January 2012 Newsletter
Excerpt from Dr. Khalsa’s new book
Did you know?
“The Natural Dog”Aflatoxins in peanut butter“Avoid commercial foods that have peanut by-productsor peanut husks or hulls in them. Peanuts are often contaminatedwith a fungus that produces carcinogenic toxins called aflatoxins.Dr. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study, received grantsfrom the National Institute of Health to research the presence ofthese aflatoxins, among the most potent carcinogens on the planet,in food. All 29 jars of peanut butter tested, purchased at localgroceries, were found to be contaminated with aflatoxins-asmuch as 300 times the amount judged to be acceptable in food in theUnited States. The food industry uses the moldiest peanuts to makepeanut butter. Corn is also high in aflatoxins.”www.doctordeva.com
Low Cost Vet Mobile's 2011 Christmas/Holiday Dinner Party honors 2011 Humanitarian of the Year, Stewie to The Rescue ("STR") founder and comedian Harris Bloom and his wife.
>
>> Dear colleagues and friends,
>>
>> The Low Cost Vet Mobile is operated by a charitable organization, Companion Animal Network, Inc. Consequently, its activities, successes and failures are in the interests of the public and the animals whom it serves. Therefore, we are publicly releasing our 2011 End Of Year Report.
>
>> 2011 has been both a very difficult and very productive year for our Vet Mobile program. Due to the severe winter weather early in the year, in February 2011 we reduced our schedule from three days per week to just two. However, in the Spring we were able to ramp back up to three days per week, and then expanded to a fourth weekly day, taking on the Bronx. The Bronx has been everything and more than what we were hoping for. Low/Limited Income pet owners are coming out by the droves, even though we are around the corner from a major veterinary hospital. We have been informed by our colleague that our close proximity has not resulted in any business reduction whatsoever. In fact, we know of some situations where Vet Mobile clients went there for surgeries and/or follow up care when we were not on site. We are seeing that once pet owners commit small expenditures on their pets, they are usually committing more and more resources in the future.
>>
>> Thanks to our amazing staff, we stabilized both our vet tech and medical record processing departments, both of which are absolutely critical to be able to maintain the "assembly line" practice we find ourselves servicing. As for our on-site management side, because it takes years to be able to cost-effectively time manage AND micro manage this position on the Vet Mobile, we are still developing our on site management staffing capabilities. It is the most difficult position to fill due to constantly having to balance priorities and come up with solutions under harsh and countless limitations. We highly praise and thank everyone who provides on site management for the Vet Mobile.
>
>> As for our veterinary staff, they leave us speechless. Working double shifts, trying to communicate medicine with the un-communicatable, waking up on 2 hours sleep to go into surgery, responding spur of the moment to emergency surgeries or to cover a shift, the list of our vets' sacrifices is simply astounding. The Veterinary community's support is the single most important factor for the Vet Mobile's success. We are very pleased to report that in 2011 the Vet Mobile began to receive referrals from many veterinary hospitals when their clients are unable to afford their rates. In reverse however, we are seeing that many of our clients are asking their records to be faxed or emailed to their regional veterinarian. Therefore, the Vet Mobile is acting as planned ---- a last stop gap for pet owners, and once the patient has survived the emergency and NOT been surrendered due to limited funding, future after care is being sought from regional veterinarians. Who can blame our clients for doing so? After waiting several hours in the heat or cold or rain to be seen by the Vet Mobile, only the most desperate would return back to the Vet Mobile for follow up care. Our intent was to act as such a last veterinary resource in NYC, and it appears that we are accompishing this goal. As much as three-fourths of pet owners obtain little or no veterinary care for their best friends, and now many of them are doing so because they are able to do so. Afterward, they are step laddering to their community veterinarians.
