One Year Later: Joplin Adoption Event

June 22, 2012

A year ago, the ASPCA and animal lovers from across the country were in Joplin, Missouri, making history and headlines. During a two-day adoption event, we placed hundreds of canine and feline tornado survivors in loving homes.
More than 1,300 animal survivors came to our emergency shelter after an EF5 tornado hit Joplin. After reuniting hundreds with their families, we still had 700 whose pet parents could not take them home. So at our Joplin Adoption Event on June 25 and 26, 2011, the ASPCA and Joplin Humane Society (JHS) opened the doors and got busy finding homes for the little survivors.
After just a few hours, we were almost clean out of animals.
But what happened next? According to JHS, those animals stayed in their homes; very few made their way back to the shelter, and all ultimately found forever homes. The dogs now live in surrounding communities, as well as in states as far away as California, New York and Illinois. We’ve heard tons of happy adoption stories, one of them from Tiffany Paige of Chicago.
“I volunteered in Joplin after the tornado, and after spending so much time with all the homeless animals, I felt it was the right time to adopt,” says Paige. “Not only was I getting the dog I had longed for, I was also making room for another animal to potentially find a home.”
She adds: “I knew he was the one when I looked into his crate at JHS and saw him cowering and shivering in the corner. He had such sad eyes and was really, really scared. When I picked him up for the first time, he licked my face and wiggled in my arms. He stopped trembling, and I knew he was mine. I named him Joplin to honor those who lost so much in the tornado and as a reminder of my time spent there.”
Today, Joplin comes to work every day with Paige at her furniture and home goods boutique in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. He’s one lucky pup—and so are the hundreds of others who found loving homes at the Joplin adoption event.
Did you adopt an animal from the Joplin adoption event? Tell us about it at happytails@aspca.org.

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Victory—U.S. Horse Slaughter Rejected by U.S. House Committee!

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 - 3:30pm

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Horse lovers across America can celebrate a big victory. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee just approved an amendment that will prevent taxpayer dollars from being used by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to inspect U.S. horse slaughter facilities. By blocking this federal funding, the House has taken its first step to ensure that horse slaughter facilities cannot legally operate on U.S. soil. We will need your help to ensure this provision gets through the whole House and the Senate, so stay tuned for upcoming advocacy alerts.
While our current Congress has prided itself on reducing government spending, last year's agriculture funding bill actually omitted this provision—opening the U.S. market to the horse slaughter industry.
"Using taxpayer dollars to fund this abhorrent industry is a wildly unpopular decision," says Nancy Perry, ASPCA Senior Vice President of Government Relations. "At a time when funding for many vital programs is being cut, it is imperative that Congress not use $5 million of taxpayers' money to fund horse slaughter, a cruel practice that benefits only foreign interests."
Take Action!
Rep. Moran’s amendment to the Agriculture Appropriations bill protects American communities from the devastating environmental and economic impact of horse slaughter facilities, but the bill still has to pass the full House of Representatives. The House will vote on the bill on Tuesday, June 26. Please contact your U.S. representative today and urge him or her to pass the bill with the Moran Amendment intact and reject any attempts to fund horse slaughter during fiscal year 2013!

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