Recently the daily Ted Talks email featured one of my favorite poets, Billy Collins, reciting two of his poems written from the viewpoint of dogs. They are entertaining, insightful and thought provoking. It's just a short 4 minute video. Well worth the time!

As we all know, animal shelters are overrun with pets at this time of year as many dogs and cats unfortunately continue to reproduce. We wanted to share some of the exciting and creative ideas we've seen recently to encourage and increase pet adoptions.

In Detroit, a poor automotive economy and a dwindling population have resulted in a rise in crime and dog fighting. Animals have no value in this harsh world and are tossed out without food, water, and shelter to fend for themselves on the brutal streets. Learn about the horrific realities through the eyes of Detroit Animal Welfare Group (DAWG) volunteers as they comb the desolate streets to help the thousands of homeless animals in need.

A dog and cat’s life is a short one in Iraq. If they manage to escape the horrible abuse, they are likely to starve to death or die painfully due to illness or heat exhaustion. These animals are rarely shown any mercy for they are seen as worthless rodents, a nuisance to society.

This month, we aim to deploy an OBP rescue mission in a new part of the world; a reminder that US servicemen and women everywhere need our help. There are many brave men and women serving around the world making connections with animals that help them through tough times.

All of my life, I’ve never been much of a carnivore, always gravitating toward vegetables. Well before I could have understood the realities of factory farming I just knew I didn’t want to eat animals. In fifth grade, I proudly announced to my parents that I wouldn’t eat “anything that had a face”. Luckily, I had a caring mother who would make a second vegetarian meal for me almost nightly, but it hasn’t stopped my father from offering me pork chops, steak or lamb still to this day, every chance…

I have wonderful news to share with you! Sarge reunited with Dan and his wife this week thanks to generous donations from supporters like you! Thank you so much for helping us keep this heroic and loyal military family together. Not only that, but thanks to the outpouring of support for Sarge, enough funds were raised to help many other military families facing the same difficult situation.

This month we celebrate the first anniversary of SPCA International’s Operation Military Pets program. Over the past year, SPCA International has played a lifesaving role for 251 military families’ pets. For numerous financial reasons, each dog and cat faced the risk of having to be left behind – either in an already overcrowded animal shelter or handed off to someone else when their families moved to their next duty location. Thankfully 212 dogs and 37 cats were able to remain with their…

As many of our supporters now know, SPCA International was honored to testify at the Congress of Deputies in Spain about Greyhound abuse issues in Spain on March 12th 2014. It was totally unexpected that we would have the opportunity to speak at this groundbreaking meeting, but we were delighted to get the chance to be a loud voice for Greyhounds of Spain and the rescue groups in Spain working diligently to stop the tradition of abuse and killing. We made brief spoken statements and also…

In December 2013, 293 dogs were abandoned at a boarding kennel outside of Dallas, TX. They were abandoned by a rescue organization that ran out of funding and could no longer pay their boarding fees. The animal loving kennel owners spent their savings attempting to find homes for these abandoned animals. They were successful in placing 93 of the animals with local rescue groups and private homes. Now the remaining 200 face the risk of euthanasia without outside help. The kennel continues their…