June is Adopt a Shelter Cat Month

In a new cat comic strip, Sia and Shane Barbi play heroines who help stop pet pound killings by secretly trapping and fixing stray cats and adopting them!

June is “Adopt a Shelter Cat” month! For more info on how to adopt, go the Stray Cat Alliance website!

EXTRA TV.com  Celebrity News

Barbi Twins: Bunnies Rescuing Bunnies - ExtraTV

During the Easter Holidays the Barbi Twins, along with LA Animal Services continued their rescue efforts by getting the word out that the cute little bunnies that are purchased for Easter are not Toys - they are a responsibility and need to be adopted for life.  Remember it may be after Easter holidays but the bunnies are still cute and still need love.

The Barbi Twins' Easter Message: Adopt a Bunny!

Original article: http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2012/04/the_barbi_twins_easter_message_adopt_a_bunny.php#ixzz1reDfolDM

visit www.LAAnimalServices.com

THE COLLECTION AGENCY - Rescuism vs. Rescuing

By The Barbi Twins, Founders, TwinBunnies.com (originally posted on Kitty Liberation Front May 31, 2006) To the animal community, In reading these e-mails about hoarding I could not resist in commenting. My sis and I are known for our recovery from bulimia, and my mom is a top therapist for alcoholics and addicts. I have learned to recognize addictive behavior, not by their symptoms of excess weight or being drunk, but instead by their character defects: control issues, being  a victim, denial, etc. Hoarding is a mental illness, just like bulimia, and the addiction that follows hoarding allows us to add the "ism" to rescue. In fact, I recoined the word hoarding into "rescuism", to force people to view hoarding as mental addiction and disease. You cannot judge or get angry at someone mentally ill. However, just as we should not judge a "drunk", you still can stop the drunk from driving, when it involves other living creatures. I believe this should hold true with a hoarder and  rescuism. Their illness makes them unfit to see their sickness and unfit to run a shelter with dependent living creatures. Furthermore, you cannot tell a drunk they are drunk. Telling a mentally ill person they are a hoarder, will only make them defend themselves or defend other fellow hoarders.

MYTH BUSTER!

By The Barbi Twins, founders, TwinBunnies.com

There is NO pet overpopulation, but rather a pet crisis which is directly related to the lack of laws and spay and neuter programs. The pet crisis is also because people are unwilling to commit for life to their pet, just like a family member, or they are unwilling to adopt imperfect or older pets. The chances of an older dog getting adopted is less than 10% and the chances of an older cat getting adopted is less than 1%. Rabbits aren't even considered pets, they are "property". They all end up killed or abandoned on the streets

CUTEST - A Shelter Rescue Pet Story

By the Barbi Twins and Ken Wahl,

Hi, I'm Cutest. I'm a rescued shelter cat that owns Ken and Barbi. I want to tell you my story.

One cruel, cold day I asked myself, "Where did I go wrong?" Sitting here at the shelter, with my other "co-abandonees", we all backtracked to "the scene of the crime" as to why we were here.

I was a kitten born among many other animals in some back-yard breeders place. It was cold, over-crowded and dirty. I witnessed many of my family and friends being torn from each other, to be sold to various people, some of whom didn't even like animals. There was NO discrimination. I was lucky and a little girl spotted me and took me to her home. I thought she really loved me.

COZYWOOD, A Katrina Story

by The Barbi Twins

This story is not a story for the faint of heart, though it does have a fairy tale ending. It is about my life. I am a Katrina rescue cat and my current name is Cozy

I was born from a litter of 4, outside the city of New Orleans. New Orleans mostly consisted of single moms like my mom, because of few spay and neuter programs. Though I thought I was a cute kitten, humans in the state of LA still viewed me and my litter-mates as "varmints" and treated all cats as such. Gosh, my relatives were the reason the rat population was down! Nothing like a "thank you" to be born behind the junk yard and thrown in the streets with the other ferals. I quess that is why I am anti-social with other cats, (and dogs), because I had to fend for myself

Los Angeles Homeless and their pets

By Shane and Sia Barbi
Beverly Hills Times Magazine, Feb 4, 2009

Beverly Hills is filled with powerful yet compassionate people known for their generosity with money and charitable endeavors to help those less fortunate.  Even still, its city borders can't escape the images of the homeless sleeping on Los Angeles streets -- many with their pet companions.

During the California fires some of us heard the horrible story of a homeless man who along with his dog, burned to death.  Every day similar stories surface about homeless who die as a result of the hardships and the dangerous conditions they face living on the streets.  Add to that the fact that many remain on the street even though shelters are available simply because the shelters won't allow them to bring in their pets -- their only family and friend.  You would think that we could find a better solution to helping the homeless...one that doesn't require them to give up their pets for a place to sleep.

On the flip0 side, new reports show a growing problem of a different nature.  Some homless have pets not for companions, but as part of the 'con' to get money and/or sympathy.  Real concerns have risen concerning the health and well-being of these pets as the owners (some are mentally and physically challenged) are taking out their anger and frustration on their animals.  The end result is dismal and the problem has grown to such huge proportions, especially here in Los Angeles, and in all big cities, that animal rights organizations are now looking for options to remove these suffering pets from their care.

Up until now, neither the public bus system nor the city pound is offering to take pets away when they see them being abused.  They explain their reason for lack of intervention as this; even though "the owner is homeless and mentally ill, the pet is still the property of that homeless person."  As animal activists who have traveled the country supporting the rights of all animals, animal cruelty is a felony -- no mattter who does it.  As a community we need to enforce existing laws that support the health and well-being of animals.  And, for those not capable of taking care of a pet or treating it with love and concern, that pet should be removed from the owner, and be protected.

Read the article in its entirety HERE