Nearly 100 Dogs Seized From Puppy Mill

American Humane’s Red Star Animal Emergency Service is part of a team that is handling and sheltering 95 puppies and adult dogs seized from a puppy mill in Marshall County, Miss.

Here is more info:

Yesterday morning, the team was horrified to discover the dogs living in feces-encrusted pens and filth. These poor little creatures include such breeds as Shih Tzus, Lhasa apsos, pugs, Yorkshire terriers, corgis, and Chihuahuas. Many of them appeared to be underweight and have skin diseases, among other possible medical conditions.

Your donation can help us provide care for these rescued dogs, so they can be adopted into forever homes by loving families. Your support also will enable us to help other animals that fall victim to cases of human cruelty, man-made emergencies and natural disasters.

We can make a difference, with your help. Yesterday, these poor animals were finally freed from a miserable life of suffering in filthy conditions. Our team is now caring for them and treating them with loving kindness — something they so badly need and deserve, but have never experienced — until now, thanks to supporters like you!

Our Red Star team is participating in this animal emergency response at the request of the ASPCA® (The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), which is managing operations under the authority of the Marshall County prosecutor’s office in the investigation of the puppy mill. The team also includes Marshall County Humane Society, Mississippi State University, and Collierville (Tenn.) Humane Society. The team has removed the animals from the puppy-mill site and transported them to an emergency shelter at the Marshall County Humane Society Clinic in Byhalia, Miss., where they are being triaged by a veterinary team and temporarily sheltered before being transferred to other animal welfare agencies and ultimately made available for adoption.

You can donate via American Humane

Humane Society Silicon Valley Fund Raiser

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Pet of the week at HSSV

Our Long-Term Shelter Guests are “Homeward Bound”!

Meet Redford. Meet Tina. If you like to “window-shop” on our “Available Animals” section of our website (we also kiddingly call it “lurking”) you’ve probably seen their beautiful photos for several months. They’re two of our longer-term “guests”, and are members of our new, successful “Homeward Bound Scholarship Program. What’s that? It’s been a great and innovative way to shine a light on some of our special dogs, cats, and rabbits who have been in our care for 100 days or more and are waiting patiently for us to find them their permanent, loving home. They still have a lot to give, but may not immediately stand out, and have not been snatched up quickly by adopters. HSSV waives their $175 adoption fee to help them find a home. Our adoption counselors still follow the same procedure in rigorous detail to ensure a match with the right individual or family…this special incentive is just a way to encourage more people to consider these special pets. It’s our way of highlighting them and drawing attention to them – and it’s working! We launched this program in early October, and the first weekend, 16 out of our 20 Homeward Bound pets were adopted! And none of them were returned because of a bad match. Everyone we talked to said that they had noticed their new “Homeward Bound” adoptee because we provided more insight into the fact that they had been with us a little longer. Most people who adopt from a shelter or rescue group do so because they want to help save a life and/or they want a great animal who isn’t from a breeder. With the animals in our Homeward Bound program, the mere fact that we call special attention to these animals is just one creative way we get great animals adopted and started on their new lives.

Sometimes, the individual or family adopting these Homeward Bound pets donate all or part of the waived fee back to HSSV to fund another Homeward Bound adoption, or they may use the savings to purchase necessary items for their new pet in our Whole Pets pet store. Either way, everyone wins!

Other individuals or companies who have taken an interest in a Homeward Bound pet, but who can’t adopt right now, have generously chosen to sponsor that pet’s adoption fee as well. (If you have a favorite dog, cat, or rabbit here at HSSV -- either at our Animal Community Center, or at our Petco El Paseo De Saratoga Satellite Adoption Center -- and would like to sponsor their adoption fee, you can call our front desk at 408-262-2133 ext. 150 and cover an adoption fee for someone else!)

We look forward to all of our animals being “homeward bound”, of course, but we get especially excited when those who have been with us for a while, and to whom we become attached, find the home of their dreams with the help of this great new program.

SANTA CLARA COUNTY RESIDENT??? Take this survey and help our shelters work together better!

This is a very important survey that was created by Humane Society Silicon Valley, Silicon Valley Animal Control Authority, Palo Alto Humane Society, Town Cats, San Martin 's South County Animal Shelter, San Jose Animal Care Services. The goal is to get a sense of what the residents of our community feel about the care of animals. Please pass along, making sure to indicate that it is for Santa Clara County residents ONLY!

Thanks for helping!

Holiday Arts and Crafts Faire! Shopping Galore!

By Stephanie Ladeira - the return of "The Shopper"

I can't WAIT for the Humane Society Silicon Valley Holiday Arts and Crafts Faire this weekend! I was perusing the site to look at all of the vendors who are coming and found about a million things I "needed" to get. There's a great little website with links to all of the vendors and info on the day.

