Pet rescue group New Leash on Life faces possible closure of its sanctuary, hosts online fundraiser

This Thanksgiving, we're thankful for all of the good people going to great effort to help Southern California's animals.  We're not so thankful, however, about the effects of the economic downturn on many rescue organizations and others who are working on behalf of needy animals. Guest blogger Janet Kinosian shares the story of one local group struggling to keep its doors open:

If you're aware of the great work that rescue group New Leash on Life has done in Southern California for the last 12 years, you’re sure to be saddened by the prospect of the proposed closure of the group's 13-acre Santa Clarita Valley sanctuary, The Ranch, come January. 

Any animal-rescue closure is an unhappy event, but the idea of closing The Ranch seems even more unhappy than most.  Since opening in 2002, the facility has been responsible for saving over 5,000 animals while hosting, among other things, Lend-A-Paw, a therapy and assistance-dog program for rescued pets. 

Unfortunately for the rescuers and the animals they serve, New Leash on Life has lost its major funding and its board of directors recently made the difficult decision to close The Ranch. However, after loud groans from members of the animal-loving community, the same board stepped up to the plate and quickly raised enough funds to keep the facility open through December 2009. 

Thanksgiving good deeds: Farm Sanctuary offers rescued-turkey sponsorship opportunities

Most Americans will be gorging themselves on turkeys and duck and chicken and all sorts of animal flesh Thursday. Vegetarians and vegans will no doubt look the other way as the animals are consumed in the ravaging ways "the season" affords.

But what can animal lovers do to support the fowl that face being sacrificed for the sake of tradition? Or, better yet, what can those of us in the majority who love to eat animals do to help some living creatures?

One of our favorite animal-rescue organizations, Farm Sanctuary, is doing its part to help turkeys avoid the suffering that often goes into Thanksgiving dinner preparations.  With a $25 donation to Farm Sanctuary's Adopt-a-Turkey campaign, softhearted folks can sponsor a needy turkey who's been spared from slaughter to live out its life at one of the organization's two farms (one in northern California, one in New York state).  Since the campaign's inception in 1986, more than 1,000 turkeys have been saved. 

Fashion guru Tim Gunn talks fur (specifically, what's wrong with it)

Our esteemed colleague and Unleashed contributor Patt Morrison caught up recently with Tim Gunn, the main man behind the popular fashion-themed reality show "Project Runway." Gunn expanded on the issue of fur in fashion (like any good fashion expert, he's against it; he's even narrated an anti-fur video for PETA) for The Times' All the Rage blog. Here's an excerpt:

Patt Morrison: Do we have you to thank for the fact that there is no fur in the challenges?

Tim Gunn: Yes, thank you! I was called a fool when I was chair of fashion at Parsons and I invited PETA to speak to students. The industry went crazy. I said: "Wait a minute. The International Fur Trade Commission is coming here. I have a responsibility to bring another point of view, let the students decide." I would say if you're going to use fur, you have a responsibility to know its origins. At Liz Claiborne, every brand is now fur-free. A woman assaulted me verbally for my fur position. She said one of [her] favorite items is a mink coat, and that furthermore, it's sheared mink, so people wouldn't even know it's fur. I said: "Then you have even less of an excuse. Sheared fur looks like velvet. You could wear a velvet coat." I'm also not a great fan of faux fur that looks real -- I'd much rather have it look fake.

And yet every few seasons, including this one, you thumb through the fashion mags, and there's fur, fur, fur. PETA's chic, no-fur celebrity messages can't compete -- they can't afford to make the same splash that huge, rich fashion brands can, and it's the latter that drive buying habits. I won't say ''taste'' because it isn't tasteful.

There's no reason to kill animals for fur. Wearing fur is like wearing a big sign reading, ''I'm in favor of inflicting cruelty and pain on animals as a fashion statement.'' Unspeakable torture is inflicted on dogs, cats, bunnies, raccoons, foxes, minks and myriad trapped, helpless creatures in the name of fashion -- yes, dogs and cats.

