Telling our representatives that we care is the first step in making a no-kill valley possible. Being no-kill simply means we are a community that acts on the belief that every healthy, treatable dog and cat should be saved. We can do this by saving as many lives as possible through pet adoption, trap-neuter-return, supported foster care programs, raising awareness, and other community support programs. Saving 90 percent or more of the animals who enter shelters is the current benchmark for no-kill. Together, our cities can create a better future for our animals — we can become united for 90. The number of no-kill shelters in the U.S. (i.e., animal shelters saving at least 90% of the dogs and cats that enter) has more than doubled in the past seven years, from 24% in 2016 to 57% in 2022. We know this is possible in the Valley too! Our community deserves access to modern lifesaving policies and programming. As part of our families, our pets are part of the community, too. We should include and prioritize animal services and access to care as part of our city planning. Supporting our community includes local shelters and programs that focus on providing safe and positive solutions for cats and dogs entering those shelters. It is crucial our representatives know that saving cats and dogs is important to us. By advocating for these programs and continued collaboration with your local animal shelter, you can be part of creating a healthier community for pets and people. Show your support by signing and sharing this petition today!  Reference and facts: https://www.nokillfacts.com

Together we can make sustainable changes that save lives while creating a framework of support for the pets of Little Rock. Animals who end up at the animal shelter are part of this community and city officials need to know that the people of Little Rock care about shelter animals dying. In 2022, Little Rock Animal Village took in 2795 dogs and 1140 cats. While 86% of cats were saved, only 56% of dogs made it out alive. Little Rock is killing more dogs than anywhere else in the state of Arkansas. Supporting our community means supporting our shelter and programs that focus on providing safe and positive outlets for cats and dogs entering shelters. It is important your representatives know that saving cats and dogs is important to the people of Little Rock. In a recent poll, 78% of likely voters in Little Rock believe the shelter should adopt policies that reduce the number of dogs and cats being killed at the shelter as opposed to 6% that do not. All dogs in Little Rock deserve a chance at a happy, healthy life. By joining this effort, you can be part of creating a healthier community for pets and people. Show your support by signing and sharing this petition today!

BARCS budget has not been significantly increased since 2008 when the City covered 80% of the cost. The City is now covering only 20% of BARCS operating costs. It's time to update City funding to reflect the changing community needs and do something before Baltimore sees an entirely preventable and tragic loss of pets' lives. Baltimore citizens love their pets and ask the City Council and the Mayor to stand up for BARCS now. For too many years, BARCS has been saving lives on a shoe string. BARCS is THE ONLY public, open-admission animal service for the entire city. Increasing the City's share of the budget from $1.3M to at least $3M will allow BARCS to properly staff the shelter, to cover the rising costs of inflation and to account for the increasing costs of animal medical and community needs. Dogs like Small Fry are the reason that BARCS needs increased funding. Small Fry was found trapped in a Baltimore house, alone for at least a week. Her severe emaciated condition indicated that she was neglected for much, much longer. In fact, when she came to BARCS, she was barely able to wag her tail due to human neglect. Thanks to BARCS, Small Fry was nursed back to health with high quality medical care. She was adopted into a loving home -- even finding the doggy love of her life. You can see Small Fry's Dog Wedding picture at the top of this petition. Thanks to BARCS more than 10,000 pets like Small Fry have happy endings each year. But as the City's portion of funding decreases, dogs like Small Fry find themselves at risk. This is why Baltimore City needs to significantly raise the budget for BARCS. In addition to properly funding BARCS, the city needs to hire a police officer who is full-time and designated to investigate animal abuse cases, as well as appoint a chair to the City's Animal Abuse Commission. For more information on this topic, check out this Sun article that explores this in depth. https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/op-ed/bs-ed-op-barcs-animal-shelter-crisis-20230803-eqwl4w7mbjej7nro5svznwyrqm-story.html

Without No Time To Spare Animal Rescue and Sanctuary thousands of dogs and cats will have no where to go in Warren County. This forces people to dump animals and leave them defenseless. This affects peoples lives in so many ways. Presently in the United States approximately 1,000 animals are euthanized daily because we don't have enough shelters. No Time To Spare has been making a difference not only rescuing animals, but also making sure they are spay/neutered, microchipped and vetted before they are adopted. Please don't stop their good work for the community. We need them!

Sometimes when you want to create change in your community, it's hard to know where to begin. We work with local advocates like you to make sustainable changes that save lives while creating a framework of support for the pets of Clovis and the people who care about them. Animals who end up at the county shelter are part of this community and county officials need to know the people of Clovis care about the whole community- pets and people. The people and pets in Clovis deserve programs that focus on providing safe and positive outlets for cats and dogs entering shelters. In 2020, 66% of all animals entering the shelter left alive and only 32% of cats entering the shelter left alive. It is important your representatives know that saving cats and dogs is important to the people of Clovis. In order to create change at the shelter- programs that are proven to be effective at saving animals lives and fiscally responsible need to be implemented at the shelter and supported by the community. The good news is that you can be a part of supporting positive programs that are working around New Mexico. Some examples include community cat programming (to ensure cats are spayed/neutered, vaccinated, and returned to their homes), foster programming (to provide temporary housing to pets prior to finding their permanent homes), adoption outlets, and progressive field services and resources to ensure people have what they need to keep their pets. By advocating for these programs and continued collaboration with other community organizations, you can be part of creating a healthier community for pets and people. Show your support by signing and sharing today!

