Do your part

The best way we can all give back to our community regarding animal welfare is to do our part to be responsible pet guardians and to save lives when we can.  We do this through spaying and neutering our pets, including free-roaming cats.  We do this through adopting our pets from rescues and animal shelters/sanctuaries when we are ready to add a new furry member to our family vs. buying them from backyard breeders or pet stores/puppy mills.  Lastly, we do this by realizing that the local animal shelter should be the place of last resort for any animals we find or need to re-home.  It is better to hang onto the animal for a while and help find it a new home yourself than to add to the overburdened shelter, where most animals sadly go to die.  Until this changes and our Animal Control departments and shelter reform to match modern and progressive approaches to animal welfare and start turning around our kill rate, we need to be mindful that our animal shelter is not a true safety net for homeless animals.

Please see our Links & Resources page for rescues and animal groups in our area that you can contact when needed.  Also visit our  Animals in Need page for a listing of animals in our community that are lost, found, or seeking a new home.  From our Links & Resources page, download our Animal Resources Guide for ideas on how to deal with animal issues that arise, such as steps to take when you lose or find a pet.  Also listed in this guide are all the pet resources in our area, including trainers, groomers, supply stores, animal-welfare groups, etc.

APA urges you to "bring them into your home and heart"! 

Cats and dogs are our domestic partners in life, and they deserve to be with us as a respected part of our family.  It's especially important to bring them into your home and protect them from extreme temperatures/weather and give them the social support they also need.  If you find that you have tied out a dog 24/7 that you never pay attention to and want to change that, contact us for assistance:  644-0505.

A Call to ACTion:  Please contact Gov. Martinez about proposed BSL being suggested against
"pit bull mixes"

After months of many individuals and animal groups attempting to educate Sen. Beffort about dogs, the nature of dog attacks, and the dangers and shortcomings of breed-specific legislation (BSL), it appears that it has done little good.  She is now asking Gov. martinez to introduce her legislation in January.

Please contact Gov. Martinez and and ask for her continued support and further work to help reach just and sound animal laws that protect everyone--our pets and our people.  Inform her that BSL is not the answer and that there is nothing wrong with our Dangerous Dog Law; it is actually a good one.  To contact the governor: http://www.governor.state.nm.us/Contact_the_Governor.aspx.

Background Information

“Unless you have an AKC or other kennel groups’ registration, you will then have to be on notice and have to have different types of insurance available — that you know in advance that you have a potentially dangerous dog,” Sen. Beffort said of suggesting the addition of "pit bull mixes" to the existing Dangerous Dog New Mexico law.  In other words, these suggested updates to the law would be targeting innocent pit bull mix owners and their dogs, which is problematic in and of itself becuase pit bull is not a breed and many dogs labeled as pit bull mixes because of their looks don't have any Staffordshire Terrier in them at all (the actual breed typcially referred to as a pit bull).  The very basis for this legislation is faulty and unfair.

What this law will do is grant animal control officials the ability to obtain warrants to seize unregistered dogs if they deem to have “probable cause to believe that a dog is a dangerous dog” based on their supposedly being a "pit bull mix".  It will cause people to have to carry expensive insurance just to have a mixed-breed dog with a certain look, or it will cause more of these types of dogs to be banned in rental housing properties, etc., which is already an issue nationwide and on our military housing installations. 

As it is, our community already lacks resources for these types of mixed-breed dogs who need the most help and whose population is very high in our area.  Next to chihuahuas and their mixes, dogs who match the stereotype of a pit bull mix is the next-to-largest popular dog in the Las Cruces area alone. 

Do we really want to emulate Denver, CO, where families have suffered thousands of unjustified deaths of their four-legged family members from seizures by animal services as a result of similar laws?  Here in NM, we are better than that, and we already have a good Dangerous Dog law in effect.  If this law had been used and enforced prior to the fatal dog attack case in T or C recently, which Sen. Beffort is using as the basis of this proposed legislation, then that attack could have been prevented.  The conduct of those owners and their dogs as a result of being trained to be aggressive and then left to wander loose was dangerous and negligent, and most people in the community knew it, including law enforcement.  Though tragic and horrific, the rest of us in NM should not have to pay for the mistakes of these particular owners and those officials, and neither should our pit bull-type dog family members.

Responsible pet guardians should not have to live in fear or be placed on any type of registry, as if they have, or will, commit a crime; we should also not have to carry special insurance. Discriminatory laws such as the one being proposed by Senator Beffort, where dogs are discrimiated on looks alone (akin to racial profiling), should be banned as they have been in quite a few other states, including PA. Breed-specific legislation (BSL) of any kind is blanket legislation led by lawmakers who do not take the time to educate themselves on how to actually protect their constituents against dog attacks and usually as a knee-jerk reaction to a recent fatal attack.  BSL has proven across the U.S. to have the opposite effect of what these lawmakers intended -- to harm good animals and good families yet offer little protection from actual dangerous dogs for the greater community.  