THERE'S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo credit: F. Scott Schafer / Bravo

Your morning adorable: Elephants canoodle at new Thai elephant retirement home

Thailand's new Pang La Elephant Rehabilitation Center officially opened over the weekend, becoming the first facility of its kind in the country known for its love affair with elephants. 

The center, in Thailand's Lampang province, plans to care for up to 200 elderly and disabled Asian elephants; currently, about 30 elephants call it home, including several that are partially or completely blind, according to the Bangkok Post.  It's staffed by veterinarians and mahouts and run by Thailand's Forest Industry Organization. 

Pang La will care for elephant residents, like the two elderly pachyderms above, "until their last breath," Forest Industry Organization chief Manoonsak Tantiwiwat told the Bangkok Post.

RELATED:
Thailand's elephants are black and white and mad all over as public interest shifts to new panda cub
Your morning adorable: Rescued elephant calves frolic at Kenya wildlife center

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Elephants at the Pang La Elephant Rehabilitation Center use their trunks to pet each other Nov. 21.  Credit: Pongmanat Tasiri / European Pressphoto Agency

Reader photo of the day: A broken back didn't slow down Anna Marie, a rescued dog from Romania

Submitter Nancy Janes shares this wonderful shot of Anna Marie, a rescued dog with an amazing story we couldn't keep to ourselves. 

Janes found and rescued Anna Marie in Galati, Romania, when she was just a puppy; Anna Marie had suffered a broken back as a result of being hit by a car. "Now, she is the 'wild child' of our family," Janes says of Anna Marie, who lives alongside six other rescued dogs from Romania.

Janes, a California resident, founded the group Romania Animal Rescue after visiting Romania on a hiking tour in 2001. In the capital city of Bucharest, she took time out to feed some stray dogs -- an abundance of strays is one legacy of Nicolae Ceauşescu's rule -- and encountered a young Romanian woman who was also feeding the animals. 

"I told her I would go back to America and help Romania's dogs," Janes explained of the encounter. "She said, 'Everyone says they will help the Romanian dogs. Then they go home and forget.' Well, having heard this, I had to keep my word!"

Injured sea lion seen near Sacramento River on Wednesday is still missing

A sea lion with an eye injury has been eluding rescuers since it was sighted near the Sacramento River on Wednesday. Rescuers haven't seen the animal since, says an article from the Sacramento Bee.

The sea lion was sighted on a dock near Old Sacramento's Tower Bridge, but slipped into the river after volunteers gauged that the dock was too small to safely net the animal.

Based on photographs that observers took, Jim Oswald, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, guessed that the injured sea lion is a male weighing between 350 and 500 pounds.

Oswald and other volunteers traveled to Sacramento on Wednesday hoping to help the marine animal, which appeared to be injured near its right eye. According to the article, the Marine Mammal Center's volunteers have helped many sea lions during 1,500 marine animal rescues this year.

Despite the sea lion’s disappearance, Oswald remains optimistic about the animal's wounds.

Pepper for pachyderms: Africa's Elephant Pepper Development Trust helps farmers and animals

For many residents of Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, elephants don't seem majestic so much as menacing. Elephants are largely protected from poachers in these nations, but many people whose crops and homes the animals have destroyed wish they weren't. Enter the Elephant Pepper Development Trust, which aims to help both the people and the elephants survive -- through elephants' culinary nemesis, pepper. Here's an excerpt from our colleague Robyn Dixon's story:

The Zambia-based trust trains African farmers to repel elephants by using chile peppers. Elephants hate chiles.

African farmers often burn chiles as a repellent, but it's not enough. The trust's method involves four simple steps, but takes a lot of work and commitment.

The method: 1) Leave 5 yards of cleared space between the forest and the fields. At night, smelling humans around, crossing the gap into a field makes the elephants nervous. 2) Plant a thick barrier of chiles around the field. 3) Put up a fence with rope that has jangling cans (which gives them a fright) and cloth flags coated with thick chile-spiked grease. 4) Burn chiles, making pungent smoke.

