“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

 

Goals:   Instruct pet owners in animal care and control to protect public health and safety.

 

• Build character, responsibility, self reliance and self esteem in children through teaching responsible pet care.
   
• Prevent cruelty to animals. 
   
• Reduce statistics on animals accepted by shelters and animal control facilities
   
• Reduce number of people bitten by animals.
   

Promote interaction with animals as an educational experience for children.

 

Children's Education:

• Place educational materials on responsible pet care, control and bite prevention in all elementary school libraries and public libraries for teachers to access.
  
  
• Conduct presentations on Responsible Pet Care & Bite Prevention in elementary schools, child programs, Girl and Boy Scout programs, summer programs of the local Public Libraries and Parks & Recreation Department, etc.

Adult Education:

• Conduct Information/Education Booths at community events and area pet shows to distribute brochures on topics addressing all animal problems, promoting spay/neuter of pets, pet rabies and other vaccination schedules, publicizing local animal ordinances and free/low cost neutering clinics.
   
• Administer a Neighborhoods Program, providing educational materials to help solve their animal problems. A packet is available upon request.
   
• Operate a 24 Hour telephone helpline for pet owners offering information and assistance with any animal related problem, which includes a Lost & Found Registry.
   
• Provide a First Offender's Responsible Pet Ownership Course (6 hour class), an effective sentencing alternative for animal ordinance violators in lieu of a portion of fines to assist low income families who can't afford $300 to $400 (including court citations) to retrieve animals from Animal Control Facilities.
   
• Return more lost pets to their owners via microchip clinics, the Responsible Pet Ownership Course, our Lost & Found Registry and pet id card clinics, etc.
   
• Encourage pet owners to take their pets for veterinary check-ups and vaccinations annually. Promote the importance of rabies vaccinations.  Assist with low cost rabies and microchip clinics.
   
• Provide counseling and assistance for pet owners who are considering pet surrenders to shelters or animal controls for any reason (terminally ill and AIDS patients; animal behavior problems, moving, divorces, family members' allergies, in transition to assisted living facilities/nursing homes or for any other reason.

 

Pet Assistance Program provides:

• A telephone “hotline” to assist anyone with an animal problem. Assistance is also provided by e-mail and this web site.
   
• Paws for Service dog/owner teams, who visit hospitals and nursing homes after completion of a training course and mentoring phase.
   
• A Pet Retention Program to prevent animals from being relinquished to shelters (Counseling, pet training referrals, and behavior problem solving).
   
• For Disasters: Provide assistance as needed in the community.
   
• A Pet Recovery Program
   
• Return more lost or impounded pets to their owners by maintaining a Lost and Found Registry and advising pet owners of helpful procedures to follow when their pet is lost.
   
• Promoting and publicizing microchip identification for pets. Conduct and support microchip clinics.
   
• Neighborhood Pet Registration and Hotline Program for lost pets (through neighborhood associations).

 

• First Offender’s Course in Responsible Pet Ownership, similar to a Defensive Driving Course, to be offered by the city for animal code violations.

The above information is provided by America Against Breed Specific Legislation in our attempts to educate America on Responsible Dog Ownership and Bite Prevention.  Please visit us online at http://americaagainstbsl.tripod.com

This is a good outline and educational material that we are providing for you to include in your letters to your local legislaltors.  We are willing to go into greater detail of this outline if needed.  We hope to have more members that are willing to help us on organizing such programs.  For now, there are a few readily available in some communities.  Why not see if there are in your area.  Ask them to help us out and provide us information about their programs to share.  That way they can help communities across the nation!