Save a Cat Application on Facebook

By virtually fostering a cat on Facebook’s “Save a Cat,” you earn points that translate into real donations that will help real rescue cats.

For every 2,500 points you score, we donate the financial equivalent of a cup of food to RescueGroups.org, a non-profit organization that provides free and low-cost technology services to animal shelters and rescue groups across the country. The more points you earn, the more cats you help save!

Earning points is easy. All you have to do is join the Save a Cat application and then choose a particular action. Each time you take action, you earn points. Or in some cases, you earn points when someone else takes action. For example, join the Save a Cat application and you automatically earn 100 points. Fostering a cat scores you 100 points and scratching your cat scores you 25 points each day. Ask a friend to foster a cat or co-foster yours, and that's another 100 points when they accept.

It's easy and fun, but the best part is it costs you nothing except a moment or two of your time. And, your actions help feed real cats in real shelters. Again, the money helps rescues and shelters via our partner, RescueGroups.org, an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. They provide essential technical services that allow rescues and shelters to post their pets on the Internet, thereby greatly increasing their chances of adoption. Through donations, RescueGroups.org is able to provide its services free or at a low cost to animal welfare groups that could not otherwise afford them.

ACR uses RescueGroups.org’s Pet Adoption Portal to save us time and money. They help us post our kitties in need of adoption all over the internet and for FREE! This allows our kitties to be posted on more sites and increase the chances of their being adopted. This service helps us update countless sites at one time and at no cost to us. It makes life easier and helps find more kitties furrever homes!

Plus, by using Save a Cat, millions of users get to virtually foster kitties from ACR! This application will help us find homes for our kitties, especially some of our “special needs” kitties, like Bugsey or Pumpkin. So, please add the Save a Cat application to your Facebook account and add Alley Cat Rescue to your favorite shelters. Then, start fostering our kitties and earning points for a great cause!

ARK Slowly Changing the Way Animals are Viewed in Korea

An article in the The Korean Herald by Paddy Wood: ASAN, South Chungcheong Province – If you weren't looking for it, you'd never know it was there. Nestled amongst dense trees on the side of a small mountain, you hear the Asan animal shelter before you see it: a chorus emanating from the hundreds of dogs and cats who call the shelter home.

Individuals from Animal Rescue Korea (ARK) volunteer at the shelter every Saturday. American volunteer Natalie Crowe gives some background. "Asan is a privately owned shelter," she explains. "It gets some funding from the city, but the expat group funds a lot of its endeavors." She explains that while there are many government-funded shelters in Seoul, most lack the necessary resources to care for the huge numbers of stray and abandoned animals they take in. If they aren't claimed, fostered, or adopted after ten days, most are put down.

However, the Asan Animal Shelter maintains a no-kill policy. The animals who live here are the lucky ones who have been rescued from city shelters. For them, Asan provides a second chance at life. Their medical needs are addressed and they are socialized; prepped for fostering and, if everything goes to plan, adopted.

Crowe explains that she has been volunteering since October last year after she found out about ARK's existence through their website. "It's easy to get bogged down in the petty details of a nine-to-five job," she says. "So it is good to leave the city, and exhilarating to be outside and know that you are making a difference to the welfare of these animals."

It is clear that the shelter has made the most of its limited resources. Enclosures have been constructed ingeniously from wood and wire. We walk past improvised cat-houses attached to the back of the main office. Beyond, up the steep incline, stretches an intricate web of connected pens. As we climb, Josh Rutz, a Canadian volunteer, explains that he came to be involved after finding ARK's Facebook group. He and his wife Aimee have been volunteering since April last year.

"I started doing it as a way to get out of my house and do something on a Saturday," he explains. "But these days I go because I realize how important the work is." There is definitely a lot to do, and the volunteers always have a busy day. They walk and play with the dogs. They monitor the animals' health, feed them and, in winter, change their frozen water bowls. But the overarching goal is socialization: to make the animals more comfortable around humans and thereby advance their candidacy for adoption.

Laura-Claire Corson has been volunteering for nine months. She explains how simple socialization is. "If you just go inside and sit with the cats for half-an-hour, they become friendlier each week," she says.

