Help Humane Soc of Louisiana help needy shelters

The Humane Society of Louisiana has taken on the arduous task of
coordinating disaster relief and preparedness, fundraising efforts,
allocating supplies, and creating greater exposure for the hardest hit
parishes' abandoned, abused and hungry animals being sheltered in less then
adequate conditions made worse from Ike, Gustav and Katrina.

Please make a wish come true for the Humane Society of Louisiana!
[I delete direct links to make contributions as it is risky to make donations through third party sites-just go to http://www.threewishesfoundation.org/la_humane_society.html website to get donation link)
Sponsored by Three Wishes Foundation

BIG PRIZES: NOV 6, 2008 DRAWING FROM LIST OF DONORS
Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Coleman E. Adler & Sons Jewelers and Gray Line
Tours / New Orleans Steamboat have all donated items to help raise money for
the 30k in 30 day campaign. The items are valued from between $500 and $100.
A drawing from the list of donors will take place on the 6th of November
when winners will be announced.

Every one who donates to the campaign online has a chance to win:
- Dinner Jazz Cruise for 4
- Westwego Swamp Boat Cruise for 4
- Gray Line Cocktail Walking Tour for 4
- A $500 piece of Lagos jewelry
- Sheraton Package for a 2 night stay for 2 people with complimentary
breakfast located on historic Canal Street, bordering the French Quarter

Help out the Humane Society of Louisiana and Three Wishes Foundation by your donation of $25 or more and you will receive one of the cute plush barking or meowing pets!

Help us raise money for animal care, building and supplies.
Please help us provide care and service to animals in these hardest hit parishes.

Last days for purchase to help Whiskerville

As noted in a comment by Mishak, "EFA-ArtistsHelpingAnimals is featuring Whiskerville as our charity of the month - we are donating to them through sales in our Etsy shop at this October - for more information please see:
http://efaartistshelpinganimals.org/ (or see the shop at http://www.etsyforanimals. etsy.com"

There are only a few days left this month to get a neat gift and help out Whiskerville. So go to their Team Store--maybe you will find a Christmas gift or one for yourself.

Bay Area Pet Adoptions needs help

I got behind but I am back and catching up. And though Hurricane Ike has long gone, small animal rescues and shelters are still in great need. Bay Area Pet Adoptions is a shelter is San Leon, Texas which is right on bay not far from the Gulf Coast that suffered significant damage from Hurricane Ike. This is one of their photos showing some of the damage. Below is a list of their updated list of needs.

>>Current Needs 10/27/2008 We still need so many things to continue helping the animals:
1. Financial Contributions: Donate online here or mail a check to PO Box 638, Kemah, TX 77565.
2. Veterinary Gift Certificates for Special Needs Animals.
3. Volunteers for Off-Site Adoption Days. View details here.
4. Gas Cards for use our Adoption and Supply Van.
5. Storage Building (ours were damaged by Ike).
6. On-Site Volunteers: We need volunteers to continue with cleanup and ongoing recovery.
7. HeartGard Heartworm Prevention/Frontline Tick & Flea Prevention Spray.
8. Small and Medium Stainless Steel Water/Food Bowls for Cats.
9. Filing Cabinets and General Office Supplies (our main building and contents have extensive damage).
10. Volunteers! We need your help. Please view our Volunteer needs.

Recovery Update 10/27/2008
• Our phone system is still not functioning properly, including our fax.
• We are unable to accept credit cards until we receive a new machine.
• Our hours are 12-5 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday until further notice.
• Closed Wednesday & Sunday.
• Our facilities have suffered severe damage and there is still much work to be done. View photos.
• We are working out of the remaining habitable buildings. If you visit us for an adoption, please be patient.

Please Help
• We rely on donations and minimal adoption fees to house, feed, and provide medical care to the
animals at our facility.
• We do not receive any government funding.
• We are a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.
• We have been serving the Houston Bay Area since 1967>

Thanks to Miskat for bringing this group to my attention.

Humane Society endorses Obama

Humane Society Legislative Fund Endorses Obama-Biden

One of the guiding principles of the Humane Society Legislative Fund is that we evaluate candidates based on a single criterion: where they stand on animal protection policies. We don’t make decisions based on party affiliation, or any other social issue, or even how many pets they have. We care about their views and actions on the major policy debates relating to animal welfare.

