Photo credit: Newswire.ca

Pets have the amazing ability to understand when their humans need help. Whether they alert other family members to an emergency or directly intervene in a dangerous situation, some pets are simply heroes.

For more than four decades, the Purina Hall of Fame has honored pet heroes and service animals that have saved lives or improved the quality of human life.

Each year, Purina honors the best of the best pets at an awards ceremony. These special animals are recognized for their heart, their ability to sense a problem/emergency, and respond—often saving lives in the process.

Watch the stories of heroism by the 2011 inductees…

Troopers wore HAZMAT suits and spent a good portion of Wednesday cleaning and removing 300-plus cats from the facility as well as three dogs. Tables were set up outside the facility to help Erie County SPCA, veterinarians, and the Attica Fire Department remove and assess the animals. At least six of the hundreds of cats had to be euthanized because of a variety of health conditions like malnourishment and dehydration.

Troopers claim that over the previous two weeks they received multiple complaints of a “hoarding situation” and were initially tipped off by a cell phone video shot by former employee Joe Isriel while he was working. Isriel said that there was not abuse, but the facility was simply overcrowded, dirty, and unsafe for the feline strays.

Allegations of hoarding have been made against SPCA manager Sue Davila, whom Isriel claims started denying potential adoptees from adopting pets for a variety of bizarre reasons. Another volunteer, Chris Wiehe, said Davila is a good person who truly loves the animals but had allowed the situation to become a hoarding problem. However, another volunteer claimed that the animals were well cared for, but that adoptions couldn’t keep up with the number of cats dropped off.

The cats have been signed over to the police and the dogs taken to an animal care facility. The Erie SPCA has volunteered to take the cats to its facility until they can be adopted.

February is Responsible Pet Parents Month and part of being a responsible pet parent is helping to ensure the stray population is low, so that animals have long, healthy lives. Make sure you have your pet spayed or neutered.

In a statement, Dan Gorsky, senior vice president of supply chain management for the world’s largest fast food chain said, “There are alternatives that we think are better for the welfare of sows” (Reuters.com, Feb. 13, 2012).

The Humane Society estimates that about 70 percent of pork producers in the U.S. use gestation crates, which sows are typically confined in from a few months before they give birth until the piglets are weaned months later. The Humane Society applauded the decision by McDonald’s.

“The HSUS has been a long-time advocate for ending the use of gestation crates, and McDonald’s announcement is important and promising,” said Wayne Pacelle, The HSUS’ president and CEO. “All animals deserve humane treatment, including farm animals, and it’s just wrong to immobilize animals for their whole lives in crates barely larger than their bodies” (HumaneSociety.org, Feb. 13, 2012).

Leading animal welfare experts believe this move improves the welfare of the sows and will lead other food companies to insist on more humane, sustainable methods of raising animals meant for food.

Thanks to our readers and animal advocates across the U.S., the possibility that horses will dive from a 40-foot platform into a pool was successfully nixed. Steel Pier president Anthony Catanoso stated that he wanted to focus on the positive in Atlantic City and that the press surrounding the controversial act was not good for the pier or Atlantic City.

Catanoso, the Pier, and Atlantic City were facing mounting pressure from concerned residents and animal advocates. Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States released a statement on its stance over the high-dive issue:

“This is a merciful end to a colossally stupid idea. We are pleased so many citizens spoke up and urged that this spectacle never get off the ground. Horse diving has the potential to frighten and injure and kill horses—and it rightly belongs in Atlantic City’s history books.”

TAILS could not agree more with Pacelle. What was once an acceptable form of entertainment is finally being seen for what it is—a cruel act forcing animals to perform something they were never intended to do.