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[Dogs barking]
It’s upsetting when people say things
and they don’t understand what we do.
They’ve never come to visit,
or they’ve never posed any questions.
They look at numbers on a piece of paper,
and they make assumptions.
I think it’s very important for people
to look behind the numbers,
at the individual animals that we encounter
in the field and what their stories are.
Every one of those numbers is a story.
Every one of those numbers is an individual animal.
[Makes kissy sounds for dog to come]
It’s OK.
[Indistinct chatter]
[Makes kissy sounds for dog to come]
[Intriguing music fades in]
I know you like this.
I know. I know.
I know, sweetheart.
Just give me a second.
-[Rachel] You all right? -[Daphna] Yeah.
-That was an enthusiastic grab. -[Rachel] Yeah.
That was an enthusiastic grab.
Glad you like it, though.
I’m gonna look at you. I’m gonna look at you.
Come here.
Come on. It’s OK. No one’s gonna hurt you.
Generally speaking, in terms of the
sorts of areas we visit
and the predicament of the dogs that we help,
it’s a fairly typical day.
She has lost quite a bit of weight
since I was here in June.
And her hair loss is more severe,
and you can see she’s very hungry.
And I can see the fleas crawling all over her body.
And the flies are eating her ears up alive.
I don’t know that she's fed on a regular basis.
This is her life every day.
Every second of every minute of every hour of every day,
this dog lives here.
The woman across the street is the sister
of the man who owns this dog.
And I think it’s
very important for us to try and get her out of here
very, very soon.
[Intriguing music fades out]
[Uplifting music starts]
PETA moved to Norfolk in 1996.
It was a fiscal decision. Cost of living here was low.
We have a building here on the Elizabeth River,
downtown Norfolk, and a dog park,
which is more than an acre.
We actually have two dog parks, a big one and a small one.
We’ve been growing by leaps and bounds,
and so this building allowed us to
have a shelter on the fourth floor.
CAP stands for the “Community Animal Project.”
It is a division of PETA’s
Cruelty Investigations Department
that was born out of necessity
after PETA moved down to
southeastern Virginia in the mid-’90s.
Bye!
Over the months and years after we arrived,
calls from the community for help
increased from week to week.
And it didn’t take us very long at the time
to realize that there was a dire need in the community,
not just our immediate community
here in Norfolk and Hampton Roads
but far beyond that into counties that are rural,
impoverished and even over the border
in northeastern North Carolina,
where there are entire jurisdictions
where there are no services at all.
One county we work in doesn’t even have a veterinarian in it,
let alone a low-cost spay/neuter program.
[Chris] When I was an animal control officer,
I saw the problems that were out there
and had a friend that worked at PETA,
and it seemed like a job where you could actually
get out there and get your hands dirty
and make a difference.
[Jes] After my internship here,
I was inspired by the work that CAP does.
So I decided to stay and continue to work in CAP.
[Kate] I started volunteering in the winter
to do the straw delivery.
And I kind of fell in love with seeing
the impact of what you do immediately for the animals.
And I like being out in the field, getting dirty. [Chuckles]
Sitting at a desk isn’t my thing.
[Emily] As long as I can remember,
I’ve always known about PETA
and I’ve always had a desire to work at PETA.
[Daphna] I was living in Chicago,
and there was a very disturbing pet store called Animal Jungle.
It was just one of those places
that’s a pure nightmare for animals.
And I called PETA to see what I could do.
I ended up speaking with a caseworker
and sort of followed the steps that she gave me to do,
went back in there with a video camera,
sent some information.
But when I would call after hours
to give the caseworker updates,
one time I heard that it said,
“For job opportunities, press 7.”
So I pressed 7. And that’s that.
[Inspiring music fades out]
[Chris] A typical day is usually going out to North Carolina,
where we help out people with their dogs
that need assistance
that don’t have money to take care of their dogs.
The people are really poor,
and usually the dogs are chained out,
and people forget about their dogs.
[Kate] We always have to be given permission
to be on somebody’s property.
So we’ll go and knock.
[Knocking] [Dog barking]
[Jes] Hey! My name’s Jes. I’m from PETA.
We had stopped by before about Brownie.
[Guardian] Mm-hmm.
[Jes] We had tried to catch you a couple of times,
but maybe you weren’t home.
[Jes] Oh, OK.
Well, we just stopped by
because when I was here last time,
it was in February and he was kind of thin,
so I was just checking to see if things were,
how things were going.
[Jes] He does? He’s doing good?
[Guardian] Yeah.
[Jes] I know we had also talked about maybe moving him
to some shade.
Today it’s a little mild, but you know,
the other day was like 90 degrees and without shade.
Did I wake you up? You have a headache?
[Jes] Aww, I’m sorry.
Well, I can see that he doesn’t really want me messing with him,
but I’m gonna give him a couple treats.
[Guardian] OK.
[Jes] Will you just make sure that he has
plenty of water out here?
[Jes] OK, where? Oh, in the jugs? OK.
[Light music fades in]
[Dogs whining and barking]
[Daphna] Tethering is tying up your dog
or other animals 24 hours a day,
365 days a year no matter what the weather is
no matter, you know, whether they have shelter.
[Dog whining]
It could be pouring rain or snow.
It could be freezing cold to the point where their water bowl
becomes a frozen piece of ice and is therefore not drinkable.
Ice storms and hurricanes are very common
in this area as are thunderstorms.
And in the summer months, temperatures here can exceed
100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Some people will tether or chain their animals with, you know,
an old refrigerator for cover
or a wire crate for shelter,
which, of course, doesn’t do anything.
Or just inadequate shelter like
a plastic doghouse that comes apart,
or the dogs are very bored, so they chew at them,
and eventually the doghouses don’t serve a purpose at all.