The trust guarantees to buy chiles grown from farmers and manufactures its own Elephant Pepper brand of chile spices and sauces, sold in southern Africa and soon to hit the U.S. market. (They are already available to U.S. customers via the group's website.) The profits go back into the trust.

"We say, 'We are not here to give you food or money,' " Osborn said. " 'We're here to give you an idea. It's up to you to take it up.' "

THERE'S MORE; READ THE REST.

Photo: Women sort chiles grown by local farmers for the Elephant Pepper Development Trust. Credit: Robyn Dixon / Los Angeles Times

How holiday dollars can help pets

It's that time again -- shopping time, that is -- and our friends at The Times' brand-new Holiday Gift Guide blog have advice on ways you can make your gift-buying dollars stretch in ways that help animals.

The Humane Society of the United States has partnered this year with companies that kick a portion of your purchase price right back to the Humane Society and its work on behalf of animals.  Here, courtesy of the Holiday Gift Guide, are a few animal-friendly gift-giving options:

• Unique Skin, a company that makes skins for cellphones, donates 20% of sales to the Humane Society.

• At the Humane Society magazine store, 40% of your magazine subscription purchase price goes directly to the Humane Society.

• Proceeds from the Humane Society gift and office stores go directly to the organization.

• Grounds for Change, a coffee company, donates money to the Humane Society through its HS Coffee Club.

Want your gift-buying dollar to help animals and people at the same time? Our colleagues at the Baltimore Sun have the scoop on a doggie chew toy that's raising money (nearly $40,000 so far!) for a program that provides service dogs to injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sounds like a win-win situation to us!

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: A festive dog named Nigel gets ready for the Reindoggie Parade in Carmel, Calif. Credit: Ryan Williams

54 feral cats on San Nicolas Island relocated to Ramona in order to protect native animals

Fifty-four feral cats captured on San Nicholas Island are settling in at a wildlife center northeast of San Diego.

The Navy decided to remove the cats from San Nicholas, one of two Channel Islands owned by the Navy, to help nesting seabirds. The felines are now living at the Fund for Animals Wildlife Center.

Feral cats are usually euthanized, but the habitat was agreed upon by the Navy, Humane Society of the United States, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Department of Fish and Game.

The Web site DoGreatGood.com donated more than $100,000 to build a habitat at the center.

Most of the cats are unadoptable because they are so wild, but 18 kittens may find homes.

Trapping started in June and will continue until February.

-- Associated Press

Photo: An aerial view of San Nicolas Island, located 60 miles off Point Mugu, in 2001. Credit: Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times

Halloween fun for a good cause: Costumed pets strutted their stuff, got new homes at shelter event

We were honored to help judge Long Beach's Howl'oween dog-costume contest Saturday, but while we were having a blast with L.A.'s most pampered pets, our colleague Lu Parker of KTLA News was busy helping homeless pets find new adoptive families. We had a great time -- but three guesses on which of us had a more fulfilling Halloween! Here's Lu's account of the adoption event:

A spider, a cop and a hot dog. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, but what I'm about to tell is no joke. It's reality. For thousands of homeless dogs, reality means living in a cage day and night. It's a fact that keeps me awake many nights, but I'm happy to say that for one special day this past weekend things were different.

It was billed as Howl-O-Ween at the South Los Angeles animal shelter, a day to come see the beautiful dogs and cats who need a home. We wanted to spread the word: Adopt; don't buy. What it turned into was a day of many moments we will never forget.

For this one day, dozens of dogs got a chance to leave their cage and feel sunshine on their faces. They got a chance to smell the grass and to experience a little affection outside the cage. Volunteers and employees gathered to make it all possible. Local firefighters showed up to line a parade route. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa led the pet parade. We all ate candy. I was lucky enough to be able to emcee the event, and as I was talking on the microphone about each dog passing in front of me with a human attached to them, I couldn't help but smile inside.