Most volunteers have either adopted animals or provide permanent foster homes. "I'm a continual fosterer," explains Crowe. "I have two cats in the house at all times, and I just rotate them out when they get adopted."

Volunteering at Asan is doubly rewarding as it provides an opportunity to meet fellow Expats away from the cliched venue of the bar or club. "I've developed strong friendships with many of the other volunteers because we are all working towards a common goal," explains Crowe. Rutz agrees. "Coming to the shelter is a good chance to meet new people, get out of the city for a day, and help some animals that really need the attention all at the same time."

At around 4 p.m., it is time to leave the shelter. "Whenever I leave, I always feel there is so much more to do," rues Corson. And, of course, there always is. But this Saturday has been a successful one for the group. A few new volunteers have turned up. More importantly, five dogs have been adopted. “When you see an animal who has been at the shelter, or who was abused or in an unfortunate situation in the past get a home, it's wonderful," says Corson.

For information on volunteering, fostering, or adopting, visit www.animalrescuekorea.org

New Zealand Man Feeds Kittens to His Dog

Recently in New Zealand, a 31-year-old man, Te Ahu Mankelow, pleaded guilty to five charges of willful ill treatment of an animal. The man, who has admitted feeding live kittens to his pitbull and videoing it, has apologized for the massacre and has claimed he's an "animal lover".

"I love cats. I love all animals big time. Anyone who knows me knows I love animals," Mankelow told Sunday News in an exclusive interview yesterday.

Prosecutor Vicki Corpe said: "The defendant's dog attacked the kittens one by one, biting them and breaking their bones. At least one kitten was obliterated. When the kittens struggled away, the defendant picked them up and threw them back to his dog."

Father-of-three Mankelow claims the killings were an accident and he simply admitted the SPCA's version of events in the hope he'd be punished and his dog's life would be spared. His pet has since been put down.

Mankelow's said on the day of the incident he'd been drinking "all night and day" at a party.

Mankelow said, “I'm even sorry they [SPCA] tried to make me out as a pitbull breeder because this makes them look bad. I want to make a big apology."

SPCA national chief inspector Charles Cadwallader said Mankelow was "lying his teeth off". He said the cellphone video clearly showed Mankelow feeding at least four of the cats to his dog.

His sister, Vonnie Mankelow, said her brother had a drinking problem which played a part. She said the mauled kittens were sick and were to be given away. She told Sunday News she couldn't excuse her relative's actions but she could see the incident "from many different sides". "People that don't live in the area, or don't know the people etc, etc, they all have very different concepts of the whole story," she said.

Mankelow will be sentenced later this month.

…Animal cruelty is CLEARLY animal cruelty. Maybe this guy does have a drinking problem, in that case, the court should see that he is offered help with that, and for his sister to imply that it is a culture or neighborhood thing, again, yes, I get that animals are viewed very differently from culture to culture, but in this case, there is clear evidence (which I spared you the details given during the prosecution from a video tape of the dog attacking the kittens) that there was NO “misunderstanding” of the situation. Mankelow clearly knew what he was doing when he repeatedly gave the kittens to his dog to destroy. To hear him say, “I’m sorry; I’m an animal lover.” is appalling. Along with counseling for his drinking habit, he should be required to undergo psychiatric counseling for his disillusionment, and a counselor should check on his children to ensure none of his bad habits are passed onto them.

I read on the Care2 website today a petition against extreme cases of animal cruelty like this one, giving an example of a pregnant dog that was tied to a train track (miraculously the dog survived!), but there should be NO QUESTION and NO ROOM for EXCUSES when it comes to clear intent of cruelty towards animals, no matter what the animal. In this day and age, it is becoming widely agreed upon that animal welfare should and must be defended under the fullest extent of the law. People are starting to believe that animals are no longer on a level below us but on a level beside us.

The Politically Correct Cat

Animal Supporters in China Push for Ban on Cat and Dog Meat

According to the Guardian, a UK newspaper, Chinese legal experts are proposing a ban on eating dogs and cats in a contentious move to end a culinary tradition dating back thousands of years. The recommen-dation will be submitted to higher authorities in April as part of a draft bill to tackle animal abuse.