[Kate] Dogs are social creatures,
and they want to be inside with their families.
And unfortunately, the dogs we see most chained are pit bulls.
Where we go, dogfighting is a thing,
so we see dogs that are stolen, used as bait.
People let their dogs run at large as well,
so we see dogs that are on chains
attacked by dogs that are running at large.
And because their guardians may not
go out and check on them every day,
they can be left to suffer for days with wounds.
And after a certain point, those dogs aren’t always
in a position that they can be adopted back out.
[Dogs whining, wincing, struggling]
[John] When we was growin’ up, we had a dog like a poodle.
A poodle was left in the house.
And when we got other dogs like
collies and stuff like that,
pit bull or German shepherd, they were put outside.
-[Jes] All dogs are house dogs. -[John] Hmm?
All dogs are house dogs.
What, what makes a dog not a house dog?
Yeah?
I mean, so you—
I know you’re supposed to keep them in there when it’s hot.
You’re supposed to keep them in there all the time.
I mean dogs are pack animals.
Keeping ’em chained outside,
it breaks down their mental health.
It’s not good for them.
OK. [Laughs]
Like I said, the way that, like,
these dogs are set up, I mean, it isolates them.
When they’re inside and they're with their pack,
-they’re happier. -[John] Mmm.
[Somber music fades in]
[Daphna] I’ve asked people why they have dogs
when they keep ’em a certain way.
I think in many of the cases that we deal with,
it’s a very deeply ingrained
traditional way in which people were raised
that dogs belong outside or
it’s a possession that allows you to say,
“Well, I have 20 pit bulls, and I breed my pit bulls.”
I’ve heard,
“They’re out there to let me know
when someone comes into my yard.”
So they’re pretty much little alarm systems.
Sometimes the people with bigger dogs, you know,
they don’t want their dog to ruin their furniture or
they didn’t want to put up with a puppy
peeing on the carpet and things like that.
They don’t wanna have the patience
to go through potty training.
[Puppy whining]
[Thomas] I grew up in a rural part of Virginia where
most normal kids were riding their bikes,
and then I was just out there with a pack of dogs.
And always going to their houses and
just offering to do something with them
because a lot of people kept them chained.
[Jes] One of the struggles
that we really face is just general lack
of education and knowing what they really need.
[Kate] So we try to educate people as much as possible,
but it’s hard to take someone coming in who
is telling you everything you’ve been doing is wrong,
and you need to start doing it this way.
[Katina] Is she in heat?
[Katina] Yeah, it looks like she’s in heat.
Do you put her inside when she’s in heat?
[Guardian] Uh
[Heather] ’Cause otherwise, if she’s not pregnant now,
she will be very soon.
[Katina] That’s that the song
“my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.”
[Laughing]
[Chris] The communities that we go to,
they’re all very poor.
Most of the people are really low-income.
I think it’s important to remember that
you have to have compassion for them, for their situation,
for the reason that they’re there.
Because they don’t wanna be in that situation, either,
and they were taught from their family to be this way,
to treat animals that way.
So, you know, all we can really do is go out there
and help their animals the best that we can.
All righty, it’s good to meet you all.
[Somber music fades out]
[Uplifting music fades in]
[Daphna] Each day,
the fieldworkers are assigned certain cases.
It may be that they also remember cases from the area
or they’ve asked to go back to a certain case.
And then they go out in the field,
usually on their own.
Sometimes two fieldworkers go together.
Could be that they are delivering doghouses,
it could be that they are taking an animal back home after spay.
It could be that they’re picking up an animal to be spayed.
It could be that they are going out because somebody called us
because their dog fell,
you know, off the balcony and needs to be looked at.
It could be a frequent flyer, if you will,
where we go out once a month and give flea prevention.
[Chris] You know, we bring out dog food.
We bring out tie-outs to people that have dogs
in backyards and won’t bring them in their house.
The flies bite their ears
’cause the owners never clean up the feces,
so the flies will actually eat their ears off.
Like, I’ve seen ears that are gone.
We do a lot of education in terms of teaching people
we need to get a little bit of vet help here
or alternately this is how you trim nails.
This is better nutrition
or just kind of trying to improve
the lives of the animals that we meet.
[Chris] You can see where the quick is right there.
[Guardian] Right, right.
[Chris] If you go further than that,
she’s gonna bleed.
[Guardian] Oh, yeah.
[Chris] I mean, we’ll come out and do it for free,
but just we need to get on it more often,
because the more that they grow,
then the quick will keep going out.
And as they keep getting longer,
it’s harder to get them where they need to be.
You know what I’m saying?
[Chris] Oh, man. She loves you, doesn’t she?
[Chris] You want a couple cans of dog food?
[Chris]And I'll get the fleameds. OK. Be back in a sec.
[Chris] We’ll stop back out in, you know, like, you know,
six weeks and check back in and do the nails again,
see how she’s doin’.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah, I can give you—I can give you a card. No problem.
Well, like I said, we appreciate it, man.
Well, I’m glad we could help you out.
[Uplifting music fades out]
[Daphna] The first time I came here,
she didn’t come out of the doghouse at all.
It’s taken several visits, you know.
[Camera operator] Mm-hmm.
Last time I tried to pet her, she flinched.
You know, she’s not used to being touched.
You see?
She doesn’t know what it is.
She doesn’t... she’s not familiar with petting.
She’s not... she's just afraid.
It’s always, you know, the loneliness, the fear,
struggling with the flies, with the mosquitos,
with the fleas, with the ticks.
And being chained, some of these dogs that we saw,
in full sun in this weather, it’s absolutely horrific.
