“Wildlife conservation is a complex issue. We need to
work together.” ~ David Mizejewski
infusion into the pet’s testicles causes them to atrophy. It’s less invasive, with a lower chance of infection and less pain, and reduces testosterone. For feral cat populations where traps haven’t worked, megestrol acetate, derived from progesterone, added to food acts as birth control to slow or stop colony growth.” Treatment of laboratory animals has
also improved. “There have been three significant changes since 1984,” says
animal life overall has become so imbalanced as to signal a tipping point for Earth. Extreme care for the rapidly growing population of a relative hand- ful of pet breeds stands in stark contrast to trending extinction of dozens of other species. Fortunately, in addition to the efforts of dedicated volunteers, conservationists and supportive law- makers, every one of us can make a real difference.
MISSION: ANIMAL RESCUE E
Big and Small, They Need Our Help by Sandra Murphy
very creature in the animal king- dom has an essential purpose, yet through human interference,
Home Pet Rescues Zack Skow started by volunteering with a nearby dog rescue organization. He became director, and then in 2009 founded his own nonprofit, Marley’s Mutts (
MarleysMutts.org), in Tehacha- pi, California, pulling many kinds of dogs out of Los Angeles shelters. “A lot of rescues are breed-specific; I think mutts deserve an equal chance,” says Skow, now the executive director. “Small dogs get adopted faster, so we
16 Austin Edition
get the larger mixes, including pit bulls and Rottweilers.” Currently, the facility continues to expand its services, working with pet foster homes; providing medical care for severely abused animals in need of rehabilitation and socialization; and managing visits to prisons, men- tal health facilities and schools. “We take in who we can help. To see a dog triumph over tremendous odds gives people hope,” says Skow. Recently, volunteers pulled 70 dogs from Los Angeles shelters, fostered them for a month and then transported them east to adoption facilities where conditions were less crowded. Spay/neuter is the best solu-
tion to pet overpopulation, says Ruth Steinberger, national founder of Spay First, headquartered in Oklahoma City (
SpayFirst.org). From 20 years of expe- rience, she explains that in locations and situations in which surgery is impractical, “We’ve had great re- sults using calcium chloride in ethyl alcohol, done under sedation. A slow
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She reports that animals now are subject to only one experiment, retired for adoption instead of being eutha- nized, and furnished with natural liv- ing conditions on-site—vertical space, an enriched environment with mental and physical stimulation, interaction with other animals and appropriate food and bedding. “Most lab animals are rats and mice,” says Liss. “Any ani- mal has the capacity to suffer. It’s up to us to treat them humanely.”
Farm Animal Stewardship “Animals become ambassadors,” says Gene Baur, president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary’s three locations in New York’s Finger Lakes region, Los Angeles and northern California (
FarmSanctuary.org) and author of Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds About Animals and Food. “Peo-
Cathy Liss, president of the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute, in Washington, D.C., founded in 1951 (
awionline.org). “General housing conditions are better, the number of government-owned chim- panzees has decreased and laboratories no longer obtain dogs and cats from random sources, so no stolen pets end up in labs.”
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