Research poll relating to animals - please & thank you

[emjacobs]

I answered in the poll but we donate to the shelters and participate in spay / neuter clinics. There are a lot of farms in the area so stray cats are very common, we live trap strays and feral cats, spay or neuter, and then release when it's safe. They also get rabies vaccines and microchipped.

[mcmel]

When I was little my family was driving to Disney and spotted two puppies on the side of the road. We picked them up and brought them back home with us. I didn't get the whole "dogs have fleas" memo as a child. Mcmel had a good case of fleas for a few days

[VeryViolet]

I am a special snowflake. In college there were a ton of stray cats and at the time I rarely gave them much thought because I was a college kid and more concerned about getting drunk/high/laid. Now I feel like I should have done more because most of these cats were strays because of asshole college kids.

I don't live somewhere with a lot of strays now. However, I do find myself putting money in cans for spay/neuter and release programs when I visit the beach, where there is a large stray cat population. I think those are awesome organizations.

[Deleted]

Honestly, the places I've travelled overseas with more strays than I'm used to in the U.S. have other issues that I'm more bothered by that I never gave it much thought. However, I have thought I wish other countries had more spay and neuter options. I've thought about the cultural aspects of it as well and that's outside my league of knowledge, so I've never taken the time to do anything about it.

[ohiowan]

SS - I used to live in a place with a TON of stray cats, and no one leashed their dogs. We took several cats to the animal shelter, kept one, homed her kittens with someone we KNEW would take proper care of them, and had her fixed. So we technically did something I guess, but not anything significant. We took two cats to the shelter and they said they wouldn't take anymore because they would only take pets people didn't want, not strays.

[sawyerthedestroyer]

All of my pets are rescues and I donate to the local humane society when I can. I'm not sure what else I can do.

[suzyp]

I live in an area with a lot of strays (Houston). I think it's horrible, but I chose to use my time and money resources to help women's rights organizations and the local food bank.

ETA: My dog is rescue.

[MixedBerryJam]

I have a have-a-heart trap and have trapped a few feral cats and had them fixed and returned to their feral life, but I live on the edge of a wilderness area where there are lots of wild things. I don't catch-and-release anything else, just the cats. My vet does the spay/neuter for me for free (I'm probably his best customer, though!)

[suzyp]

Aug 11, 2014 18:22:26 GMT -5 mp said:

Aug 11, 2014 18:18:38 GMT -5 @wandering said:

Honestly, the places I've travelled overseas with more strays than I'm used to in the U.S. have other issues that I'm more bothered by that I never gave it much thought. However, I have thought I wish other countries had more spay and neuter options. I've thought about the cultural aspects of it as well and that's outside my league of knowledge, so I've never taken the time to do anything about it.

Totally understandable - usually animal overpopulation is just one issue of many in these areas.

Out of curiosity - would you be interested in supporting an org that worked with local communities, taking into account cultural issues, that developed education & programming and supported local spay/neuter efforts? 

(No offense if you say no, you wouldn't be interested or care - or maybe you would be interested in "supporting" via social media but not finances, etc.)

I'm not sure what information you are trying to obtain, but I believe there is an organization in Houston that does this - the Forgotten Dogs of the Fifth Ward. I have an old co-worker that does work for them. I read somewhere that Houston is estimated to have 1.2 MILLION stray animals. 

[sawyerthedestroyer]

Aug 11, 2014 18:30:00 GMT -5 mp said:

Aug 11, 2014 18:26:28 GMT -5 sawyerthedestroyer said:

All of my pets are rescues and I donate to the local humane society when I can. I'm not sure what else I can do.

Would you be interested in knowing what more you could do - if anything? (This is not like a solicitation where I'm asking if you'd like to know more about Jesus. haha. This is all pure research and I'm curious about perspectives! I'm not going to give you a spiel if you say yes.)

lol - of course! I love animals, abandoned/strays break my heart.

[azurely]

It bothers me, but I don't know how to help or change it or where to start.

Given the opportunity, I would donate to a reputable cause that was helping the stray animals, but if I'm on vacation, that's probably as much as I'd be willing or able to do.

[VeryViolet]

Aug 11, 2014 18:29:05 GMT -5 suzyp said:

I live in an area with a lot of strays (Houston). I think it's horrible, but I chose to use my time and money resources to help women's rights organizations and the local food bank.

ETA: My dog is rescue.