Nobody would stop by Zena’s house
by happenstance and stumble upon the dog who’s
so sorely neglected that she’s not long for this world.
The bottom line is that it’s about what these animals need,
and most of these animals have never had someone hold them
and kiss them and tell them that they’re wonderful
and give them a good meal and a clean,
soft blanket to lie on.
For most of the animals we deal with,
that’s the first time they've ever had a kind word.
You can see that all over Zena’s face when we deal with her.
That no one has ever bent down and told her she was beautiful
or she was a good girl.
No one has ever bothered to treat her for fleas
that she has by the thousands.
No one has
bothered to take her for a walk so she could roll in the grass.
Nobody’s bothered to give her a meal that she appreciates.
She’s basically been kept alive
with food, water, and a doghouse we gave her.
[Guardian’s sister] Oh, OK.
[Guardian’s sister] OK, thank you so much.
[Daphna] Thank you.
[Guardian’s sister] You are so welcome.
[Daphna] That dog was living in fear of everything,
so I hope we can do something special
and give her a chance to enjoy life and find happiness.
It’ll take a little while,
but perhaps she’ll be able to be rehabilitated.
[Makes kissy sounds]
We’re not taking the flies with us, Zena.
We’re gonna leave the flies here.
Beautiful dog. Beautiful girl.
[Makes kiss sound]
[Van door closes]
[Light music fades in] [Van sliding door opens]
[Chris] When the animal is surrendered,
the form is signed by the owner.
We bring the animal back.
We take the animal upstairs.
They get, like, a really nice guest room.
We give them food and treats, and they even get music.
It’s a nice stay.
My job at the PETA animal shelter
is to help take in animals and provide their evaluation
and make sure they’re comfortable for the stay,
whether or not it’s overnight or for several days,
and see them through to their next step.
[Jenny] By far of any shelter I’ve worked in,
the rooms are really nice.
We lay down the floors with thick blankets
and put toys in there, food and water obviously.
Usually, we’ll play some classical,
relaxing music for them.
One of the rooms is bigger than my first
apartment bedroom and bathroom combined. [Chuckles]
[Daphna] Most of the animals that we have come in
we try to transfer out quickly
to some of our placement partners
that do have traditional shelters,
and we also use foster homes as part of our shelter.
We are a shelter under Virginia law,
and even though the number of animals that we helped
through the shelter last year was roughly 2,000 animals,
the number of animals’ lives that we touched
through the local program was more than
20,000 animals—to give you an idea of how
the sheltering part of our work is vital to those animals.
But so is everything else that we’re doing.
[Katina] When we bring all animals into the shelter
either for a surrender or for spay or for neuter,
we do a health assessment form on all the animals.
We check from head to toe—you know,
their ears, their mouth, their teeth.
Are there any sores or any cuts
or anything like that on them that is notable?
Are they eating? Did they go potty?
PETA takes in all animals.
We have had mice. We’ve had pigs, ducks,
of course, your dogs and your cats, iguanas, rats.
So all animals.
[Light music fades out]
[Chain hitting metal scale]
This chain came off of a puppy
whose neck vertebrae can’t hold the weight of it
but also makes it so that the puppy usually gets
tangled or lethargic, where they’re not able to move.
They can’t get to food and water.
[Daphna] Most of the dogs that we see, when we find them,
they’re trapped at the end of a heavy chain.
Sometimes, the chain is heavy on purpose
because someone is trying to build their neck muscles.
You know, the people who do that think that it looks
quote unquote “tough.”
And so essentially, tethering is chaining.
It’s just staking out an animal as if they were,
you know, an old bicycle.
Tethering is something that we work very hard to outlaw.
We’ve been able to get tethering banned or restricted in every
single city in the Hampton Roads area here in Virginia,
and we’re also working in North Carolina
to make it so that
you can’t leave your dog tethered or chained
24 hours a day.
At the moment, it’s totally legal to do that
in most of the North Carolina jurisdictions that we visit.
We have been able to get it restricted and/or
banned in some jurisdictions,
and so we’re kinda trying
to have a ripple effect with that.
[Dogs whimpering]
[Chris] Some areas do have chaining ordinances where
you can’t have your dog chained out at all.
In other places, you can have your dog chained out for,
like, three hours a day, which is kind of frustrating because
there’s no animal control officer that’s
gonna sit there for three hours.
They’ll come back, and the dog is inside or chained out.
They can’t really enforce the law.
[Heather] The other thing we found
is that the people who live in a place
where there is an anti-tethering ordinance,
they’ll sometimes put them in pens,
and the pens will be just as small as their tether.
so there needs to be stricter enforcement
of how big a pen can be.
So that it doesn’t become the same as chaining a dog up.
[Wind blowing rapidly]
[Van rolling over gravel]
[Van door closing]
-[Kate] Hey! Are you David?
[Kate] Oh, hi! I met your brother Dennis yesterday.
[Kate] So we brought out a plastic house for—
do you call him Jack or Jake?
[Kate] Anything. OK. OK.
Um, so yeah, I set up a plastic house for him
because that metal thing was off.
Um, did you guys talk about
do you think you wanna get him neutered?
OK.
Nooo.
Nooo!
I know, but I talked to Dennis yesterday.
Pit bulls do not have it easy out here.
Well, I know. That’s what everybody says, though, and
I mean, half these dogs end up being fought.
[Kate] You never know about the people
that you’re gonna give the puppies to.
[Kate] And especially for him with being, like, a male dog,
he’s gonna get older and the longer he’s chained
being unneutered, the more frustrated he’s gonna get.
So yeah, if you guys decide to neuter him,
we’ll be happy to do it.
We might be able to bring out one of the wooden doghouses.
