Animal Cruelty

Guest blog by ASPCA President & CEO Matt Bershadker

This Black Friday, skip the lines and crowds at the mall to meet your new furry best friend instead at the ASPCA’s Fourth Annual Cat Friday! On Friday, November 28, from 11:00 A.M. to 7:00 P.M., the ASPCA Adoption Center will be offering very special discounts on cat adoption fees that you won’t want to miss.

This Thanksgiving, we have exciting news for shelter pets: the ASPCA has teamed up with Freekibble.com to provide 10,000 meals of Halo Spot’s Stew for animals in one lucky shelter this holiday season.

In 2011, a group of 20 cats came to the ASPCA from our local city shelter, Animal Care & Control of NYC (AC&C). Within three months, 19 of those cats had been adopted—but one kitty named Basha was struggling to find a home. A black-and-white, 1.5-year-old “teenager,” Basha was feisty and had a tendency to snap without provocation. We thought she would find a home soon enough, but nearly four years in our care proved that wasn’t the case. Though it was a long road, Basha finally found her forever home with an ASPCA staffer named Kelelyn.

When pets swallow strange objects, the resulting effects can be fatal. Known as “foreign bodies” in veterinary circles, these inedible objects can cause gastrointestinal obstructions or perforate the digestive tract if consumed by pets.

The ASPCA medical team performs surgeries to extract foreign bodies from the stomachs and intestines of canines and felines on an almost daily basis, and one recent patient was a one-year-old pit bull named Frost.

The ASPCA’s Field Investigations and Response Team (FIR) hit the road in the Lone Star State this week to showcase the new mobile command center’s disaster response equipment and demonstrate how we can help support Texas communities and animals in the wake of natural disasters.

Who could forget the magical movie moment when Little Orphan Annie fell in love with street pooch, Sandy? Many of us fell in love with that scruffy dog, too!  We have some good news animal lovers and movie fans: On December 19, Sony's Columbia Pictures will release its contemporary remake of the classic movie-musical “Annie,” in which Sandy is portrayed by a shelter dog! The adorable tan-colored pooch named Marti was actually rescued by an animal welfare organization in Armonk, New York.

More than 120 cats and dogs braved chilly temperatures for free vaccines and microchips during a “Community Pet Party” hosted by the ASPCA and the NYPD’s 49^th Precinct on Saturday, November 15 at Bronx Park East in the Bronx, New York.

Longtime Bronx resident Ceferino Miranda was one of the first in line with his Westie, Chiquita, one of three dogs he brought. He found Chiquita in the streets and now cares for five dogs. “I was going to get all their vaccines earlier this month,” said the Vietnam veteran, “but I fell short.”

For the seventh year in a row, the ASPCA has been selected to participate in the Subaru “Share the Love” event, which kicks off today, November 20, and runs through January 2, 2015. For every new vehicle sold or leased between November 20, 2014 and January 2, 2015, Subaru will donate $250 to the purchaser’s choice among four national charity partners or local Hometown Charity selected by participating retailers, with a minimum guaranteed donation of $250,000 to each national charity.

Winter is one of the most perilous times of the year for stray, feral and outdoor cats. With freezing temperatures, limited food sources and little shelter from the elements, many turn to unusual tactics to keep safe and warm. One such tactic is to hide under car hoods for warmth, and this week, we met a lucky kitten who did just that—and survived a 30 mile journey in the process.