Hello, Welcome and Thank You
Hello, Welcome and Thank You – A message from the President:
Hello to our new and long-time supporters: treasured volunteers and members of the community who value the unique crisis intervention work The Animal Support Project is doing to reduce animal and human suffering. God willing, we’ll get one of these newsletters published two to four times each year.
Welcome to The Animal Support Project’s very first electronic newsletter. Whether you’ve known about TASP since before we incorporated in 2008 or just learned about us this morning, you all have something in common: you all respect life and you are all tired of hearing about animals being transferred to uncertain fates. You share a concern about animal welfare in the 21st Century and dream of a time when sacrificing a companion animal’s health/security/life is no longer something that happens 4 million times a year.
As President of TASP, I’ve learned an important fact of life: crisis can affect any of us; life is random and change is often abrupt. We who are strong and healthy today might be not-so, even before we finish reading this sentence. When crisis strikes, we can’t always count on being in a position to meet overwhelming conditions on our own; and in the face of any exceptional struggle, our pets are among the most vulnerable members of our families. This is why TASP exists. We can’t fix everything, but most of the time, we can keep companion animals from paying the tab for human difficulties.
As TASP volunteers and supporters you welcome each opportunity to turn a bad situation around for pets and their families. You build better pet owners and better homes. You comfort. You encourage and enable. You make winners out of people who would otherwise consider themselves losers. You keep animals from experiencing the grief and stress that comes from being sent away from what they know as their home. You pitch in the best you can through donations, volunteering, and through spreading word of the genuine hope that TASP offers.
Now, national organizations are recognizing what TASP has known for years. The HSUS now has a Pets for Life program; the RedRover Relief program offers veterinary assistance to owned animals; ASPCA’s Emily Weiss blogs about the financial, medical, behavioral and logistical good sense of keeping animals with their owners (whenever possible) instead of sheltering them; Cornell University’s latest issue of Dog Watch has a front page article about how forward-thinking shelters are now implementing surrender prevention programs in their communities; and even Clinician’s Brief, a peer-reviewed journal respected by veterinarians all over the country, recently published the results of research by Dr. Stephanie Janeczko that concludes, “Many animals at risk of relinquishment are likely to be better served by safety net programs that provide education and resources to help keep pets in existing homes rather than by programs that focus on sheltering and rehoming.” You already know this and that’s why we’re so excited to share our newsletter with you.
Thank you for thinking proactively and for using your concern and passion for animal welfare in positive ways. We promise our newsletters will not only tell you about our accomplishments and challenges; they’ll also provide resources, ideas and news of best practices about all aspects of companion animal care. We know the best way to build a more humane community is to keep channels of information and communication flowing to ALL people who love animals. So spread the word. Share the information. Get people thinking outside the box to save animals and the people who love them.