He’s so big, I have a feeling he’s gonna
break that two-tone in half in, like, five minutes.
[Upbeat music fades in]
[Daphna] PETA employs carpenters
through our Operations Department
that build these doghouses that come in different sizes.
We do try to not give doghouses
unless the animal has been spayed or neutered,
so that’s a real bargaining chip for us,
as a foot in the door.
The doghouse program is a phenomenal program
for the dogs who get the doghouses.
Many of them have never had shelter.
For many of them,
that’s as close as they’re going to get to a home.
It’s very sad to say.
I mean, a doghouse is not the end-all solution,
but it makes a tremendous difference
in the winter especially but also in the summer
if the dogs don’t have shade.
Our doghouses have an overhang.
The opening is off to the side. They have a flap.
They’re just big enough for the dog to go in
so that in the winter the body heat is contained inside.
They have a little hook in the back
so that we can put the water bucket onto it.
And they also have our 800-number on the side,
so heaven forbid, if an animal is sick
or an animal is dying or an animal gets hit by a car,
the person who has that animal
doesn’t have an excuse not to call us,
because that phone number is
right there on the side of the house.
[Emily] We deliver probably about 300 doghouses every year
and it helps make dogs’ life a little bit less hellish,
especially in the wintertime.
It’s like a last resort.
Like, I try to talk people into
getting their dogs in the house.
And if that can’t happen,
then the doghouse is obviously the best resort for that.
[Camera clicks]
We’ll set it up for you even if it’s in, like, a pen or a fence.
We’ll flip it over the fence for somebody.
[Daphna] I can’t tell you how many cases we have
discovered by virtue of offering this doghouse program,
because people will hear about it and they will call.
Or they’ll ask their cousin,
“Where did you get your doghouse?”
“Oh, it was free—I got it from PETA.”
And then they call us for a doghouse,
and we’re able to ask them questions,
go and visit with the dogs, assess the situation,
talk to them about spay/neuter, talk to them about flystrike,
talk to them about heartworm disease,
talk to them about just basic necessities of life
that the dog needs if there’s no water or there’s no water bowl.
So the doghouses are, for PETA, they’re very expensive,
but they make a tremendous difference,
a world of difference for the recipients.
[Drilling]
[Upbeat music fades out] [Highway traffic sounds]
[Indistinct chatter and laughing]
[Daphna] PETA has a straw-delivery program,
and every winter we deliver straw to needy “backyard dogs.”
We have a pallet in our parking lot with bags of straw.
People can come and take free straw, and they do.
We also have our staff volunteer on the weekends
to go out into given areas
where we know there is a
high concentration of chained dogs and offer free straw.
The straw in the winter, it’s bedding for dogs.
People thoughtlessly give them things like a blanket.
Well, if it rains and then it’s 32 degrees,
you know, the blanket is basically a giant piece of ice.
So that’s not very helpful. But the straw will remain dry.
The dogs love it. They love to roll in it.
When we put it down, they get very excited.
And it does help contain their body heat in the doghouses.
We wish we didn’t have to give straw away
because we don’t want dogs to be outside,
but the reality is that a lot of dogs do live outside
and the straw makes a big difference for them.
[Straw rustling]
[Heather laughing]
[Heather] That’s your spot now?
[Kate] She’s, like, “I like this.”
[Heather] Here, do you want that one in there? Yeah?
[Kate] Aww.
[Trucks zooming by on highway]
[Van pulling up]
[Jes] The thing is, is that if your dogs are outside
and they’re not getting treatment for it,
they’re gonna get heartworms.
It’s a parasite that wraps around the heart.
They will {end-italic} get it in our area.
Yeah. I think so. I’ll check, but I think so,
’cause I think he was at the end stages of heartworm.
[Jes] Hi, Whitey. Is he, he’s friendly?
[Guardian] Yeah, he’s friendly.
[Jes] Hey, bud. You look very friendly.
Hi. Hi. Hi. What up, bud?
[Jes] I’m not gonna give you another dog to tie out here.
[Jes] So we only adopt to inside.
You know, it’s just when they live inside, they’re happier.
So when they’re tied outside,
that’s not the life that we encourage.
Exactly why what happened to Brownie.
They get diseases, and things happen to ’em.
Everybody here has been neutered already.
Yeah.
Wonderful, that’s great. OK, I’m gonna unload the doghouses.
Do you have a spot, though, that we could maybe move him
where he’d have a little bit more shade?
Yeah, let’s... I think that would be great.
[Doghouse on dolly rolling] [Dog barking]
[Jes] He’s just having some good fun.
Whoa, he’s gonna take you out there.
Hi, bud.
Hi.
Good.
You just have to wash them out every so often.
[Hose water pouring]
[Dog panting]
Here you go.
[Jes] I meet thousands of cats and dogs.
So obviously, I have connections with all or most of them.
[Jes to dog] All right, see you later.
It’s definitely hard to leave them
after visiting the animals in the field.
But as much as it’s hard to leave,
I know there’s someone else out there
waiting for us to get there.
[Camera clicks] [Uplifting music starts]
[Jes] I met Edith when she was just a year old.
She was one of the “backyard dogs”
that we checked on regularly.
She was chained at an address that had
several pit bulls chained on the property with her.
We tried for years to get her surrendered,
and we educated her owners.
We provided a doghouse. We spayed her.
You know, every time that I was in the area,
I would go and visit Edith and
try to talk her owner into giving her to me.
At one point, she was no longer on the property,
and I assumed that she had died
because that’s what happens to dogs who are chained outside,
either from the heat—she’s a black chow mix,
so it’s harder for them than other dogs.
I mean, of course, I was,
yeah, I mean, I was devastated when we lost her.
