PETA Recounts Work to Combat Animal Neglect and Homelessness in 2022

Over $3 Million Spent Feeding, 'Fixing,' and Supplying Free Veterinary Care for Animals in Virginia and North Carolina

NORFOLK, Va., Jan. 27, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Many animal shelters and veterinary clinics reduced services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and widespread labor shortages, but PETA's mobile spay/neuter clinics and fieldwork never stopped. PETA spent over $3 million in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina alone, distributing free services—including deliveries of food, doghouses, straw bedding, and supplies; counseling and veterinary care to help people keep animals they were about to give up; and end-of-life assistance for families with seriously ill, aged, or aggressive animals. Glimpse PETA's community work here.

PETA is urgently appealing to government officials and the public to help end the homeless-animal crisis via prevention: spaying or neutering, helping others do the same, adopting instead of buying animals, and reporting neglect. Millions of dogs and cats enter U.S. animal shelters annually—and many others are abandoned to suffer and die on the street, particularly now, when many shelters are at capacity and refusing admissions.

In 2022, PETA's work in impoverished areas included the following:

• "Fixing" more than 13,000 animals at its mobile clinics, preventing millions from being born into homelessness
• Providing more than 7,000 dogs kept chained or penned outside 24/7 with free flea and flystrike prevention, water, food, and affection
• Placing 738 animals in loving homes or transferring them to animal shelter partners for adoption
• Providing more than 3,000 families with free counseling services and veterinary care for their animals
• Delivering almost 200 free sturdy doghouses and straw bedding to dogs tethered or penned outside 24/7
• Transporting for free more than 750 animals to and from its clinics for guardians without transportation

"PETA works hard to ensure that every animal born has a loving home with guardians who cherish, respect, and treat them as individuals, but we need the government and the public's help to stop this problem at its root," says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Everyone can save lives by sterilizing their dogs and cats, helping pass anti-chaining laws, and always choosing to adopt, never shop."

PETA is the only open-admission animal shelter in the region that takes in all animals—without restrictions, appointments, waiting lists, or admission fees.

For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or listen to The PETA Podcast.

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SOURCE People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)