Veterinarian Jeff Young updates an idea from Menander, Ben Franklin, & Ralph Waldo Emerson DENVER, Colorado––Jeff Young, DVM, star of the reality TV show Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet, reaching more than a million viewers per episode since 2015, wants to sell the veterinary and humane communities on the concept he calls Spay-It-Forward. Young, an animal control officer […]
Increasing the survival rates of kittens
by Nancy Peterson & the National Kitten Coalition (with some kibbitzing from ANIMALS 24-7) Five years ago––six years ago in July 2021––I retired after 18 years as first and still only national cat program manager for the Humane Society of the United States. Having a national and even sometimes international platform to help animals, especially […]
COVID-19: Trump order reopening slaughterhouses was not about food
But preserving profits, “red state” votes, and keeping workers on the job despite risk were of paramount concern SIOUX CITY, Iowa––Risk of a U.S. food shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic had nothing to do with the April 28, 2020 decision of U.S. President Donald Trump to invoke the Defense Production Act to keep slaughterhouses running. […]
$5 for a cat head: True stories of animal welfare, with hands-on tips for helping animals
by Linda Chitwood Director, The Homeless Animals Relief Project 200 pages, $29.00, c/o HARP, POB 371, Senatobia, MS 38668; https://homelessanimalsreliefproject.org/index.html. Reviewed by Merritt Clifton Describing herself as “eighty percent of the way to dead,” longtime Memphis nurse anesthetist Linda Chitwood relocated forty miles south to Senatobia, Mississippi in 1996, apparently expecting to spend a lot […]
Feline Fix by Five: the F-word campaign
One simple change can have profound results by Philip A. Bushby, DVM, MS, DACVS The Veterinary Task Force on Feline Sterilization for Age of Spay and Neuter Surgery was convened in January 2016 to review issues surrounding the overpopulation of cats and the standard recommendation that ovariohysterectomy and castration of cats be delayed until cats are […]
AVMA insight: cats are not dogs, so “Fix felines by five months”
Early-age sterilization, already widely practiced, is on pace to win full AVMA compliance by the year 2100 SCHAUMBERG, Illinois––Having realized that a cat is not a dog, following the advice of an expert panel issued in July 2016, the American Veterinary Medical Association board of directors in July 2017 “endorsed a document recommending that […]
We cannot adopt, warehouse or rescue our way out of dog & cat overpopulation!
by Jeff Young, DVM My name is Jeff Young. I have been a veterinarian for more than 25 years. I have been on numerous humane society boards, was an animal control officer before I became a veterinarian, and I speak and consult on companion animal overpopulation issues all over […]
Pit bulls now in the “rez dog” gene pool
Seeking a better solution for reservations than culling Part III of a three-part series. See also: 12-pit bull attack on toddler spotlights soaring risk on reservations and Pit bull proliferation hits “Indian country”: fatal dog attacks triple “The solution,” to dog attacks on Native American reservations, “is to cull the dog population, and provide spay/neuter services […]
No-Kill: the “Mission Accomplished” movement?
by Esther Mechler The so-called “NoKill” movement needs to be renamed the “Mission Accomplished” movement in honor of the “Mission Accomplished” speech delivered by U.S. President George W. Bush on May 1, 2003 aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. Bush stated in the speech that the war in Iraq was finished. That was over […]
“Fix Felines by Five Months” — Spay/USA founder Esther Mechler
“Spay delay has been as bad an influence (especially for cats) as lack of resources.” Thanks so much for putting out the great article on “The Queen,” by Marvin Mackie, DVM. It seems that a large number of people including too many vets are fuzzy about the topic – I know I was. As you […]