It stirs controversy to get involved in candidate elections. But we believe that candidates for office and current lawmakers must be held accountable, or they will see the animal protection movement as a largely irrelevant political constituency. In order to have good laws, we need good lawmakers, and involvement in elections is an essential strategy for any serious social movement, including our cause.

While we’ve endorsed hundreds of congressional candidates for election, both Democrats and Republicans, we’ve never before endorsed a presidential candidate. We have members on the left, in the center, and on the right, and we knew it could be controversial to choose either party’s candidate for the top office in the nation. But in an era of sweeping presidential power, we must weigh in on this most important political race in the country. Standing on the sidelines is no longer an option for us.

Obama I’m proud to announce today that the HSLF board of directors—which is comprised of both Democrats and Republicans—has voted unanimously to endorse Barack Obama for President. The Obama-Biden ticket is the better choice on animal protection, and we urge all voters who care about the humane treatment of animals, no matter what their party affiliation, to vote for them.

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has been a solid supporter of animal protection at both the state and federal levels. As an Illinois state senator, he backed at least a dozen animal protection laws, including those to strengthen the penalties for animal cruelty, to help animal shelters, to promote spaying and neutering, and to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption. In the U.S. Senate, he has consistently co-sponsored multiple bills to combat animal fighting and horse slaughter, and has supported efforts to increase funding for adequate enforcement of the Animal Welfare Act, Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and federal laws to combat animal fighting and puppy mills.

In his response to the HSLF questionnaire, he pledged support for nearly every animal protection bill currently pending in Congress, and said he will work with executive agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior to make their policies more humane. He wrote of the important role animals play in our lives, as companions in our homes, as wildlife in their own environments, and as service animals working with law enforcement and assisting persons with disabilities. He also commented on the broader links between animal cruelty and violence in society.

Obama has even on occasion highlighted animal protection issues on the campaign trail, and has spoken publicly about his support for animal protection. In reaction to the investigation showing the abuse of sick and crippled cows which earlier this year led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, he issued a statement saying “that the mistreatment of downed cows is unacceptable and poses a serious threat to public health.” He is featured in Jana Kohl’s book about puppy mills, A Rare Breed of Love, with a photo of Obama holding Baby (shown above), the three-legged poodle rescued from an abusive puppy mill operation, and his political mentor, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), is the author of the latest federal bill to crack down on puppy mills.

Obamabiden2 Importantly, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) has been a stalwart friend of animal welfare advocates in the Senate, and has received high marks year after year on the Humane Scorecard. Biden has not only supported animal protection legislation during his career, but has also led the fight on important issues. He was the co-author with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) in the 108th Congress on legislation to ban the netting of dolphins by commercial tuna fishermen. He was the lead author of a bill in the 107th Congress to prohibit trophy hunting of captive exotic mammals in fenced enclosures, and he successfully passed the bill through the Senate Judiciary Committee.

On the Republican ticket, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has also supported some animal protection bills in Congress, but has been inattentive or opposed to others. He has voted for and co-sponsored legislation to stop horse slaughter, and voted to eliminate a $2 million subsidy for the luxury fur coat industry. But he has largely been absent on other issues, and has failed to co-sponsor a large number of priority bills or sign onto animal protection letters that have had broad support in the Senate.

The McCain campaign did not fill out the HSLF presidential questionnaire, and has also not issued any public statements on animal welfare issues. He was silent during the downed animal scandal and beef recall, which played out during a high-point in the primary fight. Yet he did speak at the NRA convention earlier this year, and is the keynote speaker this weekend in Columbus, Ohio, at the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance rally—an extremist organization that defends the trophy hunting of threatened polar bears and captive shooting of tame animals inside fenced pens.

While McCain’s positions on animal protection have been lukewarm, his choice of running mate cemented our decision to oppose his ticket. Gov. Sarah Palin’s (R-Alaska) retrograde policies on animal welfare and conservation have led to an all-out war on Alaska’s wolves and other creatures. Her record is so extreme that she has perhaps done more harm to animals than any other current governor in the United States.

