Good news for the animals!

I'm up early this Saturday morning and I know I was a little negligent about Friday's post. So here I am at 8:54am posting about animals. Don't judge me. I posted about this on my Facebook page yesterday so I figured it should be talked about in detail here, since I can go on forever about my love for animals.

If you click here you can see that Laredo has finally done something legitimate about the horrific conditions that strays have to face. They opened up a new facility with a little over 80 kennels. It's a two-phase project that costs the city 1.5 million dollars. The first phase is now open and the second one is underway. In this video, it says 1.5, but in the Thanksgiving front page of the Laredo Morning Times (LMT) print edition I'm pretty sure it said 2.4 million but don't quote me. Supposedly they're also going to require pre-adoption classes on owner responsibility. This really made me very happy to see. The animals are even getting normal things like fans and proper care now.

Laredo Animal Protective Society (LAPS) has also significantly increased their efforts. There was a petition online (which I signed) to either destroy it and build a new shelter or to completely restructure the place. The city of Laredo used to use LAPS as a pound basically and would euthanize about 80% of the animals admitted. Since then, the city and LAPS have parted ways, taking LAPS back to their role of humane society. They also don't euthanize anymore and have a new executive director  If their Facebook page is an accurate description of their efforts, they are also doing a great job.  I used to frequent the shelter and every time I'd leave sad. All the dogs looked famished and frustrated and the ones that didn't were bound to get all the illnesses spreading. I always wanted to leave with one every visit and couldn't believe the place didn't aggressively try to adopt them out. Now, they have a website and a Facebook page that is constantly advertising adoption events around the city. It doesn't seem like much, but just last year LAPS wasn't doing any of these typically normal functions.

I'm glad to see that local advocates could bring change. They went to countless city council meetings and pushed for change. I'm including a video that shows them trying to show the conditions through a slideshow and then being asked to stop because it was "defamatory". This kind of action shows me that people here still care. It gives me hope that not all people in Laredo are stupid.

Have a great weekend!

'til next time, stay classy!♥

-M