger and Peggy found the opening in the fence where the wooded area met the back corner of the pasture. The horse was wearing a halter and came right to us. Roger clipped the lead rope on and led the gentle, trusting horse out of the opening. She hit the grass like a midnight raid on chocolate. Roger let her have a moment and then moved her along. She stooped to grab a mouthful of grass as she ground the green blades and swallowed them.

I might as well say I named the horse Glory yesterday. She’s such a glorious testimony to the profound innocence of an animal who has been abused and is still so trusting of us.

Glory climbed right into the back of the trailer and the entire rescue was swift and sweet.

One of the women on the porch raised her voice above the wind and asked if we were bringing the horse back. I pretended not to hear her so I could approach her for a genuine conversation about what was taking place. She repeated her question, and I told her, no, we wouldn’t be bringing the horse back. I went on to say the horse was starving, and we would take her to our sanctuary for care. Before I could say I knew another horse had recently died the women chimed in, each letting me know that two horses had died and it was just terrible. They said how much they wished we could have learned about the horses before they died and went on about how no one should keep an animal he or she isn’t going to care for. We had a moment of camaraderie; each of us expressing our beliefs about caring for animals and answering for not doing so.  The occasion would be indelibly marked. These women would tell the story of how the people from the animal place came to save the horse. The fact that law enforcement didn’t come allowed them an atmosphere free from intimidation and leveled the interaction to one of communion with kindred spirits and not law enforcers. I believe word of this event will be more powerful than a news article about just another person who was convicted of something. This was a concrete moment in a community of people who see, listen, and tell.

We arrived home with Glory and, as we pulled into our larger pasture, Everett and Buttercup approached to see who was in the trailer. Within minutes Glory was standing in the midst of horses, people, and our canine grazers, everyone curious to meet her and very excited about a new friend. Elizabeth began to examine her and was shocked when great wads of hair came loose from her back. Glory is thin and has some rain rot issues, but she will prosper and her Glory Days are just beginning.

There were 68 of us at the BarkWorks pet store in Thousand Oaks on Saturday, February 13. We marched back and forth directly in front of the store, inside the mall. BarkWorks has six of the 100 stores in Los Angeles that sell dogs and cats from puppy mills.

IDA, the Companion Animal Protection Society and other groups in Los Angeles are working on legislation with local officials to ban this inhumane animal commerce. This legislation would require that pet stores only show animals from the city’s six animal shelters and rescue organizations, not puppy mills.

During the march a woman approached me and told me about a friend of hers who had purchased a dog from BarkWorks. Shortly thereafter the puppy became ill. She wouldn’t return the dog to the store because by then she had falling in love with the puppy.  So she paid out $4,500.00 to save the puppy’s life. Of course, most puppies in the same situation would not have had such wonderful (and able) guardians to pay for their treatment.

If you live in (or are visiting) Southern California and would like to help with pet store demos, please e-mail Bill Dyer: bill@idausa.org.

On Thursday, November 18, Hope Animal Sanctuary Director Doll Stanley responded to a plea for help from Theresa, a Wyatt, Mississippi resident. Theresa was seeking help for an 86 year old neighbor, John, who had several momma dogs and litters of puppies. John lives in the rusted-out shell of an old school bus and is barely able to take care of himself, let alone his ever-expanding pack of dogs, so experienced help was desperately needed.

Doll met Theresa and her son at John’s property that afternoon. Theresa and her son had been helping to feed and care for both the dogs and John. They gave Doll the lay of the property and filled her in on the personality traits of each dog and pup. As this was happening, John arrived. He said he was happy for the help, but didn’t believe in spaying/neutering animals – that it was “unnatural.” Clearly in over his head because of this belief, he relented after speaking with Doll and agreed to let us spay/neuter all the adults and take all the pups for adoption.

Doll left with ten puppies initially and went back a few days later for another litter of three. All of these puppies will be altered by Mississippi State University’s mobile vet team in the coming weeks, then transported to our adoption partners, Every Creature Counts, in Denver for adoption.

This is Nicholas - One of Eric's new friends!

I spent nearly the entire month of October in Mississippi filling in for Doll at Hope Animal Sanctuary (HAS). Doll was on much deserved and much needed vacation and they needed an extra pair of hands, so I offered to help. This was not my first time at the Sanctuary, I’ve been down several times and spent almost three months there at the end of 2007.

I was grateful on this trip to be joined by my nephew, Zach, who helped me immensely with the day-to-day operations and afforded me the ability to give the three employees, William, Lisa and Elizabeth, some much needed extra time off. I was impressed with the efforts of this team and I admire very much the work they do for animals, both in and out of the Sanctuary.

To me, there is no better way to remind yourself of what truly matters than working hands-on with animals. Animals who in most instances are coming from situations of abuse, neglect and violence that most of us cannot imagine. Had a rough day at the office? At least no one dumped you and your siblings along 70 mile per hour Interstate 55, like what happened to a group of weeks-old puppies who were recently through the Sanctuary – all had been hit by cars and despite receiving immediate medical care, none survived their injuries. Or Nicholas, a dog I took in while I was there. Nicholas had finally broken through the collar that chained him likely in someone’s backyard. More a lawn ornament than and living, breathing, feeling animal, Nicholas’ collar had become partially embedded in his neck, undoubtedly bringing him agony for only he knows how long.

These are just a couple of recent stories from Hope Animal Sanctuary. Sadly, not every story is a victory, but had HAS not been there to ease the suffering of animals who would ultimately succumbed to their injuries, they would have had to suffer for much longer. And had HAS not been there to rescue the ones who survived and thrived, they never would have gotten out of their hopeless situations.