Hopeless No More: Meet Some of the Animals PETA Helped Last Month (Graphic)
If she could, this bubbly dog named Champagne would likely propose a toast to PETA’s fieldworkers for getting her out of a miserable cage and into a warm and loving home, just in time for winter. Champagne had been “bottled up” in a cramped, dark, and filthy outdoor cage 24/7. Her feet were stained yellow from standing in urine, and she had no access to food or water when we found her.
Champagne’s owner agreed to surrender her, and our fieldworkers transferred her to the open-admission Virginia Beach SPCA (VBSPCA), where she was soon adopted.
Champagne is just one of hundreds of animals PETA’s fieldworkers helped last month. Diesel, who had been chained outdoors and denied adequate veterinary care, was surrendered to PETA to be euthanized. Even though he was severely emaciated, his stomach was painfully distended. Suspecting criminal neglect, we had a necropsy performed to determine the cause of his condition. A veterinarian found that Diesel had been starved, and PETA has filed cruelty charges against his abuser.
Little One was suffering from a massive abscess, which had ruptured and become infected, inviting maggots into the painful wound. The cat’s guardians gave him to PETA so that we could end his suffering.
Our fieldworkers came to the aid of this elderly, immobile dog named Sage, whose owner had recently passed away. Sage was suffering from a ruptured mammary tumor—a vivid reminder of one reason why it’s so important to have our animal companions spayed early in life. Spaying greatly reduces female animals’ risk of developing mammary cancer and eliminates their risk of developing uterine cancer. (And neutering eliminates male animals’ risk of developing testicular cancer and reduces their risk of developing prostate cancer.)
Coco had been chained outdoors with nothing but a wire crate with a piece of plywood on top of it for “shelter.” Thankfully, he was given to PETA, and after a bath and some TLC, this little guy was transferred to the VBSPCA and put up for adoption.
PETA’s fieldworkers always urge guardians to let their dogs live indoors as family members—instead of leaving them chained or penned outdoors—or, in certain cases, to surrender their animals to PETA so that we can transfer them to open-admission shelters for a chance to be adopted. But when people refuse to do either of these things, our fieldworkers do everything they can to make life a little less miserable for dogs who are left outdoors. As winter quickly approaches, they’re busy delivering custom-built doghouses to chained and penned dogs who would otherwise be left out in the cold without adequate shelter.
Ace had nothing but a drafty open box to huddle under. We set him up with a cozy new doghouse just in time for the winter weather.
Sissy was one of several small dogs who were left outside with only plastic barrels to shield them from the elements. We gave them a proper doghouse to curl up in and some much-needed affection and attention.
In addition to all this, October was a record-breaking month for PETA’s mobile spay/neuter clinics: They spayed or neutered 1,119 dogs and cats in just one month, preventing thousands upon thousands of animals from being born only to end up neglected, on the streets, or in shelters. Here are just a few of their adorable clients—each of whom was spayed or neutered for free and given a free lift to and from the appointment:
Every dog wasting away in a backyard cage, every cat shivering outdoors on a winter night, and every animal waiting for a good home that never comes came from two animals who weren’t spayed or neutered. Please help us stop animal suffering at its source: Always spay or neuter your animals, and urge your friends and family to do so, too.