You meet these guys, and they’re your friends,
and you tell them all the time, you know,
“I will be back for you.”
You know, we’re trying as hard as we can to get them.
We didn’t know where Edith had went.
She must have been around seven or eight years old.
We don’t visit a lot of dogs that get to be that age.
“Backyard dogs” just do not have a long life span.
You know, her being older,
generally being neglected for so long,
I assumed that she was dead.
[Uplifting music fades out]
[Van rumbles on gravel]
[Daphna] Four years we’ve been visiting this dog,
for four years.
He called us to get a doghouse.
This dog has had
several litters of puppies until he let us spay her.
I don’t even remember where I was, you know,
four years ago, you know, what was going on in my life.
Every day is a different day, you know,
and exciting things happen, and I travel,
and I enjoy myself
sometimes. [Chuckles]
And you know, this dog has had the same patch of dirt,
the same doghouse,
the same flies, the same fleas, mosquitos.
Nothing to give her joy. There is nothing.
She has been maintained in order to survive physically,
and emotionally she was just broken.
I mean, she was so poorly socialized.
She never went for walks.
Where she had to eat is where she had to urinate and defecate,
and that’s where she also had to sleep.
And that was her life every day, every day.
And I think about this dog a lot.
I thought about this dog a lot because
when it’s storming—last night, there was a storm.
And my dogs,
my dogs at home were terrified.
I had to stay up with my dogs,
who are inside and have security.
This dog doesn’t have anybody to tell her that it’s OK
and the storm will pass
and to hug her and just make her feel a little bit better.
She’s alone, and all she's got is that doghouse we gave her
and our visits.
So it’s a wonderful day that she’s out of this
life sentence she was serving for no reason at all.
[Dog barks]
-[Daphna] What? -[Indiscernible chatter]
You wanna throw it?
-[Kid] I wanna throw it. -[Daphna] OK.
[Kid] I wanna throw it.
Let’s, let's let her play with it for one second.
[Branches rustling]
-[Manfred] More cats. -[Daphna] Cats.
-[Manfred] It’s quite small. -[Daphna] You see all the...
[Manfred] It’s not really healthy.
[Kitten meows]
[Manfred] Aww, yeah, yeah.
[Daphna] You see all the infection in his eyes?
[Manfred] In the eyes. I saw.
[Kitten meows]
I know, buddy.
[Kitten meows]
I’m sorry.
She said there are a lot of wild cats
and they have babies all the time.
[Daphna] He’s got a couple of maggots I think on his nose.
[Manfred] The eyes, the eye look...
[Daphna] Yeah, his eyes are sealed shut.
[Kids] Can we come back there?
No, why don’t you guys wait because I don’t,
it’s a lot for these little guys.
[Indiscernible chatter]
[Somber music fades in]
[Daphna] Bye, young man. Thanks for your help.
[Hannah] “Outdoor cats” that live outside 24/7,
they tend to contract diseases from each other.
Outdoor or feral cats that are not vaccinated,
which most of them are not,
they can carry feline leukemia and feline AIDS,
and they can spread it to other cats.
They are exposed to the dangers of Mother Nature.
[Jenny] The “outdoor cats” that are kept out
typically don’t have a very long life span.
If they get hurt, there isn’t much vet care,
so you see a lot of wounds, a lot of infection.
If a cat does get hit by a car,
it’s really sad because a lot of times
they won’t check and make sure the animal has even passed.
And so they can languish on for days and days.
[Ashley] “Outdoor cats”—I mean, they’re more prone to injuries.
We see where they’ve been attacked by other animals,
by wildlife.
We’re always telling the clients who we deal with
to please spay and neuter.
Please keep their animals inside.
[Adam] There are so many of them,
and they aren’t spayed or neutered.
One unspayed cat can produce
over 200 cats in one year just from them,
you know, mating and having litters upon litters of kittens.
You might get a call for, like, five or six cats,
but really, when you show up, there’s 18 or more.
And cats, they start reproducing when they’re a lot younger
than dogs and faster.
Because there is such a huge number of cats out there,
definitely having them spayed and neutered
will help prevent unwanted litters and help save cats.
[Somber music fades out]
[Van pulls up]
[Jes] Uh, you have a couple cats for spay/neuter, right?
Yeah.
OK. How many you have? Two?
Two.
Two. OK. Are they inside?
OK, well, I’ll give you the kit.
Do you need my help catching ’em,
or are they gonna run more when they see me?
Don’t let 'em out here.
Yeah. Let’s...
OK. Well, let’s... is your dog friendly?
Oh, yeah.
OK. All right. Let’s take 'em in then.
[Jes] Where’s all this girl's hair?
-[Guardian] Huh? -[Jes] Where’s all her hair?
[Jes] Does she have flea meds on now?
[Jes] OK, we better put some on her.
-[Jes] Where is your white cat?
[Jes] She’s pregnant now? You don’t wanna get her spayed?
[Jes] OK, you wanna wait ’til after?
[Jes] OK, how far along is she?
[Jes] Ay. [Dog barking]
[Jes] You just have the one other cat?
[Jes] OK.
[Jes] Well, soon-to-be babies, right? OK.
[Jes] Well, where are those babies?
What’s your plan for 'em?
You wanna keep ’em,
or you want us to find somewhere for them to go?
How many?
You’re—OK, so you’re gonna have three,
seven cats, plus the babies on the way?
Well, the thing is if, I mean, if they’re kittens,
it’s easy enough to find them homes.
Yeah.
[Jes] Especially, you’re gonna have a whole nother
litter of kittens.
Who’s “her”? Your wife?
Yeah.
Where’s she at?
Ah. When’s she get out?
That’s a long time.
