PETA Calls On Everyone With A Heart To Help End Animal-Overpopulation Crisis

Figures Show That State of Dog and Cat Negligence Requires Urgent Action, Starting With Spaying and Neutering

NORFOLK, Va., Feb. 3, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An estimated 6 to 8 million abandoned or unwanted dogs and cats end up in U.S. animal shelters every year, half of whom must be euthanized because they're injured or in advanced stages of illness or because there aren't enough homes to go around. PETA has issued an appeal to members of the public to help solve this crisis of care. In a new video now available at PETA.org, PETA shows viewers why they should always adopt—and never buy—dogs and cats, keep an eye out for animals who are neglected and denied medical care, always spay and neuter, and help pass animal-friendly legislation.

PETA's work near its Virginia headquarters illustrates the problems facing dogs and cats across the country. In 2013, PETA sterilized 11,229 dogs and cats on its fleet of no- to low-cost mobile clinics, preventing millions of animals from being born into communities bursting at the seams with unwanted ones. Among other free services, PETA's Community Animal Project (CAP)—a small field division that does hands-on work in impoverished areas of Virginia and North Carolina—transported more than 500 animals to and from the clinics for indigent people with no transportation, delivered more than 350 sturdy doghouses to "backyard dogs," and provided more than 3,800 families with free veterinary and counseling services, helping them keep animals they were considering giving up.

PETA's shelter took in and euthanized 1,805 elderly, feral, sick, dying, aggressive, and otherwise unadoptable animals—more than 400 of whom were brought to PETA by loving but destitute guardians desperate to alleviate their beloved animals' suffering and many others who had been turned away by local so-called "no-kill" facilities that reject unadoptable animals in order to keep their euthanasia statistics appealing. The nearly 400 adoptable animals PETA received were placed in carefully screened, permanent homes or transferred to the Virginia Beach SPCA and other high-traffic open-admission shelters for a chance to be adopted.

"PETA serves vulnerable animals in our backyard every day, but we need everyone's help to stop animal suffering across the country," says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Dogs and cats need an urgent citizen uprising—they need all of us to urge elected officials to pass bans on breeding, sales of animals in pet stores, and continuously chaining dogs. As long as people are breeding, buying, and abandoning dogs and cats, there will be millions more animals than there are good homes for them."

SOURCE People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)