1) First, there's the cute, hand-knit turtleneck sweaters for Rocky and Lucy, my rescued German Shorthairs. Rachel Deichman, who makes these totally hip sweaters (see Bach modeling to the right), has been knitting up a storm. I am going to purchase a pink and grey wide stripe sweater for Lucy and will ask Rachel to custom make a brown and black one for Rocky. The best part? When Lucy rolls in cow manure in her sweater, I can just pop it into the washing machine. The felted-wool coats she makes for the little dogs are so cute, I'll have to get one of those for Ruby, my little terrier mix.

2) Sonya Paz, acclaimed artist and animal lover, will be selling her awesome art, including "wearable" art such as wristwatches and necklaces that have her paintings on them. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of her wearable art and artwork with animals in them goes to HSSV. Sonya is so generous AND she has great stuff!

3) "Pawfectionz", jewelry and crafts by Alexis Grenzer, inspired by her little muse, the darling chihuahua named Frida (adopted from HSSV) is next on my list. I simply must purchase a pair of silver earrings with little beagles on them for my friend who has a little beagle/basset mix. Alexis' wares are beautiful and creative. She also does jewelry in resin and many other types of materials.

4) Handknitted scarves by Homa Adelkhani will be the perfect gift for my friend Cassie. She has a little dog who won't wear sweaters, but will wear scarves, and I'm going to get a matching one for her to wear when she and her pup go out together. The scarves are gorgeous and not like anything I've ever seen - silky strands intermingled with boiled wool. Amazing, delicate and one-of-a-kind.

5) For my friend Judith, who amazingly has managed to get a foxhound, rabbit and chihuahua to all live together peaceably together (how on earth did she figure that out?).... a pair of "More Rabbit Pottery Mugs" from Gray Rabbit - great handpainted mugs with a whimsical feel.

I could go on and on...but I want to leave you with a little nugget of info. The prized raffle item of the day? Some lucky shopper will win the ultimate gift - to keep for him or herself, or to give away - a bronze-plated brick that will be permanently displayed at the new Animal Community Center where all sorts of amazing life-saving goes on.

Make sure to join us this Saturday, December 5th, for HSSV's first Animal Arts and Crafts Faire. Holiday Shopping that helps to save lives is the coolest.

P.S. For Delilah's new people: Rachel is knitting a beautiful little dress for your sweet girl. It's going to be mostly pink and Rachel is using recycled silk from saris. It's gorgeous, delicate and perfect for your little girl!

Pet of the week at Humane Society Silicon Valley

We are big supporters of animal rescues here at my dog space. So here here is a dog for adoption.

Please contact HSSV

Shop…Save….Support? Save a life?

by Stephanie *The Shopper* Ladeira (the sweetie to the right is Delilah, my foster who was just adopted, appropriately, by a woman who goes to Bloomingdale's every day to take the dogs to see the pretty lights!)

In October, everywhere I went, I saw decorations for the holidays already up! I couldn't believe it, but then I realized that the holidays are right around the corner so I used the reminder to think about how I could make it easier for all of HSSV's supporters and friends (and myself!) to shop for friends, their (my) pets (and themselves/myself!) in a way that helps HSSV's animals.
So, today, we are launching our own Humane Society Silicon Valley Shop for the Animals Campaign. It's called Shop! Save! Support! because each shopping purchase helps to save a life by supporting HSSV with a percentage of sales. Whatever you need to get, for whomever you need to get it, you can get it here. I have found that shopping from my chair has been great fun and takes the stress out of everything.

CafeGive is HSSV's newest way to provide tons of stores for all of us to shop to benefit HSSV's animals. There are so many stores there - Home Depot, Shoebuy.com (same benefits and selection as Zappos.com), Gaiam.com for all your "green" shopping, tons of kids and baby shops and, most importantly, GREAT shops for dog/cat/rabbit shopping! 1800PetMeds.com, Doctors Foster and Smith, Dog.com (my fave) and more. Each business gives a percentage of your purchase and it really adds up for our animals. One of our supporters just bought an OVEN on the site and HSSV will get a great percentage of that! You can also use the site to create widgets of items that YOU like that you can post on your facebook or other social networking sites or email to a friend. I think that's pretty cool.

One of the other really neat ways to support HSSV and make my own life more convenient? FETCH! HSSV's new FETCH! Program allows you to shop online, pay via phone and have all your pet supplies ready to be picked up - just run in and run out! Great for people like me who always remember that I need dog food when I'm in a meeting and can't do anything about it. Boom! On my iphone, order my stuff and swing by to pick it up later!

DogTagArt is another new vendor that has waaaay cool, indestructible dog tags that can be personalized with your dog's/cat's picture, your favorite saying, etc. The tags are double-sided so there's room for all the usual, plus something much more fun. I plan to buy one that indicates how awesome "recycled pets" are!

Silpada Jewelry is another EXCELLENT site! HSSV supporter Sue Scheen gives HSSV a huge portion of her proceed from all sales from the Silpada catalog. She's extended it this year to go through December, which is soooo generous. I see pretty much all the gifts for every single woman I have to buy for in this catalog (and a few men, too - there are belts and such). Check it out.

HSSV is doing all that we can to make it easy for our friends and our community to support our work. I hope you'll take advantage of all the fun shopping stuff we're launching.