In July 2021, the Illinois Department of Agriculture (IDOA) published proposed amendments to the state’s Animal Welfare Act. The proposed amendments provide many positive improvements for dogs and cats in Illinois. However, some of the well-meaning amendments would make it difficult for shelters to maintain their foster programs. Shelters, like so many places, are under strain. With pandemic restrictions being reduced or eliminated, many people are traveling or returning to work. That means fostering and adoptions are returning to pre-pandemic levels. We need the state to find the right balance of making fostering less difficult for animal shelters and their volunteers while maintaining a safe environment for the dogs and cats. Help make it better for animal shelters to implement lifesaving foster programs. The deadline for submitting comments is August 30, so please sign and share the petition today.

People often mistakenly believe that declawing their cats is a harmless "quick fix" for unwanted scratching. They don't realize that declawing can make a cat less likely to use the litter box or more likely to bite. Declawing can also cause lasting physical problems and lead to the cat being surrendered to a shelter due to behavioral or health issues. Too often, people think that declawing is a simple surgery that removes a cat's nails—the equivalent of having your fingernails trimmed. Sadly, this is far from the truth. Declawing traditionally involves the amputation of the last bone of each toe. If performed on a human being, it would be like cutting off each finger at the last knuckle. The American Veterinary Medicine Association discourages declawing as an elective procedure and supports non-surgical alternatives. It is an unnecessary surgery that provides no medical benefit to the cat. Educated pet parents can easily train their cats to use their claws in a manner that allows everyone in the household to live together happily. In 2003, West Hollywood became the first city in the country to ban declawing. Since then, cities such as Berkeley, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Culver City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Santa Monica have joined them. New York has a statewide ban. Isn't it time for Long Beach to do the right thing for cats and ban declawing?

Because it saves dogs lives and encourages responsibility!! Numerous times I have seen dogs "hanging" over the sides of pickup beds, dangerously close to falling out. My sister told me that once she had actually seen a tethered dog fall out and get hung. I have seen numerous dead dogs on the sides of freeways and the only way this could happen is if they had fallen out of a pickup truck bed. That many loose dogs would not wander onto a freeway. People need to be less cavalier and more careful with their supposed treasured pets.

El programa de vales proporciona a los miembros de la comunidad local y las mascotas los recursos que tanto necesitan. También reduce la cantidad de animales que ingresan al refugio y también disminuye la cantidad de mascotas que matan por esa razón. A través de este programa, los miembros de la comunidad de Midland tienen acceso a esterilización / castración asequible para sus perros y gatos. Esto les permite conservar la propiedad de sus mascotas mientras brindan atención médica y, en última instancia, mantienen baja la población animal callejera. Cortar estos fondos limita drásticamente las opciones para manejar poblaciones de animales callejeros en Midland, TX. Esto podría llevar a un aumento en la ingesta de refugios creando condiciones de hacinamiento y mayores tasas de eutanasia. Esto afectaría al personal del refugio y a los residentes locales que ya no tendrían acceso a los recursos para ayudar a crear soluciones a nivel comunitario.

A veces, cuando desea generar un cambio en su comunidad, es difícil saber por dónde empezar. Trabajamos con defensores locales como usted para realizar cambios sostenibles que salven vidas mientras creamos un marco de apoyo para las mascotas de Odessa y las personas que se preocupan por ellas. Al unirse, se convierte en parte de un grupo motivado de personas que creen que todas las mascotas y las personas merecen compasión y que, cuando trabajamos juntos, podemos crear un cambio real para los perros y gatos necesitados.

The voucher program provides local community members and pets with much-needed resources. It also reduces the number of animals coming into the shelter and decreases the number of pets euthanized, too. Through this program, Midland community members have access to affordable spay/neuter for their dogs and cats. This allows them to retain ownership of their pets while providing medical care and ultimately keeping the stray population down. Continuing this funding at full capacity based on current needs is critical for managing stray populations in Midland, TX. This could lead to a rise in shelter intake creating overcrowded conditions and higher euthanasia rates. This would take a toll on shelter staff and local residents who would no longer have access to resources to help create solutions at a community level. UPDATES: In July 2021, the city council approved the funding of the vouchers through the end of FY 2021. Budget discussions took place in August and September and the voucher program was approved by the council for a similar amount for FY22. We continue to be attentive to the needs of the community in Midland and stand ready to assist with potential policy change needs, shelter and field staff assistance and community outreach. Going into this FY 22, it will be imperative for citizens in Midland to stay abreast of happenings at the newly opened shelter facility and the use of the voucher program as well.

Sometimes when you want to create change in your community, it's hard to know where to begin. We work with local advocates like you to make sustainable changes that save lives while creating a framework of support for the pets of Robeson County and the people who care about them. By joining, you become part of a driven and diverse group of people who believe that all pets and people deserve compassion, and that — when we work together — we can create real change for dogs and cats in need.