5 Reasons Kill 'Shelters' Don't Work

By the Barbi Twins
On Dodo.com September 18, 2014

There's nothing closer to people than their companion pets. We're responsible for their very existence. Yet there's nothing more betraying to a dog or cat's loyalty than for them to end up at a pound to be killed in return for their unconditional love. We've been brainwashed that "killing is saving" so we kill healthy adoptable pets if there are "too many." We've never stepped outside the cage to ask what's "too many pets?" Nor do we think of alternative ways to find homes for pets without killing.

For example, there are 4.2 million people living in Los Angeles and 45,000 shelter pets killed there per year. That's only one percent of the population. Similarly, there are 316.1 million people that live in the U.S. and three to four million pets killed in pounds nationwide; that's also a little over one percent of the population. So why kill pets when we could think about housing them? Why are we the only country that has kill pounds?

Pounds don't work because:

1. They're run by the health department. Their catch and kill technique is an easy and quick way to keep cities disease-free. 
2. Pounds manage themselves. They don't have to answer to anyone so no one enforces laws like spay/neuter laws. 
3. Killing doesn't lower the number of pets, instead it opens a window for puppy mills, kitten mills, pet shops, and internet backyard breeders. 
4. Pounds aren't "shelters"; they're a place to throw away a pet. If they never existed, people would think twice about getting a pet. 
5. Laws protect pounds so that they don't have to disclose facts. Like this one: there's a 50 to 99 percent chance of the animal being killed.  In most pounds we've volunteered at, pets are dragged to the "bump room" unsedated, and killed with a heart stick. This isn't "humane euthanasia." 

Our goal is to make shelters no-kill or to privatize them. Let's tell our local representatives that the cities would save taxes and lower pet numbers by having:

• Free spay/neuter clinics like humane free clinics using third and fourth year veterinarian students. For every tax dollar we'd spend on spay/neuter, we'd save $10 on housing, killing and disposing of pets. 
• City dog trainers, since in my years of volunteering I've seen that most dogs are surrendered to pounds because they're untrained. 
• TNR programs for feral cats to be trapped/neutered and the returned back to a cat colony, since 75 to 80 percent of pound killings are cats.

Let's stop the broken cycle of killing and promote volunteer-based no-kill rescues. Let's rewire the brain to a "pro-live" movement and find new, creative ways to help homeless animals. Animal rights activists should fight for the animals' right to live, not the right to kill them.

How To Solve The Wild Horse 'Problem'

By the Barbi Twins
On Dodo.com September 18, 2014

The wild horses are federally protected by the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and graze on tax paid land. This bill was later amended to rid the horses so the land could be used for government business. In 2004, an amendment called the Burn Rider Act allowed round-ups to rid them. Their loopholes for these amendments are usually false claims, like wild horses are "feral" and basically a pest on the land, despite recent news that fossils of horses were found in Wyoming, making horses more native than most animals in America.

The BLM also claims wild horses were overpopulating, when in fact they take less than one percent of the land and gradually the herds are getting smaller. It is actually cattle that takes up most of the land (90 percent), and which are not native to the environment. Cattle and horses have always co-existed. But now the BLM wants all the land cleared, including the cattle, so they told ranchers to sue them in order to legally cull horse herds from the land, letting horse advocates blame the ranchers.

Indeed, in the BLM's own words, there is ten times more land available than needed per animal. Still, as of August, the BLM predicts "excess" horses will eat grass and cause weeds to grow on federal land. The BLM contracts two agencies to get "scientific" data on the horses. Since both agencies list their priority as using federal land for profitable government business, their research is biased against the horses.

The first agency, USGS Fort Collins Science Center (FORT) is paid by many government agencies and policymaking groups to generate evidence to back the client's desired policy. FORT does wild horse population and fertility control studies for the BLM. These studies are used to say it is right to get rid of wild animals in order to expand profitable government businesses, like solar and wind power.

The other agency, the USDA-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says it “provid[es] wildlife damage management assistance to protect agriculture, natural resources, property and health and safety," meaning the BLM pays APHIS to show them how to get rid of wild horses. There is no direct public control of APHIS, and no clear mention of their role on BLM web pages on horse roundups.

The only way to stop this is not to complain to the BLM, who was a part of the deal and just taking orders, but instead to complain to your elected representatives that were part of the legislation that made it possible to get rid of our federally protected wild horses. Congressional reps may not like animals, but they need your vote. Tell them to use our taxes to protect our horses, not try to get rid of them. And stop all horses, domestic and wild horses from horse slaughter.

Sadly, horse slaughter has and will always be legal until we pass the anti horse slaughter bill, named this year the Safeguard Act (read it here). This bans horse slaughter permanently, as well as the transport to other countries for horse slaughter. It's been sitting in Congress for 11 years without passing, because most people don't know about it. There are temporary bans on horse slaughter. For example, this year we have an annual ban that cuts USDA funding to inspect horse slaughter plants. The slaughter of wild and domesticated horses is a big business that the government wastes taxes for overseas profit. If this bill passed, it would be almost impossible to get rid of the wild horses in large amounts from slaughters' kill buyers.

#Justice4Mustangs

Read Original Article:  On Dodo.com

Barbi Twins: Famous for… Equine Advocacy - National Geographic

The Barbi twins and I agree to disagree on a lot of issues, but I certainly commend them for doing their homework.   They vehemently oppose horse slaughter on the grounds that horses weren’t bred for human consumption.  I did not ask them to comment on zoo animal consumption of horse meat, but I pretty much know where they stand.