(Picture: AP - Caged cats rescued by China Small Animal Protection Association from a market in Beijing)

According to the draft, illegal sale or consumption of pets would incur a maximum penalty of 15 days in prison for individuals or a 500,000 yuan fine for businesses. Public security bureaus would be obliged to respond to hotline calls from the public about violations.

"We are proposing that all dog and cat eating should be banned because it is causing many social problems," said Chang Jiwen, a law professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who heads the drafting team. He said recent murders and thefts related to the dog meat trade showed that it had become a source of tension, while the economic impact of a ban would be small because an increasingly affluent population was less dependent on dog and cat meat.

"I support this proposal. Whether you judge this as a question of food security or emotions, there is absolutely no necessity in China for people to eat dogs and cats," said Zeng Li, the founder of the Lucky Cats shelter in Beijing. "We need something more than moral pressure. Beijing's dog restaurants get their meat mainly from vagrant and stolen dogs. In the suburbs, dogs are hung and slaughtered in front of buyers."

Despite large support of such a bill, previously proposed bills regarding animal welfare provoked controversy. Initial plans for a comprehensive animal welfare law had to be dropped in the face of criticism that human living conditions ought to be the priority at this stage in China's development. Subsequently, the focus of a bill has now been narrowed to the prevention of animal abuse, which is defined as inflicting unnecessary pain and brutality. Even so, it is far from certain that the draft will be adopted by the government or the National People's Congress.

UPDATE: Haiti Animal Efforts

According to a report filed just yesterday by International Fund for Animal Welfare’s (IFAW) communication officer, ARCH (Animal Relief Coalition for Haiti) members traveled South of Port-au-Prince to the towns of Leogane and Jacmel. Michael Booth says, “It didn’t take long until we encountered a number of goats, pigs and dogs all assembled near dump sites along the local fruit and vegetable market haphazardly set-up on the side of a dirt (Picture Source: IFAW) road. Haiti had made great progress in re-housing street markets not too long ago but the earthquake brought the roof of the new market down and with it any attempts at an organized, safe and clean distribution center. Within just a few days, the vendors had again established themselves really anywhere they could and instantly animals were drawn there to rummage in the garbage in an attempt to find whatever food they could.”

ARCH continued their travels throughout Haiti seeing similar scenes from town to town. Again Michael Booth reports what he encounters, “More chickens, more dogs, all searching for food. I noticed a couple of stray dogs had ‘latched’ on to certain people. They would just follow them from one place to the other, a few meters away, scared and nervous but hoping that they could find a family to belong to. Some were ignored, others pushed away, it made me think ‘did these dogs have a family before Jan. 12?’ is that the reason why they ‘cling’ hopelessly to passer-by’s? I really don’t want to know the answer to that; I just hope our work in Haiti can help relieve that pain, loneliness and sadness. Thanks again to all our IFAW supporters, without you we could not be here. Your contribution will help Haiti’s animals when they need it the most.”

Karma Cats Help ACR

ACR has teamed up with PartSelect.com, an online retailer of appliance parts, to raise money for homeless cats. In doing so, PartSelect.com has created a photo “confessional” to help us raise money. By visiting their Karma Cats website and submitting a photo of your cat, a $5.00 donation will go to ACR. No purchase is necessary and you do not have to sign up for anything.

So far, Karma Cats has raised $535.00 in just over two weeks and our goal is to reach a total of $5000.00! Again, each photo of a cat will contribute a $5.00 donation to ACR, with a maximum donation of $5000.00. The fundraiser will run until 11:59pm 03/31/2010 and is open to anyone. PartSelect reserves the right to disqualify any photos that are considered off-topic, contain inappropriate content, or are otherwise deemed unfit. All entries become the property of PartSelect.com and may be used for promotional purposes during or after the sweeps. All original photos must be the property of the person submitting them for entry and should not be subject to any trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights of any other person.

