Let me preface this blog with a disclaimer. I am technically NOT a New Yawka. I was born in Connecticut, New York’s bedroom state. I have worked in New York, owned businesses in New York, paid taxes in New York, and spent a lot of time here. I truly LOVE New York. I would live here if the taxes weren’t so high and the government wasn’t so
insane.
When I used to travel for business people used to ask me where I was from. When I said Connecticut they would say “where’s that?” So I just started saying New York. New Yorkers are different. We are tough, we are driven, and we are brash. We don’t sit on our front porches and sip sweet tea and fan ourselves with shell-shaped fans. We get stuff done. Competition is tough and fierce and if you make a mistake you get eaten alive. New Yorkers are very fair and have the most well defined bulls–t detector I have ever seen. Having spent a lot of time in other parts of the country it became obvious to me that as a New Yorker I could run rings around most of my competition, because truly, if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.
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Filed in
No-kill by Admnistrator on Jun 29, 2010. There are comments.
So Best Friends said this, in the recent backlash they are getting over Oreo’s Law:
>>In 2007, Best Friends rescued a failed and dilapidated Pets Alive sanctuary by investing over a million dollars and 8 months of a rotating cadre of Best Friends staff to get the organization back on its feet. Best Friends has spent millions of dollars and countless hours of staff and volunteer time in the past few years bailing out or cleaning up after 501c3s and rescues that have gotten in over their head with animals they can’t handle. These include Pets Alive, Gabbs, Nevada, FLOCK in Las Vegas, Oasis Sanctuary in New York….
…In fact, a number of dogs from Pets Alive, to whom the current management did not feel they could do justice, and who had languished there in squalid conditions prior to our intervention in 2007, were taken in at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Utah.<<
Yes, Best Friends, this is true. Well MOST of it. It wasn’t a million dollars you spent here. We know, because we got the bill from you that your past CEO, Paul Berry eventually waived, when he saw how great we were doing and how we would become a force for animals in this area. That bill, before it was waived, was just under $500,000. A minor point, but please, no need to inflate it. Let’s stick to the facts here. We have not bad mouthed you or beaten you up – in fact when people were saying they were going to withdraw support from you, we said “DON’T DO THAT”! We have stressed how we disagree with your opinion on being neutral about this and how critical we needed your support on this bill. That’s it. Others have run with it and it has gone viral but to attack us isn’t really necessary. We didn’t…we COULD. Remember all the things that happened in those eight months? Ouch. We all know each others secrets, don’t we? Secrets that are better left between us, yes?
WE – Pets Alive – don’t really have any secrets. Our bad history has been all over the web (and we include it on our website). In fact, we make no secret about it at all – I am the one that called you when I saw Pets Alive, and how bad it was. I was the one that personally begged you to come down and save all the animals. WE, the people here now, are NOT the people that were here THEN when the situation was so bad. YOU put us here, YOU trained us, WE are YOU. We follow all your protocols, and all your job descriptions and indeed use YOUR adoption contract, and YOUR surrender forms, and your hiring methods – we are you. We are what you trained us to be. And you trained us to always be on the side of animals and speak out and help where we see wrong.
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Filed in
Legislation,
No-kill by kerry on Jun 29, 2010. There are comments.
We are still reeling from the trouncing we took in the New York Assembly Agriculture Committee over Oreo’s Law. Now we’re watching Nathan Winograd and the No Kill Advocacy Center take Best Friends Animal Society to task over Best Friend’s “neutrality” (read lack of support) for the bill, and Best Friends’ subsequent trashing of Nathan over it.
Pets Alive has been part of Oreo’s Law since the beginning. As you recall it was us who asked the ASPCA of New York to give us Oreo instead of killing her, and it was the ASPCA and its President Ed Sayres who killed her instead. We have been intimately involved with this process, and we have first hand, behind-the-scenes knowledge of what has transpired. Kerry and/or I have been on many phone calls and in many meetings. Assembly Member Micah Kellner, who with his legislative aide Ilyana worked tirelessly to write Oreo’s Law and try to get it passed, was honored at our Hudson Valley Fur Ball. He sat at my table and we had a great conversation. We regret that we weren’t more personally active in helping to get this law passed, but you can be absolutely certain that come January when we try again we will be much more involved. Hopefully at that time the Agriculture Committee will have a new chairman.
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Filed in
No-kill by Admnistrator on Jun 27, 2010. There are comments.
There are so many forces at work with trying to get Oreo’s Law passed.