The Barbi twins assert that “horses were bred and domesticated to be companion animals like a dog or cat. They also served as working animals on farms, and provided transport for people. They also risked their lives in wartime.”


Read the rest of the article:  http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/02/barbi-twins-famous-for-equine-advocacy/

Barbi Twins: Ken and Barbis Ask Your Help for Animal Shelters - ExtraTV

Animal activists Ken Wahl and wife Shane Barbi, along with sister, Sia Barbi, are spokespersons for Stray Cat Alliance (SCA) - and are against the Hayden Law Repeal.

 

Read more: http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2012/02/ken_and_barbis_ask_your_help_for_animal_shelters.php#ixzz1o7NoG8sv

Barbi Twins Valentine Day Wish - Save the Horses - ExtraTV

Barbi Twins Valentine's Day Message: Save the Horses!
ExtraTV, Stars Give Back, Feb 14, 2012

The Barbi Twins ask you to:  SHOW YOUR HEART - DON'T TAKE A HORSE'S HEART!

Obama Flipflops on Campaign Pledge to Prevent Horse Slaughter, Media Mum

NewsBusters, Noel Sheppard, Dec 10, 2011

"Over the years, we’ve covered the efforts of former Playboy playmates Shane and Sia Barbi to put an end to the slaughter of horses in the United States. And, now that Congress has just lifted a ban that could result in a return to horse slaughter for meat after it had been outlawed for five years, the Barbi Twins are revamping their efforts. [...]

The twins are asking fans to get involving either by signing a petition, calling the White House (“Tell Obama to keep his promise to ban horse slaughter and pass H.R. 2966,” they write) or to call Wyoming Rep. Sue Wallis “who is pro horse slaughter and tell her that Americans don’t want to see PET horses as meat on our dinner tables.”

Read the entire article:  NewsBusters

Barbi Twins: Obama abandoned the horses!

 Politico, Patrick Cavin, Dec 01, 2011


Over the years, we’ve covered the efforts of former Playboy playmates Shane and Sia Barbi to put an end to the slaughter of horses in the United States. And, now that Congress has just lifted a ban that could result in a return to horse slaughter for meat after it had been outlawed for five years, the Barbi Twins are revamping their efforts.

The two blasted a release to their email list, headlined, “Twin Bunnies Campaign Against ‘Slaughter House Sue’ over Pet Horse Meat.”

Read the entire article at: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/69542.html#ixzz1lx04alan

The Barbi Twins Motto: Cowgirl Up for the Wild Horses!

Examiner.com, Dena Stapleton, Feb 23, 2011


The Barbi Twins, Sia and Shane, were Playboy Bunnies that were plastered on the front Covers of the magazine. Well not much has changed by the way of being on the cover of magazines, but a lot has changed in the way of being a Playboy bunny. They took their “bunny” status over the top by becoming animal activists for every animal on earth, including the cute little fuzzy bunnies. They became the Bunny Crusaders, per-say.

They started out by getting more involved in rescue and helping out in shelters then moving onto bigger things like getting involved in the laws and urging US representatives to create better laws of protecting the animals. One, very close to home for both Sia and Shane, is the issues for the Wild Mustangs and also horse slaughterhouses. The Barbi Twins are doing what they can to urge people to come together to help support the Wild Mustangs and help show that the Bill HR503 (prevent cruelty to horses used for human consumption) and the Bill HR305 (help with the transportation of horses) are two bills that need to be passed. They are taking on a whole new motto: Cowgirl-up and help save the Wild Horses before they are extinct.

Read the Entire Article:  http://www.examiner.com/pet-advocacy-in-national/the-barbi-twins-motto-cowgirl-up-for-the-wild-mustangs

The Barbi Twins in True Cowboy Magazine

Cover Story, True Cowboy Magazine, ExtraTV.com, Feb 21, 2011

Extra gives the horse issue an extra "leg up" by helping promote our feature article in True Cowboy Magazine where we talk about the plight of the wild Mustangs.  Thanks Extra!  


Read the post and see a large image of the cover at: http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2011/02/the_barbi_twins_in_true_cowboy_magazine.php

The Barbi Twins Want to Save the Horses

ExtraTV, Oct 4, 2010

Shane and Sia Barbi are lending their voices to a new documentary "Saving America's Horses -- A Nation Betrayed."

Read the entire article: http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2010/10/the_barbi_twins_want_to_save_the_horses.php#ixzz1lx8O4Wnn

The Quad Squad, Barbi Twins, Amy Nelson, Raelynn Nelson

True Cowboy Magazine (Cover,  Pg 44-45,  pg 46-47), April 9, 2010

It happens in life whereby an event, of such great magnitude, such treat turmoil and shock, propels people to unify for a common cause and a singular belief.  In this case, that cause is the plight of the wild mustangs, horses and burros in the United States and those people are Shane & Sia, better known as The Barbi Twins and their compadres, Amy nelson and Raelynn Nelson, daughters of Willie, need I say more?  Wranglin' the four women for this interview was no small feat.  But persistence got it done and the "Quad Squad" sat down to discuss the pressing issues of mustang round ups, penning and threatened slaughter.

Read the rest of the article:   (Cover,  Pg 44-45,  pg 46-47)