SPCA (Hong Kong)’s Post

🌟 Today, my heart aches as Chutki (another stray dog of mine) passed away. 💔 Gave her a dignified farewell. The cycle of joy and sorrow repeats, making me question the emotional toll of caring for strays. But every morning, I rise, driven by the understanding that they have no one else. 🐾 Stray life is an arduous journey. We, as a community, need to actively promote responsible practices. Here are a few ways both individuals and the government can contribute: 1. **Animal Birth Control:** Advocate for and support widespread animal birth control programs. Sterilization helps control the stray population, ensuring a healthier and more sustainable community. 2. **Government Accountability:** Question local authorities about their initiatives for stray animal welfare. Encourage policies that address the root causes, such as lack of sterilization and proper care, rather than blaming caretakers. 3. **Educational Campaigns:** Raise awareness about the challenges faced by stray animals. Educational programs can enlighten communities about the importance of responsible pet ownership, including spaying and neutering. 4. **Community Collaboration:** Form or join local groups dedicated to stray animal care. Collectively, we can create safe spaces, provide food, and organize adoption drives to find loving homes for strays. 5. **Adopt, Don't Shop:** Choose adoption over buying from breeders. Stray dogs are often loving, loyal companions. By adopting, we reduce the demand for breeding and give a home to those in need. 6. **Banning Breeding Practices:** Advocate for stricter regulations on breeding. Banning commercial breeding helps decrease the number of animals in shelters and encourages people to adopt indie dogs. 7. **Financial Support:** Encourage and contribute to funds that support stray animal welfare. Financial aid can go a long way in providing medical care, food, and shelter for strays. Remember, change begins with us. Let's be the voice for those who can't speak for themselves. 🐶💕 #StrayCare #AnimalWelfare #ResponsiblePetOwnership

Utah connections: Do you have room in your life & property for a working kitty/barn cat (or a few)? If so, I need your help! Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab is helping me with a hoarding case where the owner recently passed away. There are 40+ cats (many that are sick) that need to be trapped, given care, and rehomed. The problem is that they still have *over 40 cats* left from a recent hoarding case in Beaver that involved 70+ animals. Their facilities are overflowing. If we can find homes for some of the cats they already have, it will make it much easier to bring in the new cats before the weather turns nasty. Many of these cats are feral to some extent and need to be adopted as outdoor cats who are working or barn kitties. To adopt them, you must commit to provide food, water, shelter, and adequate care. You can adopt just one, but if you have room, consider asking about pairs, trios, or small groups. Cats are very social and almost all cats will do better with friends. Some "feral" cats from cases like these end up warming up to people over time. Others are truly wild and will always be happiest watching you from a distance and keeping your property mouse free while enjoying the cozy home you provide. There is no adoption fee and Best Friends is willing to help with transport if needed. All the cats have been spayed or neutered, vaccinated, and given a veterinary exam. Please consider sharing this post to get the word out! Thank you! P.S. Even if you don't live in Utah, remember to rescue or adopt, not shop for dogs, cats, and other pets! Shelters and rescues everywhere are overflowing and with fall kitten season underway winter coming, there will be even more animals coming in.

What does your cat need? Excellent resources from International Cat Care The experts at iCatCare have produced a really helpful set of resources to help meet feline needs. The attractive posters are free to download and suitable for posting in veterinary centres, animal shelters and other contexts. Covering a range of issues for owners wishing to optimise their cat’s quality of life, they include great advice on encouraging your cat to eat and drink at home, the five pillars of a healthy feline environment, signs of pain, and cat friendly resources to support toileting, feeding, play, travel, scent communication, and safety & comfort. https://lnkd.in/eyPz9ZQh

Pet overpopulation casts a shadow over Atlanta, yet this challenge isn't confined to our city limits. Across the nation, animal welfare organizations are being challenged at every turn. But let's delve into the hard facts: 🐱 6.5 million animals entered shelters across the country in 2023, with dogs and cats almost evenly split. 🏠 Despite efforts, dog adoptions are on the decline. Thankfully, cats are seeing a more hopeful trend with a 14% increase in adoption numbers. 🐶 Dog community intakes surged by 10% from 2021, primarily driven by an influx of strays. Here at Atlanta Humane, the repercussions hit close to home. We have felt the decline in dog adoptions, with even our puppies staying on the adoption floor longer than ever before. Promoting adoption is vital, yet equally crucial is tackling the underlying factors driving pet overpopulation. We're channeling our resources into addressing these root causes, striving to curb intake numbers and prevent animals from entering shelters altogether. By advocating for spaying and neutering, promoting microchipping, ensuring affordable veterinary care, and fostering community support, we can work towards a future where every pet has a loving home.