For more on this subject, see this page from the national experts on the subject, the National Canine Research Council:
http://nationalcanineresearchcouncil.com/dog-legislation/ineffective-laws/.

Help transform our community

Our community has a long way to go in working toward the day we save the lives of the majority of our homeless animals.  Following are the cornerstones to our community's needed transformation to more progressive approaches to animal welfare.  This is called the No Kill Equation and must be applied rigorously for true change to happen.  To learn more, visit the No Kill Advocacy Center's website.

To learn about New Mexico's drive toward No Kill, visit New Mexico Pets Alive! and Fix New Mexico.

• Feral cat trap-neuter-return and release (TNR) programs
• High-volume, no/low-cost, and targeted spay/neuter services
• Foster care for homeless pets while they await new homes
• Networking and partnering with all rescue groups to save lives
• Comprehensive adoption programs that strive to better match people and pets and compete with other markets
• Pet retention programs to help people deal with issues with their pets and keep them instead of relinquish them
• Medical and behavior programs to nurse sick animals to health and rehabilitate issues instead of killing animals because it's the easier option
• Public relations/community involvement and outreach, including volunteerism from all segments of the population
• Proactive redemption of lost animals with owners 
• Support from a vast group of volunteers
• Compassionate, progressive animal-welfare leadership in our Animal Control departments and animal shelter

Seeking No Kill Advocates
for our Board of Directors

APA's philosophical approach to animal welfare in our community is modern and progressive.  We are part of the No Kill movement as definted and advanced by the No Kill Advocacy Center (www.nokilladvocacycenter.org), which is helping many communities achieve No Kill goals nationwide and worldwide.  We strongly support reform of Animal Control departments and animal shelters to drastically reduce our community's homeless animal kill rate and improve the lives of animals and people. 

If you are a No Kill advocate, someone who wants to help save more feral cats' lives, someone who is partial to the plight of pit bulls in our community, or someone willing and able to learn more about progressive approaches to animal welfare, we'd love for you to join our board of directors and help us step up our advocacy work in the community.  Please give us a call to find out more at 575-644-0505.

No Kill National News and Recent Developments

• Must read -- Ryan Clinton, a national No Kill leader, wants to replicate his success nationwide:  http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Making-a-difference/2011/1031/Ryan-Clinton-wants-to-make-animal-shelters-no-kill-zones
• Best Friends blog about the Austin, TX, model:  http://blogs.bestfriends.org/index.php/2011/06/09/the-austin-model-a-no-kill-grassroots-success-story/
• No Kill communities online tracker; read about the most recent No Kill success stories here: http://www.no-killnews.com/
• Reno experts share their information with San Antonio:  http://www.mysanantonio.com/community/article/Reno-animal-advocates-share-ways-to-achieve-2193811.php
• Michael Mountain's blog on the unfortunate ASPCA Pro materials which were removed the day after they were posted:  http://www.zoenature.org/2011/11/when-a-humane-organization-sounds-like-a-tin-pot-dictator/

It's too cold outside for domestic animals at night!

We urge all pet guardians to bring pets indoors or provide better protection on nights when the temperatures are at or below freezing.  Domestic mammals left to fend for themselves in these low temperatures suffer miserably and could even die.  It’s a common misconception that dogs and cats won't get cold because of their fur.  Rest assured, if you are cold, then your companion animal is cold, too.  

Most domestic animals are not well-equipped for cold weather and can easily be susceptible to frost bite and hypothermia.  Signs of hypothermia include shivering followed by stillness, slow heart beat, lack of coordination, and pale or blue gums.

You can create a better winter shelter if it's not possible to bring your pet indoors. Here's some tips:  

• The shelter should be tall enough for your pet to sit upright and turn around.  If it's much bigger, the animal cannot retain body heat.
• Straw makes good insulation. Blankets or fabric are not good if they get damp because they freeze over.
• Face the shelter's entrance to face away from the wind's predominant direction and to maximize sun exposure.
• Attach a thick piece of rubber at the shelter's entrance—a doormat or carpet scrap might work—to safeguard from rain/snow.
• Caulk any cracks in the roof and walls.
• Make sure the shelter is elevated a bit off the ground so it doesn’t get waterlogged.
• Don’t forget to provide fresh water each morning after the freezing temps subside.

APA accepts donated dog houses and crates/kennels to match with needy pets and will help families set up their enclosures and offer other advice on providing the best care possible for each circumstance.  We can also offer advice on providing warm enclosures for outdoor cats.  Call us or e-mail us if you have any donations or if you need help at 575-644-0505 or actionprogramsforanimals@yahoo.com.

If you see an animal left outside without proper protection, report the situation to the Animal Control departments at 575-526-0795 (central dispatch),  You can also call Animal Protection of New Mexico's statewide animal cruelty hotline at 1-877-5-HUMANE (1-877-548-6243) or the NM Attorney General's Animal Cruelty Task Force at 505-506-4000.