PETA Offers Funding to Crack Down on Sham Animal ‘Rescues’

Group Steps Up After Sick and Dead Dogs Reportedly Removed From Valley Gardens Hoarder

For Immediate Release:
August 12, 2016

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Following reports that the Manitoba Chief Veterinary Office (CVO) does not monitor companion-animal rescue facilities—citing a lack of funding and staff—PETA is offering $10,000 to help the agency enforce Animal Care Act regulations for animal shelters and rescues.

The CVO’s current non-enforcement policy came to light on Wednesday after authorities and volunteers reportedly discovered the rotting bodies of dogs at a “rescue” in Winnipeg’s Valley Gardens area. More than a dozen sick dogs were also rescued from the residence, which had a foul stench, chewed walls, and a centimetres-deep buildup of animal waste.

“PETA’s case files are filled with so-called ‘rescues’ and ‘no-kill’ shelters that warehouse, torture, and neglect animals to death,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “These abusive and fraudulent operations are an epidemic, and animals depend on authorities like Manitoba’s Chief Veterinary Office to crack down on them.”

Just last week, PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—worked with authorities to uncover multiple instances of severe neglect at Darlynn’s Darlins Rescue Ranch, Inc., an animal “rescue” in Florida that left animals to suffer and die from lack of food and water in the summer heat. The operation’s owners were charged with a total of 282 counts of cruelty to animals, and 197 animals were removed from the property.

Other similar cases include an animal “rescue” in Ontario where authorities seized 71 dogs last summer after finding them mired in filth, underweight, and shaking in fear. In just the last few months, cases have included an animal “rescuer” in North Carolina who neglected 121 animals, leaving them without food, water, or veterinary care, and another filthy animal “rescue” in Tennessee where dogs suffered from starvation, dental disease, and severe hair loss. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals estimates that of the roughly 6,000 new hoarding cases reported in the U.S. each year, “rescue” groups make up one-quarter of them.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.