December - only two rats adopted

In order to have met our goal of placing 5 animals a month into new homes - the goal I had set to make all the effort worthwhile - we would have had to place 20 in the month of December, or 16 and find two foster homes to make up for the four animals adopted by their foster homes (thus closing those foster homes). Foster homes were found, and then fell through. Unfortunately, despite many of our successes in 2006, including the adoption clinics, we had zero growth in adoptions. We hope 2007 will be a stronger year.

My vision for ethical treatment of animals

This is my statement, my view of the ideal, practical, perhaps-one-day possible world.

1. - No one expects to obtain companion animals no-questions-asked, or for free
2. - All homeless animals with a reasonable expection of quality of life being able to find a good home, covered by a much broader geographic area than we now consider convenient
3. - An end to all blood sports, including the feeding of live prey to domesticated carnivores/predators
4. - No companion animal being denied veterinary treatment because "it's just an animal" or because "it's cheaper to buy a new one." No companion animal being denied prompt veterinary treatment because of ignorance or lack of affordability
5. - All pet guardians learning about, respecting, and meeting the real physical and psychological needs of their companion animals
6. - No more vanity- or folkloric consumption of animals and animal parts, or regulatory redundancy that takes animals' lives
7. - Outlawing (or out-regulating) the breeding of domestic companion animals as a gainful source of part-time or full-time employment or small business category. Outlawing of industry practices and recalling of products that are known to be harmful to our pets, yet continue to be practiced and marketed.
   
8. - Licensed breeding becoming truly controlled and licensed, guaranteeing that the breeders care about their progeny
9. - Law enforcement acting on their animal protection mandates and receiving appropriate budgets to take action every day
10. - All hunters learning everything about the ecology of their game and the ethics of hunting and the humane kill well before they learn how to pull a trigger safely. (To be a hunter, one only has to learn how to fire a gun.) Credit goes to those who are already ethical advocates and conservationists
11. - Working animals routinely granted the opportunity to join families as companion animals at a reasonable stage of retirement
12. - Industries that necessarily use working animals give back into causes that directly benefit animals in order to honour the animal sacrifices their industries require – rather back into causes that support their industry's bottom line. By this, we certainly do mean medical research and farming - they are legitimate businesses that are too paranoid of the ethical intentions of animal welfare, and do not contribute back to those whose goods and lives they make their money from. e.g. Cancer research supports ever more cancer research - while our pets and shelter animals are denied drugs and treatments known effective to them, and refuges get no sponsorship from those who profit from research
    
13. - Pet stores become the repository and distribution point for homeless pets, safe and healthy pet products, and real humane education, so they can truly become joyful places, rather than a happy face denying the economic enslavement of animals
    
14. - A clearly defined, educated, and enforced limit to the influence that non-guardians can exert on curbing the behaviour and lifestyles of animals and their guardians. Parks are paid for from public funds dog owners contribute to; breed-specific legislation is not a right to beat or poison neighbour's pets or launch civil suites; leash laws are not permission to surveille, stalk or otherwise harrass dog owners; nor shoot-shovel-shutup and other forms of extermination for animals without guardians. We share the same world, and animal rights and guardian rights should not be subordinate to zoophobias and disinformation.

Animals confer more blessings on us than we could care to count. We need to confer the blessings back.

Babies are growing so fast, almost ready to adopt!

There are 3 boys - one agouti hooded with a fully amputated tail (an unfortunate accident due to an aggression by an adult male) and two beige hooded.

There are 6 females - one beige hooded with a half-length tail (same incident), three other beige hoodeds, and two agouti hooded.

There are also the older siblings: two agouti-hooded boys, and one agouti-hooded and one beige-hooded sister pair. Sicero, the mom, is agouti-hooded.

In the picture above, their coats are kinda messy because baby rats, just like baby humans, get food all over themselves when they eat.

Raffle winners | Gagnants de Tombola

Eliza McCarthy - Bikram Yoga
Vanessa Sarges - Tuscan wine
Marlene Ghazaly - L'Oréal Professional gift basket
Christiane Brault - Salon Gloria certificate
Howard Kiewe - Zen Massothérapie certificate

Congratulations winners, and thanks to all who donated and participated!

Four days to buy your raffle tickets!

We are having the holiday raffle on Saturday, December 16 at our volunteer party. We are going to call the winners that night. You can buy your tickets from the link on our home page. There's about a one in 10 chance of winning, which is pretty good for the price of the ticket and value of the prizes. Good luck!

Cuteness is about to explode!

These are the babies who were born just about two weeks ago. Already, with their eyes not yet open, they are little explorers. They are familiar with human hands, as their mom and sisters are - their mom is the most sociable rat ever!

On Saturday, their older sisters - Blondie and Brownie, I guess they should be called - and two brothers, too, are going to be available at our adoption clinic. See below for details!

help! foster home for boys needed now!

We have a pending adoption for boys but we have incoming and an outgoing foster home (allergies) - so we're short a foster home. We will also need another foster home for either boys or girls, end of December, for the babies that are now nursing and their elder siblings. This is a huge juggle! Also, if you're interested in long-term fostering for guinea pigs, please consider us for the holiday period.

Adoption clinic 09/dec/06 Séance d'adoption!

We're having an adoption clinic on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 9, 11 - 5 pm at GLOBAL - Pitou, Minou & Compagnons in Plaza Pointe-Claire (corner St.John & Hwy 20). Loving homes are wanted for pet rats, mice, hamsters, and other small animals, and donations and volunteers are needed. We sell cages, and we will be selling raffle tickets for some lovely Christmas presents. For info call 514-691-5263.

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SAMEDI 9 DÉCEMBRE, 11h00-17h00, chez GLOBAL – Pitou, Minou & Compagnons, à la Plaza Pointe-Claire, Boul. Saint-Jean, coin autoroute 20. On cherche les foyers aimants pour les rats, souris, hamsters, et autres petits animaux, et on a un besoin pour les dons et benevoles. On vendre des cages, et on vendre des billets "loto" pour plusiers bons cadeaux de Noël! Pour info appellez (514) 691-5263.

Hamsters in a very cool house!