All the little stuff adds up to saving a life - lives like Angel's (read her story here on bringlight.com!)

Have fun!

My Foster Dog Wookie Found His New Home….Twice!

By Lauren Gallagher, HSSV Controller and Foster Dog Volunteer

I never knew how much I loved my last HSSV foster dog, Wookie, until he was lost, literally. Four days after he was adopted into his forever home, Wookie bolted out of their slightly open front door, with his leash on. He ran around to the sidewalk on the busy street, and was last seen streaking down the street toward a busy intersection. His new owner immediately contacted me to seek advice and help.

When I heard the news, there was no way I could not go over there and try to look for him. Wookie is a shy dog that strongly bonds to his people, and he may have left to go looking for me. He is afraid of strangers, especially men, so we figured he might be hiding. My husband, the new owner and I walked the neighborhood, calling his name, and searching under bushes with flashlights until midnight, to no avail. The next day, an impromptu search party made up of five staff from HSSV, including me, spread out around their neighborhood and looked for Wookie. We also hung up about 150 Lost Dog flyers and asked people if they have seen him.

While we were out looking for him, it was announced at HSSV that Wookie was lost. The calls, emails and texts came pouring in, everyone wanted to help. We had all bonded to Wookie during his time in foster care, and wanted to do everything we could to help his new owners find him. I went back in the evening to search for him with my two Weimaraners (who are friends with Wookie) and asked them, “Where’s Wookie?” They pulled me all over sniffing bushes, but still to no avail. I went to bed worried about Wookie. I kept having a vision of him running out of the bushes when I called his name. I definitely still had hope. I would look again the next day. Casaundra Cruz, HSSV Regional Rescue & Special Needs Department, had formed another search party, made up of foster dog volunteers, that would join us the next day.

That next morning, I woke up slightly before dawn, and instinctively checked my phone for any news. I had received a text and a voicemail from Wookie’s owner: this could be good news!

I read the text, “He came home! He’s dirty but healthy. I’ll call you in the a.m.”.

My heart jumped and I immediately texted and emailed the update to everyone at HSSV. The news does not get better than that!! Apparently, he scratched on his new family’s door around 1:30 am, and immediately began to play with his new canine family member, L.C. What a smart dog! I am amazed he found his way home after only being there a few days. Wookie knew in his heart that they are his forever family!

Cute as a…..

Julia Lewis, DVM



Last week, I took on the joys of fostering a kitten. This was not the usual HSSV kitten that required fostering. Button, as I’ve named him, is a “bottle baby”. He was found as a stray and brought into HSSV by a Good Samaritan. Button was about 2 weeks old and weighed 6oz. I happened to be walking down the hall and heard very loud insistent meows and just had to take a look. What I saw was a grey and black striped bundle of fur loudly protesting about how unfair it was that he was hungry but no one was doing anything about it!

One of the privileges of being a veterinarian at HSSV is that I get first dibs on fostering a too-young kitten. Before I, or Button, knew it, I had a bottle in my hand, a can of KMR (kitten milk replacer) and a screaming kitten in my office. Luckily, Jeanne, our VP of Human Resources was also fostering a bottle baby and I ran to her office to get a bottle of KMR that was already mixed and got to the job of feeding Button. It took a little effort, since Button was so hungry and scared, he didn’t know what the thing being shoved into his mouth was, but he managed to drink a little bit of the formula. We then went through the ritual of stimulating him to eliminate and I put him back into his carrier that I fixed up with clean towels and a fluffy blanket (made available through the generous donations that the public brings to HSSV). He took a short nap and woke up screaming again. Briefly, what flashed through my mind was “What did I take on” and “I should have discussed taking on this responsibility with my husband”. Then, the meows drew me out of my worries and I got down to the task of repeating the earlier ritual.

On the way home, I finally called my husband to inform him that I did a very impetuous thing. This was followed by a dramatic pause to allow my husband to think the worse so that when I sprang on him that I was fostering a kitten, it should be no big deal. It worked! We’ve had Button for almost a week now. I’m a night owl so I stay up until 2am to give Button his bottle. Then my husband, who is an early bird, gets up at 6am to give Button a bottle again. I bring Button to work with me where he gets a bottle whenever he wakes up and feels like eating again. So far, Button has just about doubled in weight. He’s had several baths already to get rid of fleas and clean up, and spends about 5-10 minutes playing and purring on his back after each meal. He also has met lots of the wonderful staff and volunteers at HSSV to get him used to new experiences.

In another week or so, we will start the weaning process. That will be a messy affair as kittens tend to walk in and dunk their faces in the food. Button will also start to learn to use a litter box, and that could be a hit-or-miss affair until he figures things out. I anticipate Button getting many baths a day to keep him clean and fresh. Then once he reaches 2 pounds in weight (wow, that seems like so long in the future!) he will be neutered and then made available for adoption after he recovers. So, in about 6 weeks or so, look for Button on HSSV’s available animals site!

P.S. I just started fostering a new bottle baby to play with Button, and his name is Zipper!

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