Animal groups to get $600,000

Partnership with ASPCA aimed at saving area's unwanted pets

By Jenny Peterson
The Post and Courier
Charleston, South Carolina

Surrounded by dogs of all shapes and sizes, local animal welfare groups gathered Tuesday at the Charleston Animal Society shelter in North Charleston to accept a $600,000 pledge to help save more abandoned and unwanted pets.

The money, presented by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, will be used to help increase area shelter adoption rates by 10 percent within a year and reach a 75 percent save rate by 2011.

"This is not smoke and mirrors" said ASPCA President Ed Sayers. "These are real numbers the community can be accountable to." Charleston County is the eighth community in the nation to partner with the ASPCA on its "Mission: Orange" campaign.

The $600,000 can be used in a number of ways, including increasing adoption efforts, offering incentives for spaying and neutering and educating the public about the 10,668 homeless pets that local shelters took in last year alone.

As part of the campaign, the ASPCA has sent a team of six employees to Charleston County to help determine which areas need the most work.

"The concept is like training wheels. The idea is that you give the community the tools (it needs)," Sayers said, after the presentation.

To learn more about "Mission: Orange," go to aspca.org.

"It's unconscionable to have the thousands of animals killed every year," Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said. "We will be a model for the rest of the country."

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Go orange to prevent cruelty to animals!

Today is ASPCA Day, time to go Orange!

Every year on April 10, the anniversary date of the founding of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in 1866, the ASPCA celebrates ASPCA Day and encourages animal lovers of all ages nationwide to GO ORANGE FOR ANIMALS!

Going Orange on ASPCA Day is a tribute to the work of the ASPCA and a celebration of compassion and kindness for all living things everywhere. (Orange is the official ASPCA color and what better to celebrate than our love of animals?)

The ASPCA is the first and oldest humane organization in the Western Hemisphere and they need the continued support of animal lovers like you to help us spread the message of kindness and compassion across the country. They created this ASPCA Day Grassroots Kit to get you started. Please join in celebrating the work that they do and the animals that we serve by going orange for animals today!

Here's what you can do:

• Learn how you can report animal cruelty, and prevent it from happening.
• Share information about the ASPCA by posting these great flyers around your neighborhood!
• Pledge your allegiance to protecting animals by taking the ASPCA Pledge.
• Tie an orange ribbon around your mailbox and trees to remind people to be kind to animals!
• Wear orange, take a hike around your neighborhood and share information about the prevention of cruelty to animals.
• Dress in orange today and spread the word about animal cruelty and what people can do to help.
• Send an orange ecard to your friends, family and everyone you know!

Have you taken the pledge to fight animal cruelty?

Help the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in their commitment to fight animal cruelty!

Take the pledge today! Tell the ASPCA you will do all that is possible to help the animals in my community live happy, healthy lives, and pledge to:

• Learn to Recognize Animal Cruelty.
• Report Animal Cruelty.
• Set a Good Example for Others.
• Fight for the Passage of Anti-Cruelty Laws by Joining the ASPCA Advocacy Brigade.

And if you have the funds, why not take in a land auction buy up some small parcel of land and donate it to your local shelter or rescue!