Your ETA made me laugh a lot. I know you didn't mean it that way but it felt like a "I totally have gay/black/purple/Martian friends" statement.

mp this post did remind me there is an awesome organization in Cozumel that adopts strays out to people traveling. They have everything all setup to send the dog to the states and the adoption fee is pretty cheap. I tried to convince DH to adopt one last time we were there but instead I just gave them $10 and pet their dog for 20 minutes.

[zoidberg]

It bothers me a lot, but I don't know what to do.

[Saint Monica]

I've never been there but I also believe that there is no impact I can make regarding same

[Deleted]

mp, that is such a beautiful picture of you.

[underwaterrhymes]

Some things you will need to think about:

In many developing countries, people generally have a different attitude toward animals. They're not viewed as family members by most. So you'll have to think about ways you can get people to view strays as something other than a nuisance or something to fear.

To that end, when I served in the Peace Corps, you were advised to carry rocks because the strays were aggressive to the point they would attack when you passed. You might already be aware of this, but just a heads up.

Finally, there are often local political issues. In the town where my H served Peace Corps they had very few strays. This was because the mayor initiated a campaign to kill the strays so the town looked better.

[zoidberg]

When i went to Greece there were tons of hungry-looking strays and it made me so sad. There were these people who were standing out by one of the tourist areas with a sign asking for donations for the stray animals, but how do you know that isn't a scam to get money out of tourists? I would give to something like that if I could be sure it wasn't a scam.

[suzyp]

Aug 11, 2014 18:35:20 GMT -5 VeryViolet said:

Aug 11, 2014 18:29:05 GMT -5 suzyp said:

I live in an area with a lot of strays (Houston). I think it's horrible, but I chose to use my time and money resources to help women's rights organizations and the local food bank.

ETA: My dog is rescue.

Your ETA made me laugh a lot. I know you didn't mean it that way but it felt like a "I totally have gay/black/purple/Martian friends" statement.

mp this post did remind me there is an awesome organization in Cozumel that adopts strays out to people traveling. They have everything all setup to send the dog to the states and the adoption fee is pretty cheap. I tried to convince DH to adopt one last time we were there but instead I just gave them $10 and pet their dog for 20 minutes.

Literal LOL - it totally does! I just didn't want to sound like a heartless bastard!

[sunnysally]

Rome is famous for its cats, and when I've traveled there I always make a donation to help with the spay/neuter program at Torre Argentina.

Locally, I donate litter and toys to the Humane Society and donate money to trap and release programs like MixedBerryJam mentioned.

Oh, both my kitties are from the Humane Society.

[kirra]

My last apartment complex had a major problem with stray/feral cats. People would dump them when they moved, then they had kittens, and the maintenance people and some residents would feed them. I did nothing.

My current apartment complex has some problems with stray/feral cats for the same reason, but it's not as prevalent.

We have maybe done a little bit of something, but nothing to fix the root problem.

My H took in one kitten. She was about six months old, and borderline feral. We talked to the feral cat rescue people, and they said she might or might not be feral, and we could try. She wasn't feral and now loves my H, sometimes tolerates me, and hides from everyone else. But for the first month she wouldn't eat or drink if anyone were in the room, and it was months before she was ok with H petting her.

I took in a stray, so we now have two cats. He was a stray, not borderline feral, so the difficulty was trying to find his owners, not trying to socialize him. There was nothing. I searched every avenue, and nothing. Someone either purposefully dumped him or didn't care enough to declare him lost.

[livinitup]

My area doesn't have a lot of strays. But I've always adopted homeless animals (they found me, and didn't leave) or from shelters. Always.

[underwaterrhymes]

I'm glad you're thinking about things from a cultural perspective.

In places like China, for example, you have to take into consideration things like the Cultural Revolution to understand why people might view cats and dogs as food as opposed to pets.

And when I told my Caribbean homestay parents that my cats would sleep in bed with me, they were shocked because there were many stories about how cats would steal the breath of humans by using their tails to block nostrils.

So when coming from a Western perspective, it's especially important to look at each country and understand where they're coming from in order to make a difference.

And, I feel it's also really critical to tell you that you shouldn't let it get you down if it takes more time than you anticipate or if you encounter unforeseen challenges. That is the nature of international development, regardless of your mission.

[CurlyQ284]

When I lived in the Memphis area I was really troubled by this. There were lots of strays but the shelters were all kill shelters. Once we were listening to the news and they did a story on the actual number of animals that were euthanized that year and it was staggering. I think somewhere around 14,000 in the metro area. After that I quit calling when I saw strays because I figured they had a better chance of living as strays. Maybe that was the wrong thought but I had no clue what to do.