Please take a minute to submit your Karma Cats photos and help ACR raise money to save more kitties! www.partselect.com/KarmaCats

Also check out PartSelect's inventory of appliance parts (from dishwashers to stoves to refrigerators); they got it all! www.partselect.com

Denver, CO is Being Called a Pet Heaven

According to an article on Denverpost.com, Denver is “among the top five to 10 places in the country for pets, according to John Snyder, vice president for companion animals at the Humane Society of the United States.” Snyder says, “If you have pets you have a greater chance of finding a cure or a home for them in Denver.”

The metro area has a great assortment of animal welfare organizations, lower euthanasia rates, better care standards, and groundbreaking research that leads to improved lives for their animals.

The article goes to say that “any number of people also will cite Denver's outdoors-oriented lifestyle, its passion for activities with pets, its high education level and its relative affluence as factors in making the city a good place for pets. Add to that the presence of Colorado State University's top-rated veterinary school, which sends a steady flow of veterinarians and research information to the area.”
In 2007, Forbes magazine placed Denver among the top 10 cities in America for pets (Colorado Springs finished first), based on park acreage, pet-supply and -business services, and veterinary services.

Commenting on the area’s shelters, David Gies, executive director of the Animal Assistance Foundation, says, “There's a focus here on understanding the human/animal connection unlike anywhere else in the country.”

"We have a wonderful trend of collaboration between organizations in the animal-welfare community," adds Ralph Johnson, executive director of the Colorado Veterinary Medical Association. "Veterinary groups work well with animal-welfare and control groups. That's not true in some states." Johnson says the result is more pet adoptions, better procedures for animal intake at shelters, better socialization of animals, consistent data collection and, in many cases, better ordinances for living safely with pets.

To read the entire article, copy and paste this link: http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_14250366#ixzz0dSt2MfMQ

ACR Creates Emergency Relief Fund

In the wake of the devastation in Haiti and due to several recent situations at ACR, we have decided to establish an Emergency Relief Fund. These funds will be designated to assist cats in need due to emergency or “special-needs” situations.

From time to time, ACR will rescue a cat who turns out to have “special needs” or require special treatment (ex. Pumpkin), and in these cases, it is essential to have an Emergency Relief Fund to see that these cats are able to receive the treatment they need and deserve.

ACR also gets requests from other cat groups or from individuals asking for help with special-needs cats. Yesterday, we were contacted by a rescuer with a story of four cats who have inadvertently been caught up in a 6-month rabies quarantine that will cost at least $6,000 to save their lives. And right before this incident, a person contacted us who could not afford for her cat to be treated for a urinary infection, so the poor cat ended up developing bladder stones and needed surgery.

And with the earthquake in Haiti, ACR has been asked by an animal rescue group in the Dominican Republic (Animal Balance working with Dominican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) to help them find homes for animals currently in their shelter, so that they can rescue animals from Haiti. They also asked ACR for help with TNR and sterilizing cats, since most of their funds go to help dogs.

Subsequently, all of these worthy causes require money, and a substantial amount of it. Again, the intentions of this fund are to assist cats that are in special, emergency situations, where sadly, it is a question of life or death for an animal due to the cost of treatment. ACR believes that no animal should die when life-saving treatments exist because an individual cannot afford treatment or the support and funding are not accessible for such occasions; that is why ACR has created an Emergency Relief Fund.
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As mentioned, one of ACR’s emergency cases right now is trying to save four cats from the Prince George’s County Animal Shelter here in Maryland. We were contacted by a rescuer who was contacted by the shelter’s adoption counselor, with the information that a friendly cat came into the shelter last week, and he had some scratches on him. Sometime after intake, the cat was eventually placed with other friendly cats in the "free-roaming" cat condo. Then, at some point after that, someone decided that (due to the scratches) the cat might have rabies, so he should be put down or quarantined for 6 months. The Health Department was also called. To make matters more difficult, because the three other cats were "exposed" to the cat in question, those three cats also have to be quarantined for 6 months.

Why someone did not take this into consideration prior to placing the cat with other cats, no one knows? Was the cat given a proper health exam upon entrance to the shelter and prior to being placed with other cats, we do not know? And rescue groups take in cats with injures all the time, and there has not been, to our knowledge, an instance where someone adopted a cat from a shelter that has turned out to have rabies. But now that the Health Department as been contacted, there is no reversing the situation. However, the Health Department and the PG County Shelter have agreed that if someone can find quarantine space for the cats ASAP, the cats can be quarantined instead of being killed.

