Please enjoy this article from the latest issue of our magazine, PETA Global. To begin your subscription, become a PETA member today!
Oreo had a bitter beginning, but he’s living the sweet life today because a conscientious person thought to call PETA’s 24-hour emergency line when she spotted a video on Snapchat showing someone in boxing gloves viciously punching this dear cat. PETA immediately set about getting Oreo out of his abuser’s clutches by contacting the local police department, providing vital evidence, and guiding a kind officer through the process of charging the perpetrator, seizing Oreo, and rushing him to a veterinarian to be treated at PETA’s expense. Once Oreo had recovered (except for his permanently disfigured ear), staff drove the 16 hours roundtrip to bring him to PETA headquarters and help him begin his new life.
What a Difference a Spay Makes
Oreo is only one of many thousands of cats PETA and PETA Global Campaigns have helped via rescue and spay/neuter programs.
Last year, despite COVID-19, PETA’s fleet of low-cost spay/neuter clinics sterilized more than 12,500 animals in low-income areas of Virginia and North Carolina alone. In fact, the group has “fixed” more than 194,000 companion animals in all, preventing about a zillion unwanted births. PETA offers free rides for animals like Sunrize, whose guardians don’t have a car. Africa is much better now after PETA provided medication for lice and an upper respiratory infection that her impoverished guardians couldn’t afford. In some rural areas, PETA’s clinics offer the only veterinary care available.
22,000 Spayed in Romania
Romania – one of the poorest countries in the European Union – is teeming with homeless animals like Cappy, found wandering the streets with a head injury. Now the lucky kitty lives indoors, thanks to PETA Germany and Eduxanima, which have teamed up to sterilize nearly 23,000 cats and dogs, as well as providing thousands more with food, water, shelter, veterinary care, and – often – great homes. After Anca and her husband lost their jobs, PETA Germany helped them spay, neuter, deworm, and vaccinate their 33 rescued cats and dogs.
Saving the Living Among the Gravestones – and More
Chuckie was in deep trouble – literally. PETA Asia rushed out to save the young tabby in the middle of the night after passersby spotted him struggling to stay afloat in a canal. Now adopted by his foster mom, he is one of the more than 1,700 cats and dogs PETA Asia has sterilized and treated for mange, parasites, infections, wounds, and other health problems – all for free – in the Philippines.
In Manila’s poverty-stricken areas, people like street vendor Kuya Rolando live in cemeteries or abandoned shopping malls and can barely afford to feed their children, much less get their animal companions spayed or neutered.
Rescued From a Tight Spot
By the time the PETA-supported relief organization Animal Rahat received a call about a cat stuck in a metal window grate, poor Gatik had scrapes and bruises on his neck from struggling all day to try to free himself. Using sedatives and mineral oil, the team freed him and took him away for treatment and neuter surgery.
To prevent more cats from struggling as strays in India’s notoriously chaotic streets, PETA India has worked with local groups to spay and neuter nearly 1,000 cats in Mumbai’s impoverished neighborhoods and has sterilized 100% of the cats and dogs in more than 20 villages. PETA India’s staff responds to more than 1,000 urgent calls a week and has provided well over 50,000 cats and dogs with veterinary care. During the monsoon season, community cats must seek refuge wherever they can, including in car engines, from which PETA India rescued the kitten featured below and three others.
Sun, Sand, And Spays
Joining forces with wonderful Mexican TV host Marco Antonio Regil and Cancún Mayor Mara Lezama Espinosa, PETA Latino sponsored its first-ever spay-a-thons in Mexico. Cancún’s municipal secretary for social and economic development, Adolfo González, urged people to adopt homeless animals, saying, “A friend is neither bought nor sold.” So far this year, PETA has helped to sterilize more than 600 dogs and cats in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo.
Support these lifesaving initiatives and others by donating to PETA’s Global Compassion Fund.
