Carole Davis is an actress, writer and animal rights activist. She is married to Kevin Rooney.

Carole Raphaelle Davis, West Coast Director of the  Companion Animal Protection Society, is a frequent contributor our show. Take a look at her in action:

By Carole Raphaelle Davis

As California’s economic crisis deepens, our local shelter system faces budget cuts that will drastically increase the number of animals killed. More than 80% of stray and abandoned cats who enter our shelter system do not make it out alive.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, we recently passed a spay/neuter ordinance stipulating that owners who do not have a breeder’s license sterilize their cats and dogs. Unfortunately, it’s not being enforced.

Our city has a cat overpopulation crisis.

CAT STATS:

Impounds went up this year: Sept 2010 thru Aug 2011:  22,504

Euthanasia went up this year: Sept 2010 thru Aug 2011:  13,501

UNWEANED KITTEN STATS

Impounds went up this year: Sept 2010 thru Aug 2011:  9,750

Euthanasia (let’s call it what it is and not use the euphemism), killing went up this year:

Sept 2010 thru Aug 2011:  7,361 dead kittens

75.5% of impounded kittens were killed. KITTENS!

Kittens

HOW DO WE STOP THESE CATS FROM BEING KILLED?

Christienne Metropole, President of The Stray Cat Alliance, (www.StrayCatAlliance.org) says, “Stopping the killing is doable if the shelter director and the community work together to implement what we now call ‘progressive’ programs. Most shelters don’t have adequate outreach for adoptions, education for the public about community cats and they do not have free spay neuter. The vast majority of cats coming into shelters are community cats and the public is not educated about how to properly deal with them and they are not given the resources. Shelters will take in cats ad infinitum costing tax payers millions upon millions of dollars but they won’t (for the most part) create free spay neuter programs that save tax dollars and lives. Thankfully, this is changing little by little.”

Everybody knows there are too many unwanted cats. Yet, thoughtless commercial breeders pretending to like cats are sponsoring cat shows that promote breeding for profit. People who truly like cats ought to stop breeding, selling or buying them.

Here’s a suggestion: Ethical cat shows where all the cats getting ribbons have been rescued from death row at the pound.

Carole Raphaelle Davis is
West Coast Director, Companion Animal Protection Society. You can contact her at:
www.caps-web.org
www.rivierarescue.blogspot.com
www.hollywooddog.blogspot.com
www.HollywoodJinky.com

“If you save just one life, it is as if you saved the entire world.”