Palin2 Palin engineered a campaign of shooting predators from airplanes and helicopters, in order to artificially boost the populations of moose and caribou for trophy hunters. She offered a $150 bounty for the left foreleg of each dead wolf as an economic incentive for pilots and aerial gunners to kill more of the animals, even though Alaska voters had twice approved a ban on the practice. This year, the issue was up again for a vote of the people, and Palin led the fight against it—in fact, she helped to spend $400,000 of public funds to defeat the initiative.

What’s more, when the Bush Administration announced its decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Palin filed a lawsuit to reverse that decision. She said it’s the “wrong move” to protect polar bears, even though their habitat is shrinking and ice floes are vanishing due to global warming.

The choice for animals is especially clear now that Palin is in the mix. If Palin is put in a position to succeed McCain, it could mean rolling back decades of progress on animal issues.

Voters who care about protecting wildlife from inhumane and unsporting abuses, enforcing the laws that combat large-scale cruelties like dogfighting and puppy mills, providing humane treatment of animals in agriculture, and addressing other challenges that face animals in our nation, must become active over the next six weeks to elect a president and vice president who share our values. Please spread the word, and tell friends and family members that an honest assessment of the records of the two presidential tickets leads to the inescapable conclusion that Obama-Biden is the choice for humane-minded voters.

From http://hslf.typepad.com/political_animal/2008/09/humane-society.html

Spindletop Refuge still really needs help

>>Spindletop Refuge has taken in lots of dogs, primarily bully breeds, pit bulls that deserve a chance, and have had nowhere else to go...they do a great job there, and rehome them whenever possible and appropriate.

Leah tells me they are having a tough time bouncing back from hurricane damage - and she herself was seriously injured by a horse during the cleanup efforts.

They could really use some donations now, to tide them over. Any amount will help take care of the almost two hundred dogs they have there, as well as rescue horses, and even a llama...

They have been shoveling two feet of mud out of their buildings by hand, because a bobcat rental would be $700...if anyone has a line on a bobcat they could use, that would be great.

But for the moment, if you could spare a few bucks, they could really, really use it. Leah has always done her part and taken pit bulls that nobody else wants - she rarely asks for help, but she has asked now...thanks for anything you can do.

http://www.spindletoprefuge.com/>>>

Help Whiskerville Shelter thru contest

Whiskerville is that small animal sanctuary in Texas City, Tx, near Galveston, that I posted about earlier. It accomplishes a lot with a very little. They are desperately in need of funds to purchase a power source for emergency power to provide circulating air in a very hot and humid location so their animals (and the human helpers) don't get so stressed.

There is a website called ZooToo that is conducting a competition that will result in a make-over for a shelter. The shelter gains points when supporters join , post photos and videos on their site, write a review, comment on the news or one of several other internet activities on their site.

Whiskerville has only 320 points so far--sadly, this make-over should be awarded the most deserving shelter. Oh, well--let's give Whiskerville a shot at the makeover. Register to begin helping them. SeEtta

Daughter of man killed rescuing dogs is found

"Answers come too late for Ike worker's daughter
Clear Lake woman uses Web to track down adult child of man killed while saving dogs from freeway
By DANE SCHILLER
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Oct. 7, 2008, 10:29PM

The e-mail from a stranger in Clear Lake was to the point, and an improbable end to a Pittsburgh woman's 13 years of searching for the father she hadn't spoken to since she was a kid.

"Is your father's name Robert Emery? The whole city of Houston is looking for any relatives," read the message.

Alaina Emery was startled as she stared at a computer screen while in the library at paralegal school.

Trembling and swept with emotion, she misunderstood the reason for the question.

"Why is the entire city of Houston looking for him?" she typed back.

The exchange would quickly lead to Alaina, now 25, realizing her long-lost father was Robert "Bob" Emery, the mysterious Hurricane Ike relief worker killed the night of Sept. 27 as he dashed onto the East Freeway to rescue three dogs stranded in the emergency lane hugging the median.

The men who worked with him clearing storm debris and traveled with him from the Florida Keys described him as a big-hearted jack-of-all trades, but knew nothing of his past." read the full story here