Is supported fostering a win for shelter cats and seniors? A recent study funded by Human Animal Bond Research Institute (HABRI) showed that seniors living alone who fostered a cat had reduced loneliness at the four-month mark compared to baseline. However, many seniors required support addressing barriers to fostering such as veterinary care and pet deposits. This article from American Animal Hospital Association summarizes the study, which is not freely available. I can't even access it through my academic library except through interlibrary loan (which can take days to weeks). I can't imagine how shelter leadership would access it without paying $54 for a mere 24 hours of access. People making shelter policies must rely on popular press articles or the abstract. It's important to note that the popular press article indicates that seniors showed an improvement in mental health, but this measure was not statistically significant, at least per the abstract. Another reason it's important to have more than the abstract is the evaluation of methods. Given that the P value for loneliness was 0.029, and was declared significant, it's likely that the researchers did not compensate for running multiple tests (what appears to be 5-7 scales, each evaluated at 2 timepoints). This would result in 10-14 hypotheses being tested, increasing the risk that the study will find a significant result by chance alone. I could be wrong about their approach (or perhaps the authors justify this in discussion), but have no way of knowing from the abstract alone. I'd also be very interested to see what the values were for loneliness (and other scales) at the 12 month mark, which was presumably not significant. So without access to this study, shelter leadership will not have details, such as program support costs, that they need to evaluate whether this program is feasible for them, and researchers like myself may unfairly critique their methods based on incomplete information. Another reason why open access is so important. https://lnkd.in/g5vaJjG2 #OpenAccess #VeterinaryMedicine #PreventiveMedicine #ShelterMedicine #VeterinaryResearch #Cats #ShelterCats

‘Argylle’: Leading animal charities and welfare organisations share concerns for cat wellbeing in new Hollywood movie We would like to add our name to the list of Organisations raising concerns and expressing their joint concerns over popularising Scottish Fold cats and potentially harmful behaviours shown towards cats in the trailer for the upcoming film Argylle. We often see posts about dog health and welfare, but what about cats? Cats can also suffer from poor breeding practices and some breeds are more prone to suffering than others. This article by Vet Help Direct written by one of our directors, Robyn Lowe covers three RED FLAG BREEDS that we should be more aware of when choosing a cat for their health and welfare. ➡️ Brachycephalic Breeds The research confirmed that flatter-faced cats (of breeds such as the Persian or Exotic Shorthair), were more likely to have breathing problems. And that the breathing difficulties were also associated with increased tear staining and a more sedentary lifestyle. ➡️ Munchkin Cats The Munchkin abnormality results in greatly shortened fore and hind limbs. This compromises the ability of affected animals to jump, express normal behaviour and causes abnormal loading and gait. It is plausible that this may increase their risk of painful joint disease such as osteoarthritis. ➡️ Scottish Folds Unfortunately, the genetic defect that causes abnormality of the ear cartilage also causes severe abnormalities of the cartilage of bones too. This means that it’s not just their ears that get affected, but cats with the folded ears will also have defective bone development and severe bone and cartilage abnormalities. See the article by Vet Help Direct below: https://lnkd.in/e9GE3NWy International Cat Care #veterinarymedicine #cathealth #feline #community

Attention all cat owners! Did you know that from 10 June 2024, it’s going to be a legal requirement for ALL cats to be microchipped in England? 🐈 Latest figures from our upcoming 2024 PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report revealed that a whopping 54% of cat owners are still not aware of this new law! And since last year’s report, there’s only been a 3% increase in the population of cats with a microchip. Currently, 22% of cats across the UK are still not microchipped. That's nearly 2.4 million cats 🙀 Getting your cat microchipped will ensure they have the best chance of being reunited with you as quickly as possible, should they get lost, stolen or injured. All cats must be implanted with a microchip before they reach the age of 20 weeks. And if they're found without one, owners will be given just 21 days to get their cat chipped or face a fine of up to £500. Your one month countdown starts today! Find out how to get your feline friends ready: http://pdsa.me/yDip #ChipYourPetMonth [Visual description: Black cat, Vader, at one of our Pet Hospitals being scanned by one of our veterinary team members, to check for a microchip.]

If you think accessing vet care in the city is difficult right now, with the current vet shortage, you're only getting a taste of what remote communities have dealt with for decades. Glad to see more work being done to get affordable and accessible animal care to communities who don't have easy access to regular veterinary care. In my opinion, this is one strategy for getting at the root of some of our companion animal welfare issues. #animalwelfare #animalrescue #goodnews