How old...
See the kittens are gonna—you talk to her when you see her.
And the person who brings these cats tomorrow will ask you.
It’s just if you're about to have more kittens,
that’s a lot of kittens.
Yep.
[Somber music fades in] [Dogs barking]
[Daphna] Well, there’s a tremendous
overpopulation and homelessness problem for animals,
and there has been for many, many years.
It’s still a crisis, but over the years,
due to spay/neuter efforts,
the number of animals affected has diminished
but is still astronomical.
So the estimate is that more than six million animals
go into animal shelters every year.
And roughly half of those have to be euthanized
because there is not a good home out there for them.
So this is a national epidemic.
Every single community has an overpopulation crisis.
By virtue of affluence and laws,
some communities’ problems may be less significant than others.
The area where we happen to be located,
the problem is very pervasive,
and there are studies that show that
animals in low-income areas are more likely to reproduce.
And that’s why our clinics focus so heavily
on low-income areas and indigent populations,
the elderly poor,
so that animals who would otherwise
have no services get services from us.
But the overpopulation and homelessness problem
remains an epidemic,
and that is the reason why PETA advocates always adopting,
never buying, banning breeding of dogs and cats,
mandating spay/neuter,
because there are animals literally
dying for homes in animal shelters
because people are still buying and people are still breeding.
[Dog barking and growling]
[Katina] Animal overpopulation happens
because people don’t spay and neuter their animals.
And, like, for cats, they just let them roam outside,
reproduce, and keep on roamin’.
[Guardian] He was mad at me for a while.
[Heather] [Laughs] For the neuter?
[Kate] It’s better for him long-term though.
[Guardian] Yeah. I know it is.
[Heather] But it’s hard to explain that to him.
[Guardian] We probably shoulda got rid of mine years ago.
[Laughter]
We make it really easy for people
to spay and neuter their animals
because not only will we offer the service for free
but we will go to their house and pick up their animals,
bring them to the clinic,
have them spayed and neutered, and return them home.
You don’t have to do anything. You don’t have to go anywhere.
You don’t have to get up.
All you have to do is sign this form.
Bam, poof, it’s done for you.
[Upbeat music starts]
[Daphna] Welcome to PETA’s first-ever 24-hour Spayathon.
We’ve been here since 5:00 p.m. last night.
We’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds
of dogs and cats show up.
People are really taking advantage
of the 25 dollar 24-hour Spayathon,
which is amazing because one of our vets told me that
at least 60% of the animals she’s seeing she can tell
would have not been done had we not done this special.
We have waves and waves and waves of activity coming.
We had one at 5:00 p.m., one at 9:00 p.m.,
one at 1:00 a.m., and one at six in the morning.
And then our 9:00 a.m. check-in.
[Guardian] I have a German shepherd.
She’s gonna be two in April.
She’s 77, 78 pounds,
and if I would have had to take her to the vet,
it would have been, like,
$200 and something or above, so it is appreciated.
Lori-Jo, our clinics’ manager, has been here the whole time.
She hasn’t sat. She hasn’t taken a break.
We spayed and neutered over 400 animals in that amount of time.
It was something that probably has never been done before,
but it was a good experience.
[Daphna] In many cases when an animal
is matted or needs grooming,
we will shave them down.
We trim their nails. We look at them.
A lot of the animals we see in the field have issues
that our clinic can help treat.
We just amputated the leg of a dog who
was thrown off the balcony by a child to another child
who said she could catch the dog,
and she didn’t catch the dog.
And the dog’s wrist just clean broke.
And the vet recommended amputation.
And our vet amputated the dog’s leg on our clinic.
So our clinic is a spay/neuter clinic,
but we’re also able to do some other limited things that
help the community and help animals.
[Upbeat music fades out] [Cars passing by]
[Water pouring] [Van door closing]
[Daphna] Watch. She’ll figure this out.
[Rachel] Yeah.
[Daphna] Give her a little excitement later.
[Dog drinking water]
[Daphna] It’s a picnic.
[Manfred] I cannot decide to play or...
[Daphna] I don’t know what to do first.
All right, let’s look at this situation.
Oof. Not standing in a good place there.
[Manfred] Mm-hmm.
He’s so decomposed.
Entomologists can usually tell the kind, you know,
the age of the insects and things.
That’s why I wanted to find this man at home
so that we could ask him some questions,
and if he doesn’t want the other dog,
I don’t want her to suffer the same fate.
[Chris] The major problem is
people have animals that they can’t take care of.
They don’t care for them. They don’t feed them.
They chain their dogs out like a yard ornament.
Any being being chained out 24/7,
left to die—I think that’s the worst thing.
[Flies buzzing]
[Puppies whimpering]
[Somber music fades out]
[Daphna] One very unique service that PETA offers in this area
is that we always have two people on call.
24 hours a day, 365 days a year,
if an animal needs help, we’re here.
One of the people on call is a certified euthanasia technician
because we do get calls after hours
about actively suffering animals whose misery needs to be ended
as soon as possible.
That can be an end of life for a companion animal.
It can be a rabbit or a raccoon who had been hit by a car.
In December, we got a pager call at ten o’clock
from a very nice lady in Suffolk,
which is a couple towns away,
and that woman had called the police department,
animal control, and was told to call back
the following day at 11:00 a.m.
And what she was calling about was a dog
who was confined to a pen,
who was paralyzed probably by virtue of having very,
very advanced heartworm disease.
And what happens with congestive heart failure is that
the belly fills with fluid,
and this dog’s belly was so filled with fluid
and so distended that he didn’t have the strength to stand,
and it was pouring rain.
I was on call with another CAP staffer
and we drove out there around 10 o’clock at night,
and this poor dog was in a pen.
