DDAF’s recent grant to Muttville Dog Rescue in the Bay Area for their senior rescues made a splash at www.dogtipper.com. See more on Muttville on our grants page.

The animals need your help! Please consider a donation to the Doris Day Animal Foundation. …And [here] are even more free and easy ways to support DDAF simply by searching/shopping online and your grocery purchases!

Feeding Our Souls

Mahogany

Throughout most of 2010 and 2011 DDAF has focused on assisting senior companion animals in need – dogs, cats, and likely a few guinea pigs, ducks, and a pot-bellied pig or two through one of our grants to rescue groups across the country. Of course spay / neuter and our Horse Adoption Center have been central to our efforts also. READ FULL STORY

Jobs for Working Dogs

Dog photos can make us cry, cheer, laugh, and even donate to rescue funds! This link to www.boston.com’s picture series spotlights dogs in the news earlier in the year. Dogs saving their humans from fire, war dogs at work and play, assistance dogs, dogs in floods, street dogs in trouble - we love them all and always wish there was more we could do to help those who need us. Send us a note to let us know about the dogs - and all the other companion animals out there - you know and love.

In 2009 one of DDAF’s grants supported the annual cost of veterinary care for the dogs of the Working Dogs for Conservation Foundation. In remote areas of the world these dogs work with their handlers to search out evidence of invasive or endangered species – both animals and plant life.

Over the millennia, dogs have been bred for specific jobs – herding dogs, guard dogs, and similar breeds. More recently dogs are being trained as assistance dogs, therapy dogs, or search and rescue dogs.

If you find news of dogs at work – send us a note, we thought we’d look at a few of the ways dogs contribute to our society.

Back in 2006 Flo and Lucky (see below) learned how to sniff out DVDs to help customs agents and law enforcement personnel cut down on DVD / CD piracy. On a special project in Malaysia in 2007-2008, they were very successful, and more dogs have been trained for the task.

MPAA Trains Dogs to Sniff Out Pirate DVDs

Two black Labradors are being employed in the fight against piracy in the U.K.

By Jeremy Kirk, IDG News May 11, 2006 8:00 am

The Motion Picture Association of America is putting some bite behind its bark in its fight against illegally copied CDs and DVDs.

The movie industry group has funded the eight-month training of two black Labradors, called Lucky and Flo, who can now sniff out optical discs at customs points and other locations. The MPAA worked with its U.K. counterpart, the Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT).

While dogs have long been used to detect illicit drugs, the new mission aims to slash away at the profits from movie piracy, which FACT estimates were $519 million in the U.K. last year.  [Read the full story]

Increase Rescue Adoptions 100%? Wow!

In case you didn’t catch CBS Sunday Morning recently, see the video (Watch Now!) from a recent segment on Dallas photographer Teresa Berg. A similar article can be found at Popular Photography (View now!).

We’ve all heard a picture is worth a thousand words, and Ms. Berg certainly puts that into action! She’s putting on training sessions to teach animal rescuers photography tips and asking professional photographers to “adopt” a nearby rescue group to help.

Thanks for caring!

A recent grant to Save-A-Pet in Illinois www.saveapetil.org helps support several senior diabetic cats in their care. With a proper dieg, all the cats are improving, and both Barack and Little Bruiser have improved so much they no longer need medication, which is wonderful to hear.

Making Progress with Spay/Neuter

The Huffington Post reports on spay/neuter over the past 30-40 years [Read the Story....]

Thanks to all of you … DDAF was able to help fund spays and neuters for hundreds of cats and dogs at Spay Day 2011 events across the country. See some of the pictures we’ve posted on our Grants page.

Doris Day, HSUS Open New Facility for Rescued Horses

Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch

Murchison, Tex. - The Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center opened at Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch last weekend with a parade of healthy, well-fed horses and their dedicated trainers.  The successful recovery of each animal is due to the care and compassion of the Center’s staff, made possible in part by a $250,000 grant from the Doris Day Animal Foundation.

“I’m thrilled the construction of the Center has been completed, and we are ready to help horses in neglected and abusive situations,” Ms. Day said in a letter read at the opening ceremonies.  ”This fulfills a dream that my friend [writer and animal-rights activist] Cleveland Amory and I discussed many times in talking about how we could help horses.”

The story began in 2009 when the Humane Society of the United States rescued nearly 200 emaciated and neglected horses from the 3-Strikes Mustang ranch near Alliance, Nebr.   About half of these horses, victims of a failed rescue operation, were relocated to facilities scattered across the U.S.  But with the help of Ms. Day’s grant, nearly 100 mustangs found a new home at the Black Beauty Ranch.

Doris Day Horse Rescue

Amory’s legacy, the ranch is a facility where animals — either abandoned, neglected, past their prime or simply displaced — are rescued to live out their days under watchful care.  The new Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center comprises 12 acres of the ranch and includes an education center, stables, a staging facility to care for animals caught in natural disasters, and a “horse playground” - open space where the horses live as the herd animals they naturally are.

Today, the original mustang rescues are joined by dozens more.  The Center’s trainers, using techniques pioneered by equine authority Pat Parelli, focus on a three-part mission:  Rescue, Rehabilitate, Re-Home.  Foundation of the Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center marks the first time horses will be available for adoption from Black Beauty Ranch.

The road to recovery for each horse begins with a comprehensive evaluation to identify health problems, nutritional needs, physical or medical limitations and personality.  The team then designs a plan to get the horse back to health and ready for adoption.

Adoption Stables

“Knowing our rescues will be brought back to health in a safe and secure environment, and then placed for adoption with people who love horses and understand how to care for them, will be a tremendous plus for horse rescuers around the county,” Ms. Day said.

Please consider a gift to help the horses that now call the Doris Day Horse Rescue and Adoption Center home.  Click now to donate.

Spay Day 2011

Final results will available soon, but preliminary notes from the annual February event show over 2,562 spay/neuter surgeries were performed by 35 groups nationwide in Spay Day programs funded by DDAF’s grant to the Spay Day program.

Worldwide, there were 47,911 spays and neuters in the U.S. attributed to Spay Day programs, and 7,544 in other areas of the world – a 4% increase over 2010!
Spay Day’s success and continuing growth is a direct result of the support it receives every year from friends of animals and generous donors everywhere.