The ASPCA and the Mayor’s Alliance, both charged with saving animals and
given millions of dollars to do so, are pouring money and resources into
defeating the bill, ensuring that they continue to control which animals
live and die in New York City and throughout the state.
It’s a classic David versus Goliath proposition, and Goliath is winning.
They’ve convinced the chairman of the Agriculture Committee (Robert
Magee) to table the bill because the “language isn’t clear.” What part
of “if a qualified rescue requests an animal that would otherwise be
euthanized the request must be fulfilled” don’t they understand?
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Filed in
Legislation,
No-kill by kerry on Jun 14, 2010. There are comments.
On Tuesday, Oreo’s Law will be voted on by the New York State (NYS) Assembly Agriculture Committee. But it is not likely to pass without a large showing of community support between now and then. That is because the Committee Chairman is recommending a “hold,” the equivalent of being tabled, which would mean Oreo’s Law would die in committee, despite the fact that it has legislative cosponsors across the state and supporters outnumber the opposition.
If Oreo’s Law is defeated, thousands upon thousands of cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, rabbits, and other animals will continue to be needlessly killed in NYS shelters every year—animals Oreo’s Law has the power to save.
A statewide survey of NYS rescue groups found that over 70% were being turned away because the shelters were hostile to rescue groups, and then those shelters turned around and killed the very animals the rescuers were willing to save. Shelter directors across New York State are arbitrarily turning away qualified rescue groups because they are hostile to rescue and arbitrarily refuse to work with them. We have experienced this time and time again, right here in Orange County, in our own backyard. Time and again we offer to take in animals that other local shelters are about to kill and they turn us away and laugh about it. THIS HAS TO STOP!
WE HAVE MADE IT EASY FOR YOU TO EMAIL ALL THE AG MEMBERS WITH ONE CLICK! Just click this link: http://www.petsalive.com/email/
and it will do everything FOR you.
Why should animals across New York State be killed even though rescue groups have offered to save these animals? Today, those animals are ending up in landfills, when they should be going to rescue groups where they will be cared for at no cost to taxpayers until a permanent and loving home can be found. Oreo’s Law would give NYS shelter animals that future. The law would make it illegal for a shelter to kill an animal if a qualified rescue group is willing to save that animal’s life. Oreo’s Law was written with the assistance of the nation’s top animal lawyers, the nation’s most successful former and current shelter directors, and those who have actually created successful No Kill communities (which neither the ASPCA nor Mayor’s Alliance, Oreo’s Law chief opponents, have been able to do despite hundreds of millions of dollars in combined annual revenues).
It saves lives and it saves money.
And it protects against hoarders, abusers, and dog fighters.
So the animals need you. They need the voice of the people, every day animal lovers, and rescuers to speak for them. They need you to call committee members and urge them to vote "Yes." Because they don’t have anyone else and only an overwhelming show of support can save Oreo’s Law from defeat and the animals from certain death.
WITHOUT YOU MAKING THESE CALLS AND SENDING THESE EMAILS – OREO’S LAW is dead – just like Oreo is today,
even though Pets Alive offered to give her sanctuary.
Tragically, right doesn’t always defeat might. Sometimes the animals don’t win. Sometimes they continue to get killed despite a readily available lifesaving and rescue alternative. Sometimes a feral kitten who a rescue group is willing to socialize and place in a loving home will instead get injected with poison from a bottle marked “fatal plus” and then dumped in a landfill. Sometimes a puppy who can go to rescue and be guaranteed a home will be killed instead. Sometimes a person who kills an abused dog a rescue group was willing to save gets away with murder. For their sake, please do not let this be one of those times. This may be the best chance we have as a generation to make a PURPOSEFUL POSITIVE impact for animals! We can change the world here folks – please. Help. This is critical. Time is of the essence. Don’t think about it – take a few moments to send an email or make a call.
Please call (all the assembly phone numbers can be found here: http://bit.ly/9nC0z2)and e-mail the NYS Assembly Agriculture Committee members today.
WE HAVE MADE IT SUPER EASY FOR YOU TO EMAIL THEM ALL WITH ONE CLICK! Just click this link: http://www.petsalive.com/email/ and it will do everything FOR you.
Because without you, the animals don’t stand a chance.
This is Oreo. She was killed even though Pets Alive offered her sanctuary.
Don’t let this happen to another animals.
Thank you to Nathan Winograd for compiling much of this text.
Filed in
Animal Rescue,
No-kill by kerry on Jun 10, 2010. There are comments.