He was trapped in a hole
that I have no doubt he dug for himself over the summer
when he was trying to stay cool.
Dogs dig holes to sort of be against the cool earth.
It was pouring rain, so the hole was filled with water.
And so he had been sitting like that for probably a day or two,
according to the caller,
and he couldn’t get to the doghouse.
He couldn’t get to the food.
The food he had was like little pieces of sponge
because it was all soaking wet.
And he couldn’t do anything but just sit there and
wait for something.
And the police department was going to let him wait,
you know, another 14, 15 hours.
And he might not have made it.
And so we went out there,
and we were able to carefully pick him up out of the hole,
put him on a stretcher,
and drag the stretcher to our vehicle,
put him in the vehicle, dry him ’cause he was soaking,
and give him something to eat.
And had to explain to the guardian in the home,
who was developmentally disabled,
that the dog was suffering and needed to be euthanized.
And our emergency pager system
prevented this dog from suffering
for an extra 15 hours.
We were paged by someone who had given a dog to somebody else
and then went to check on that dog,
and the dog was essentially abandoned
but also had a collar grown into his neck.
And so two of our folks went out,
and they were able to get the dog and
take him to the emergency vet clinic.
His collar was very deeply embedded,
and he needed to have it surgically removed.
And he was just a sort of a puppy.
I mean, the collar had been left on him,
and then he was allowed to grow around the collar essentially.
[Slow-paced music starts] But his spirit was unbroken.
He was a great dog.
We were able to get him fostered,
and then he found a home.
And that was really wonderful to see him go from
the hell that he was in to just being very, very loved.
[Emily] The most exciting part about the job
is seeing the before-and-afters.
When we take an animal in, they usually come to us.
They’re skinny or emaciated. They’re scared. They’re hungry.
They don’t know kindness in people yet,
and over time, I mean,
even after they’re with us just a couple of days,
their personality really starts to come out.
We may have given them a bath,
or they’ve put on a little bit of weight.
Just knowing how scared and,
you know, maybe unsocial they were when we first took ’em in
and then seeing them in their
new homes months later where you wouldn’t even recognize
them from both their physical appearance
and their personality.
And you know, they’ve gone from being
chained in someone’s backyard where they’re just forgotten
to sleeping on a couch, you know,
and getting Christmas presents under the tree and just having
their lives totally transformed.
[Slow-paced music fades out]
It’s OK.
I know you’re very worried, but it’s OK.
[Rachel] Come on. Come on, girl. Good girl.
[Daphna] We tried to get her owner to let us have her
on every single visit.
You know, we can’t make people do the right thing,
and the only reason that we got her in the end is because of her
health issues and because she was very clearly at that point
practically a cruelty case.
[Rachel] Oh, she’s pooping.
Oh, she is? Oh, right on the blanket. Oh, well.
Aww, poor baby.
[Rachel] That water went right through her, didn’t it?
[Rachel] Yeah. [Chuckling]
[Daphna] Poor thing.
Well, you know, at least she did it on the floor.
I’ll just fold it up. [Indiscernible]
[Zena crunching food]
[Dogs barking in the background]
[Daphna] There’s a serious misconception
with the term “no-kill.”
There are some shelters that
perhaps call themselves “no-kill.”
I think there are also shelters that
practice what would be considered “no-kill” policies
but may not be straight-up “no-kill” shelters.
The term itself is very appealing to everyone,
for good reason,
because nobody wants to have to euthanize animals.
The problem with so-called “no-kill” policies is that
they cause animals to suffer.
That’s the short answer. How do they do that?
The animals are out there, and they need help.
Shelters are under so much pressure
by usually small but very vocal people
who are opposed to euthanasia under any circumstance
and target shelters for having to practice euthanasia.
So what they do is they pressure shelters to
change their admission policies so that animals who would have
to be euthanized under normal circumstances are turned away.
[Light music fades in]
[Investigator] OK.
The intake rate drops,
and by the intake rate dropping or changing,
the euthanasia rate also drops.
PETA could only take in animals who are placeable,
and then our what’s called a “save rate,” if you will,
would be 100%.
That would be very easy.
But that would mean that we would have to turn our back
on all the feral cats
that people perceive as a nuisance
and put poison out or shoot at.
That we would have to turn our back on all the aggressive dogs
who have gone mad
from being trapped at the end of a chain their entire lives.
It would mean we’d have to turn our back on the destitute people
who bring us animals in their arms
who are suffering who need to be euthanized.
Because all of those things contribute to
what ends up being our statistics.
Our statistics reflect who we take in and who we help.
[Guardian] About 17 years ago, I saved a dog,
a wild dog, that was on the street.
I took her in and took care of her best I could.
And old age has caught up to her,
and I decided it was the humane thing to do
is to have her euthanized.
I’m glad they’re around. I really appreciate it.
[Daphna] The problem with “no-kill”
is that it’s just a shell game.
[Katina] They pick and choose who comes,
who doesn’t come.
People get really frustrated when their animal
isn’t accepted into a “no-kill” shelter.
They’re put out into the streets.
They’re given just willy-nilly to anybody.
[Daphna] It leaves animals abandoned,
to fend for themselves very often.
It also is very dangerous in that it
misleads the public into believing
that “no-kill” is possible.
In Virginia last year,
there were more than 230,000 animals who went into shelters,
public and private.
That’s the problem.
The problem isn’t how many of those 230,000 were euthanized.
The problem is that 230,000 were
unwanted or homeless to begin with.
That’s where the focus has to be,
and that’s why we have four spay/neuter clinics.
[Lori-Jo] Spaying and neutering
gets to the root of the problem of animal homelessness.