Langley Animal Hospital in Hyattsville, MD has generously offered to quarantine all four cats for six months at their vet hospital, but it will cost $6,000 to do so. ACR is willing to donate $1,000 to help these kitties, and two individual rescuers have offered to donate $100 each; however, that still leaves a large amount of money to raise for these unfortunate kitties, who have become victims of human error (and paranoia). If you wish to help these kitties, please send a tax-deductible donation to ACR’s Emergency Relief Fund.
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In wanting to get involved in the animal relief efforts of Haiti, ACR contacted an animal rescue group located in the Dominican Republic to see how we can help. (No animal rescue organizations exist in Haiti.) A California based nonprofit, Animal Balance, is an organization of veterinarians, veterinary technicians, assistants and volunteers, coming together to create MASH-style sterilization clinics on islands around the world. They currently have about 400 people in their database, with whom they work. One of the groups Animal Balance works with is the Sociedad Dominicana para la Prevención de Crueldad a los Animales (SODOPRECA) or the Dominican Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

ACR has been in contact with SODOPRECA’s vice-president and he has explained to us that, like in most Latin-American countries, their group does more for dogs than cats. This is true for a few reasons: 1) most of the countries are poor and animal rescues are far and few between 2) these countries prioritize funds to help livestock animals (or zoos for the tourist industry) rather than cats or dogs and 3) individuals are more likely to help the stray dog population (out of sympathy and/or safety and health reasons) than stray cat populations.

Because they rescue dogs, it was suggested that ACR find groups in the US that would take dogs currently in their shelters, so that they may rescue more animals from Haiti. Unfortunately, cats are on the bottom of the priority list and receive little or no assistance. Of course ACR wants dogs in need to be helped, but our mission is to assist cats and the other large animal organizations are addressing this matter. Therefore, ACR hopes to assemble a team to go to the Dominican Republic to help with cat rescue operations in their country (and with Haiti’s) and to TNR feral cats.

There was a need in Mexico, so ACR stepped in and inspired a monthly spay/neuter clinic. Now, there is a need in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, so ACR greatly wants to step in and help both the cats and its people. Like our project in Mexico, we need your help! The cats need your help! We will need money for all kinds of supplies (surgery supplies, medications, vaccines, food) and for travel arrangements, so if you wish to help the cats of Haiti and the Dominican Republic, please make a tax-deductible donation to ACR’s Emergency Relief Fund.
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To make an online contribution, please visit our website www.saveacat.org.

To mail a contribution, please send a check, money order, or credit card information to:

Alley Cat Rescue
PO Box 585
Mt. Rainier, MD 20712

If you wish to help a particular emergency situation, please indicate which your contribution is intended to help.

As always, thank you for your continued support and for caring for our feline friends! Every little bit makes a difference!

Ancient Cat Goddess Temple Unearthed in Egypt

According to a news article from the Associated Press, archaeologists have unearthed a 2,000-year-old temple that may have been dedicated to the ancient Egyptian cat goddess, Bastet. The ruins of the Ptolemaic-era temple were (Picture: Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities) discovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the heart of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in the 4th century B.C.

A statement from the Supreme Council of Antiquities said the temple was thought to belong to Queen Berenice, wife of King Ptolemy III who ruled Egypt in the 3rd century B.C.

The large number of statues depicting Bastet found in the ruins suggests that this may be the first Ptolemaic-era temple dedicated to the cat goddess to be discovered in Alexandria. This would indicate that the worship of the ancient Egyptian cat-goddess continued during the later, Greek-influenced, Ptolemaic period. Statues of other ancient Egyptian deities were also found in the ruins.

Modern Alexandria was built squarely on top of the ruins of the classical-era city and many of its great temples, palaces and libraries remain undiscovered. The temple was found in the Kom el-Dekkah neighborhood near the city's main train station and home to a Roman-era amphitheater and well preserved mosaics.