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We advocate on all animal protection and exploitation issues, including experimentation, factory farming, rodeos, breeders and traveling animal acts.

Animal Defenders of Westchester
P.O. Box 205
Yonkers, NY 10704

Letters

Evacuation plans must include animals

Published in THE JOURNAL NEWS, 9/24/05:

Animal Defenders of Westchester would like to thank the public and the staff of Pet Goods in Greenburgh, for kindly contributing  to our fund-raiser for the animal victims of Hurricane Katrina on Sept. 17.  Photos of this event, plus information on grass-roots volunteers in that area who desperately need supplies, funds, etc., can be found on our website, www.adow.org .

We'd also like to ask readers to contact their local representatives and strongly urge that adequate provisions be made for animals in the event of a disaster; and, of course, to have carriers and other materials handy to take your companion animals with you in case of an evacuation.  Though what happened in the Gulf Coast was a tragedy for all, the animals are helpless and utterly dependent as children upon us for their caretaking.  TV images of stranded animals running after boats and buses in vain are unacceptable under any circumstances.  This is not an issue of "people first" or who is more "important," the animal or the child - both are sentient, both feel pain, fear and hunger.  We cannot turn our backs on either one - it's a matter of common decency.

Additionally, we take this occasion to remind the public that animal shelters, already bursting at the seams, are receiving Katrina's abandoned victims.  Instead of purchasing animals, please consider visiting a shelter and saving a life.  Thousands of healthy, lovable animals are killed in shelters each year for want of a good home.  Don't buy while others die.

Kiley Blackman

Yonkers
The writer is spokesperson,
Animal Defenders of Westchester
 

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