I remember one incident in a nearby town in Arkansas. They just released all the dogs from the shelter back into the community. They formed these feral packs and bit some people. The mayor was like "whaddya want me to do, cause funding and stuff." Asshole.

I called police a few times for dogs that were left outside in the heat or storms, they were completely useless.

[CurlyQ284]

Alternatively, the guy I dated before DH, his dad was an ER doctor and he lived on the edge of the woods. People would bring him hurt animals and he would take care of them and re-release them into the wild, except he would keep cats for the most part. I woke up in the guest room and all nine cats were watching me. It was unsettling. He had a woodchuck that was almost ready to release, I got to feed him and chipmunks/squirrels/birds would flock to you when you go out the back door by the woods. I felt like Cinderella. My ex was a douchebag but his dad is such a nice man.

[Deleted]

Aug 11, 2014 18:22:26 GMT -5 mp said:

Aug 11, 2014 18:18:38 GMT -5 @wandering said:

Honestly, the places I've travelled overseas with more strays than I'm used to in the U.S. have other issues that I'm more bothered by that I never gave it much thought. However, I have thought I wish other countries had more spay and neuter options. I've thought about the cultural aspects of it as well and that's outside my league of knowledge, so I've never taken the time to do anything about it.

Totally understandable - usually animal overpopulation is just one issue of many in these areas.

Out of curiosity - would you be interested in supporting an org that worked with local communities, taking into account cultural issues, that developed education & programming and supported local spay/neuter efforts? 

(No offense if you say no, you wouldn't be interested or care - or maybe you would be interested in "supporting" via social media but not finances, etc.)

I would be interested to learn more, but I'm not sure how much other support I would/could provide at this time. 

As someone who has worked for and volunteered for both a very small grassroots international organization and a much larger one with a budget in the millions, I think the most important thing would be to do a thorough needs assessment of the area and then work with a local organization. 

PIH has a great programs management guide that might be useful that's aimed at work in resource poor settings. Obviously it's aimed at the health of humans, but I'm sure you can take some general info from it. I used the guide several times when I've been abroad working with different teams and found it helpful and insightful. Good luck!

www.pih.org/library/pih-program-management-guide

[jlt19]

I used to volunteer with Stray Rescue of St. Louis, but now I donate monthly to them.

One of the reasons I don't travel internationally is b/c of the stray dog issues. I know that's weak.

I've recently heard of a vaccine type sterilization that is in the works and I think that's a wonderful idea. Like a tag and release program with sharks.

[Deleted]

It bothers me but I don't know how to help.

This was a huge issue when I was studying abroad in Greece. There were strays all over. We would feed some of them that were nice and that would hang around our place. Others were really aggressive and would charge at you when you walked by.

I've been doing some research into adopting from Mexico (Isla Animals) or Afghanistan (Nowzad).

You should check them out if you're doing research!

[juliagoulia]

It bothers me. H and I have paid to have a bunch of cats spayed/neutered once (trap, neuter, release program) and we have fostered and adopted out several strays we have come across. 

We can't just drive by a stray. So we have had some very smelly house guests over the years.

[sapphireblue]

I wish I could do more. I have adopted a bunch of dogs and cats from various rescue leagues as well as plucked four cats (at different times) off the street when they were strays.

I used to volunteer in MA at a greyhound rescue league two days a week. When I lived in Vermont, I got involved with fostering dogs that were up for adoption with the local animal shelter. I also would do drives sometimes with a woman who would drive from VT to Hartford, CT, to meet flights of satos (strays) from Puerto Rico. We'd drive them up to Vermont and foster them until adopters were located.

Then I moved to CA and although I adopted more strays/kill shelter dogs, I stopped fostering. Now, in RI, I've fostered a little bit but then I adopted a dog who isn't always great with new dogs. I was going to take in a mother cat and her litter but they got someone else. So I haven't fostered in the last few years. All I've done is given money. The local all volunteer rescue league where I got my last dog posts a lot asking for money to help a certain cat or dog with surgery or transport up north from a kill shelter in the south. If I'm able at the moment I give $$.

I have considered for years quitting my job and finding a way to make enough to support myself helping/working with animals.

[Captain Serious]

Special snowflake

It bothers me, but often these places also have a high level of poverty, and I am usually more concerned by that. If/when I take action for a cause, it's directed at alleviating the human suffering rather than that of the strays.