There are so many born every year
and end up in shelters or no place to go.
So spaying and neutering prevents those
animals from being born in the first place.
So when you mislead the public into thinking,
well, look, this shelter is “no-kill”
and you compare that shelter’s rate to PETA’s rate of intake,
adoption, euthanasia, transfer, what-have-you,
of course, the percentages are gonna look different.
One shelter only takes animals that
fly out the door because they’re puppy-mill rescues
or they’re small purebreds or they’re kittens or puppies,
and one shelter is taking in animals who are not adoptable
and is making the difficult decision to euthanize them.
[Chris] Well, I think a lot of people that are against
euthanizing animals,
especially the animals that we euthanize,
they don’t see what we do on a daily basis.
They don’t see where the animals come from.
The animals that we pull out that do end up being euthanized,
they’re in really bad shape.
The owners have
basically had them chained out their whole lives.
They’ve been in fights.
They have infections all over them, bite wounds.
I get emotional, but really when we euthanize an animal,
it’s for the best for them.
Most of the time, they’re in a lot of pain or suffering,
or they’re chained out all the time
and have had the worst life ever.
So these animals aren’t going to be going through this
pain and suffering anymore.
We love every single one of them,
and just having the opportunity to be with them in their last
moments is an honor.
[Soft music fades out] [Somber music fades in]
[Daphna] You know, if you look at Zena inside and out,
everything about her showed neglect.
She had lost a bunch of hair. Her skin was inflamed.
Her teeth were worn down to the roots.
She was anxiety-ridden. She was terrified of human beings.
Her insides were chewed through by parasites.
This is what happens to dogs who are chronically neglected
when they are kept outdoors 24/7.
And this is why our program is so important because it serves
these dogs whose owners are unkind or neglectful or ignorant
and can’t even tell when their animals need basic
necessities of life.
I’m thankful that she got to experience
a little bit of kindness,
even if she didn’t quite understand it
before she moved on.
[Somber music fades out] [Uplifting music fades in]
Never ever, ever buy an animal anywhere.
Don’t buy an animal from a pet store.
Don’t buy an animal from a breeder.
If you are ready to make that commitment to an animal,
it’s so easy to adopt these days. You just go online.
You don’t even have to go to the shelter,
although we certainly encourage people to do so.
So never buy—always adopt.
Always spay or neuter. You know, don’t wait. Don’t delay.
It’s not just the right thing to do
for all dogs and cats because of
overpopulation and homelessness,
it’s also the best thing to do for that
particular animal from a health perspective.
If you see something, say something.
If there is an animal at the end of a chain,
if there is an animal in a pen, if something doesn’t seem right,
you don’t have anything to lose.
Call local authorities,
and if you don’t get action there,
call us, and we will do our very best to help.
But never be silent. Pick up that phone.
Go on the computer.
You can report things anonymously to almost
every organization.
Don’t think that somebody else is doing the right thing,
because a lot of people are afraid to get involved.
PETA’s an animal rights organization.
We did not move down to the Norfolk/Hampton Roads area
to do sheltering or fieldwork.
We would be thrilled if we didn’t have to do it.
We do it by necessity. We do it because we have to.
And I think that if people are perplexed
as to why we do what we do and about why we euthanize,
because I understand, you know, euthanasia is upsetting.
It’s upsetting that it has to happen.
The people who criticize us are not the people that we help.
If you went in the field with
any of the folks on our staff,
the reception we get in the field,
with few exceptions, like anything else,
is, you know, hugs and thank-yous. You know, yesterday
I came home with a bag of cucumbers [laughs]
the other day.
You know, people are appreciative,
and they give us thanks the best way they know how.
And we are dealing with people who
struggle to put food on the table.
[Laughing] Mm-hmm. That’s right.
[Heather] Beautiful babies.
[Heather and Katina laughing]
[Daphna] This is a national issue.
PETA is used by advocates of “no-kill” because
we’re well known.
But we are always going to do what’s right
for individual animals,
from our perspective of assessing the animals
and making decisions for them.
We always make the decision that is the best decision
we can make for that animal at that particular moment,
and that’s not an easy thing to do all the time.
[Uplifting music fades out] [Inspiring music fades in]
[Jes] You know, I try to stay very realistic
about what we can do at each address,
and part of the work that we do is living on hope.
You know, we hope we can get them surrendered.
We hope that we can educate people to do better for them.
I’ve been doing this for 15 years.
If I didn’t have hope that things were gonna get better,
I would be in a deep depression.
Edith was missing for about three years.
Myself and Emily were going through pictures
from the straw delivery over the weekend,
and Emily said to me, “Hey, come here,”
you know, “look at this picture.”
And so I got up, and I went over and looked.
And sure enough, instantly I knew that it was her.
So I went out to the address,
and it turned out that her guardian had just moved
I talked to her about Edith getting older and,
you know, basically,
that it’s just not fair to her to be chained outside.
I mean, it was never fair to her,
but at this point, she’s 10 years old.
You know, every time it gets hot or it gets cold,
it affects her arthritis.
And she ended up telling me that I could have her.
She tried to tell me that Edith didn’t like being inside,
which is absolutely not true.
Edith loves to be snuggled on the couch or the bed.
Anywhere you are, she wants to be there.
I instantly knew I wanted to adopt her.
I had known her for so long,
and she was just such a wonderful girl.
Every moment, she’s just more and more perfect.
Edith probably makes me happier
than anything else in this world.
I mean, you know, I’ve got kind of a hard job,
and it’s, like, man,
hanging out with her is the best.
She makes my life better every day.
Oh, and hopefully I make her life a lot better as well.
[Inspiring music fades out]
[Uplifting music starts]
[Uplifting music fades out]