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This website has been created to make you
aware of the issues surrounding pound
seizure/pound release and the
Class B animal
dealers.
We hope that what you learn here will make
you pause and think; ask questions and
demand answers; and motivate you to take
the necessary action to ensure they STOP
taking our pets. |
Pound seizure, also referred to as pound
release, takes place when state or local
government mandate that our tax-funded animal
shelters release unclaimed pet dogs and cats
to be sold for research and product testing.
In few instances the end-users, the medical or
industrial institutions, purchase these
animals directly from the shelters. In almost
all cases however, it is the Class B dealers
who get our pets for free or at greatly
reduced rates from shelters and sell them, at
significant profit, for research.
Fourteen visionary
states, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New
York, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, West Virginia, South Carolina, and
Hawaii have banned pound seizure/pound
release. This is known as our national
goal! Two states, Minnesota and Utah,
require their tax-funded animal shelters to
turn animals over for research. This is known
as 'pound seizure.' Most states however, leave
it up to local governments to decide. This is
referred to as 'pound release.' Pets obtained
from animal shelters are among those referred
to as 'random source animals.'
In a perfect world there
would be no need for animal shelters so there
would be no pound release. However the world
is not perfect. For one reason or another
people find they can no longer keep or care
for their family pets. They take them to the
animal shelter hoping they will find a new
home. Or, pets somehow become lost. They and
their families depend upon the kindness of
others who may find these animals to take them
to the shelter so they can be reunited. Or the
shelter confiscates animals who are victims of
cruelty and abuse. For these poor creatures
the animal shelter may represent the first
decent meal and first roof over their heads
they have ever known. And for these abused
pets - who have known only fear, pain and
suffering for their entire lives; and for the
pets given up by their families thru no fault
of their own; and for the strays whose owners
may not know where to look for them - what do
we offer them? A chance at a new home and a
new life? A humane and speedy ending if no new
home is found? Or a terrifying trip to the B
dealer as they await an even worse fate at the
hands of who knows what kind of research or
industrial product testing.
Most of us believe that
our tax-funded animal shelters exist to safely
house the pets entrusted to their care either
until they are reunited with their owners,
adopted into a new home or humanely
euthanized. Most people are unaware that their
shelter may be one of those mandated to
release pets for experiments. Upon learning
this many people become reluctant to use their
shelters. Instead they'd rather leave - or
abandon - animals on the street, figuring
their chances there are better than being sent
to a lab. When this happens how can families
ever be reunited with their pets? Instead
those that survive breed and create more
surplus litters, only now these animals are
feral. Resultant disease and parasites from
these abandoned animals contribute to public
health problems. Oftentimes the animals pack
to become more efficient at finding food. Bite
incidents increase. Stray animals on streets
and freeways trying to find their way home
contribute to vehicle accidents which can
result in human injury or even death.
Now whose interests have
been served? The community's? Or the B
dealer's? Animal shelters have worked hard to
remedy the oft-times negative public
perception of them as a place 'that kills
animals.' However euthanasia is not the
monster the public needs to fear, but rather
pound release - the relinquishing of our
nation's pets to Class B dealers who profit by
selling them to be experimented on.
Pound release is one of
the most controversial issues surrounding our
animal shelters today. The shelters' governing
bodies are constantly being pressured by the
profit driven B dealers to continue to supply
them with this cheap source of pets. Pound
release is big business. Very big. And of
course the dealers do not want to lose this
goose that continues to lay the golden egg.
They thump their chests and loudly proclaim
that "they save lives!" That medical research
would come to a screeching halt without pound
release. That those who oppose them must be
'animal rights fanatics', a favorite
conversation stopper. A negative and distorted
label the biomedical/industrial community has
paid many hundreds of thousands of dollars to
create. A label wholly designed to be
inflammatory and obfuscate the truth.
The truth is, of course,
that the use of pound animals is not essential
to medical research. As a matter of fact it is
actually detrimental. These animals are of
unknown genetic, environmental and medical
background making the reliability of research
in which they are used questionable. The Class
A dealer's purpose bred animals of documented
genetic and medical background are the
research animals of choice.
The issue is not whether
animal research benefits human health, but
whether banning pound seizure will adversely
affect research. The truth is that research
will not suffer and that its quality may
actually increase. This is not about animal
rights. Bad research can kill people.
There are many
world-class research institutes in this and
other countries who refuse to use random
source animals from shelters. They have been
performing cutting edge research and will
continue with state of the art biomedical
research - without using pets from shelters.
Pound release and the use of random source
animals has been banned in England, Denmark,
Sweden, and Holland. The World Health
Organization advises against the use of
random-source animals in research, as does the
Council of Europe. The NIH does not to allow
the use of random source animals in their
intramural research.
Our goal is to make
animal shelters the safe place for our pets
that they were meant to be. As a tax-supported
entity their function must be to serve the
needs of the community, not private industry.
If our nation's pets who are housed in these
facilities - our pets who have given us a
lifetime of loyalty and devotion - cannot be
guaranteed a decent life, then it is up to us
to ensure that they are guaranteed a decent
death. Free from worry, fear and harm. In
order for that to happen we must STOP pound
seizure and pound release.
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