Ideal Bite

At an HSUS (Humane Society of the U.S.) town-hall meeting in SF last week (for other cities, RSVP here), I chatted with the president, Wayne Pacelle (see photo), and got updates on everything from factory farming to wild horses (this just in: As of Jan. 1 here in CA, tail-docking of dairy cows is banned, thanks to a bill from Senator Florez).

In honor of National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week (this week), I thought I'd call out HSUS's new Shelter Pet Project (video intro here), which is aimed at removing the stigma of shelter animals. Many potential pet owners assume that shelter animals are behaviorally difficult or sick (most are not), that there are no purebred pets (in fact 25%-30% actually are), or that there are no kittens or puppies (also not the case). Check out five great reasons for why adopting a shelter pet is a great idea (including better health for you). Another motivator: If just 20% of the people looking to adopt a pet do get one at a shelter, 3 million shelter animals will find a home (that's nearly as many as are euthanized each year).

-Jenifer…off to make a symbolic adoption till I have more time and space…