How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation

Pound seizure or pound release involves a shelter selling or giving away cats and dogs to research facilities, universities, or Class B Dealers (random source animal brokers licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture) to be used for experimentation that often ends in death. This book offers an overview of the problem of pound seizure, and its history, and provides practical tips for how anyone can become an advocate to end pound seizure in their community, while protecting oneself from legal attacks from Class B Dealers and the research community. With personal stories, firsthand accounts, and vivid examples, the author relays the seamier side of this practice and offers a plan for ending it.

Back in the 1940s, the practice referred to as Opound seizureO became a common practice in taxpayer-funded animal shelters across the country. Whether for cosmetic testing, human or animal drug testing, medical technique and tool testing, or biochemical testing, these once-family pets are subjected to experimentation that often ends in death. While many states fail to keep accurate data, the number of pets that become victims of pound seizure easily reaches the thousands and though most citizens are unaware of the practice, it may very well be happening at their local animal shelter. Pound seizure remains a dirty little secret in American society, but the practice is moving toward extinction with the help of local citizens advocating for change at their shelter, as well as animal rescue and welfare organizations providing assistance and advocacy. Learning more about the practice, as well as alternatives, will help give readers a fuller picture of whatOs happening in American animal shelters and what they can do to stem the tide of dealers and brokers sweeping off animals to their almost-certain demise.