ECC NEWS

IMPORTANT! Help Pass "Oreo's Law"
Friday, December 4, 2009


In June 2009, a one year old dog named Oreo was thrown from the sixth floor of a Brooklyn rooftop. The perpetrator was arrested and Oreo - with broken bones and fractured ribs - was "rescued" and taken to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). The ASPCA started treating her broken body and she began to recover. She was quickly deemed the "miracle dog," and a happy ending seemed possible. As Nathan Winograd, animal sheltering expert and advocate points out: the miracle was short-lived.

According to the ASPCA, Oreo - a dog traumatized and abused by humans - was showing some aggression towards the same species that had thrown her off of a roof and nearly killed her. While Oreo's body had healed, she was still (unsurprisingly) distrustful and stressed by some people. Ed Sayres, President of the ASPCA made the decision to kill her due to this alleged behavior. Before she was killed, Pets Alive, a no-kill animal shelter located in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains, contacted the ASPCA to ask for custody of Oreo. Pets Alive is a reputable, approved animal rescue organization with experience in handling dogs deemed aggressive. Pets Alive contacted the ASPCA repeatedly requesting custody of Oreo. The ASPCA refused. The ASPCA then killed Oreo.

Oreo, abused and possibly beaten before entering the ASPCA, thrown from a roof and injured, was "rescued" only to be killed far before her time, without being given a chance at rehabilitation - even when a responsible organization was willing to work with her and foot the bill.

This has led Assembly Member Micah Z. Kellner and Senator Thomas K. Duane to introduce "Oreo's Law". "Oreo's Law" will grant legitimate animal protection and welfare organizations the right to request healthy and treatable animals be given to their care when a shelter is planning on killing them. A similar law already exists in California, and has saved countless animals from unnecessary and untimely death at the hands of animal control and sheltering establishments.

Please help make sure that Oreo is the last companion animal in New York State who is killed when a responsible animal rescue alternative exists!

Please contact Assembly Member Micah Z. Kellner and State Senator Thomas K. Duane and thank them for their work to protect shelter animals! Their contact information is available on their websites.

If you're a New York State resident, PLEASE write, call AND email your Assembly Member and State Senator and ask them to support (and ideally co-sponsor) Assemblyman Micah Kellner and State Senator Tomas Duane's "Oreo's Law": a law that will protect countless companion animals from being unnecessarily destroyed when alternatives exist. You can find your New York State representatives here.


Please keep Empty Cages Collective in the loop about responses you get!


Young, alert and full of life: Oreo before her execution



"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."- Mother Jones, Labor Organizer