>
> This past year we also began providing free vet care to critically ill or injured NYCACC animals, provided that the animal has either an adoptor or rescue group willing and able to take the animal after treatment is completed. This includes orthopedic and other critical cases which require hospitalization. In 2011 we have thus far treated approximately 25 NYCACC dogs and cats. 3.6% of our gross income (11.5% of our net) was donated services to NYCACC animals. Another 5.7% of our gross (18% of our net) provided totally free services to the most poor, so that virtually every animal brought to us received our attention, care and treatment. And another 2.3% of our gross(7.4 % of our net) we permitted clients to "owe" us in order to provide the most critical needs of the animal. Combining our three forms of donated veterinary services results in 11.6% of our gross (48.5% of net) having been donated to the NYC animal care community which we serve.
In 2011 we added an Oxygen therapy chamber in the Vet Mobile, thereby enabling us to quickly bring relief to animals in respiratory distress. This past year we also held our first Free Cat Vaccine Clinic. We held it in our new major venue, on Fordham Plaza in the Bronx. It was sponsored by the ASPCA and made possible by the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals. Having worked extensively in North Caroline in the mid Atlantic states, and in Louisiana in the south, we can unequivocally state that it would be an understatement to state that NYC animals and their guardians are indeed fortunate to have such resources here. With the uniquely supportive ASPCA and Mayor's Alliance, if we in NYC cannot reach statistical no kill, then on one can.
> NYC is now the only region/city in the nation which has all of the following :
>
> 1) a fully operational, full time staffed, extremely successful surrender prevention program at NYCACC, being sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States. Between 1995, the founding of NYCACC, and 2005, the year of implementation of the program, C.A.N. lobbied three NYCACC administrationsfor over that 10 year period for such a program. Finally, in 2005, then NYC Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden personally approved our proposed surrender prevention program. Within weeks we invented, funded, and operated NYC's animal surrender prevention program for the first three years prior to turning it over the HSUS.
> 2) a phenomenally successful low cost Spay Neuter program funded and operated by the ASPCA,
> 3) a best of the best humane law enforcement, funded and operated again by the ASPCA,
> 4) C.A.N.'s low cost full service Vet Mobile for low/limited income pet owners,
> 5) the guidance, resources and leadership of the Mayor's Alliance for NYC's Animals and Maddie's Fund,
> 6) the founding of numerous new rescue groups largely as a result of Item 5 above,
> 7) dynamic new leadership at NYC's animal control agency, NYCACC
> 8) a collaborative and supportive NYC Dept. of Health
> 9) the collaboration and support of North Shore Animal League
>
> we are only missing the 10th and final item, which would give us in NYC a realistic chance at reaching statistical no kill by 2015.
>
> What is the 10th item? A 24 hr full service major facility for animals in Queens. Such a facility, with truly low cost boarding, low cost 24 hr veterinary services, and adoptions would take the pressure off of the Brooklyn NYCACC, thereby enabling NYC's two most populous boroughs to deal ONLY with their own animals. Two boroughs at once would turn no/low-kill in a short period of time. Bringing about full service animal facilities in each borough, with their focus on providing supportive services for pet parents (as opposed to '"shelters"), has been THE goal of our lobbying from the founding of C.A.N. in the 1980s to this day. We at C.A.N. are prepared to do whatever is deemed necessary by the NYC humane community to make this a reality in 2012.
>
>> We made the Vet Mobile a reality when no one else, to our knowledge, had been able to operate a full veterinary service at low cost, much less one that is mobile. Somehow, we found our way through the maze of constrictions --- limitations in inventory, space, lighting, client's budgets, difficult clientale, non-English speaking clientale, staffing requirements, a list too long to itemize. That was a miracle. We treated 1,000 limited-income pet parents' animals in our first year, and doubled that to 2,000 in our second, and tripled to 6,000 patients in our third fiscal year. Expansion to such a degree, especially in this economy, was another miracle. These miracles may appear to have happened overnight but C.A.N.'s journey at brining such successes to fruition has been a quarter century in the making.
>
> We are now at the crest of either realizing the final miracle in NYC, reaching no/low kill, or forever lose the opportunity. If we do not "close the deal" after all that has been invested by NY City and the others mentioned above over the past 10 years, we, and likely no other city/region in the country, will never come this close again to accomplishing the "final miracle."
>
>> No kill in NYC can only become possible if all sectors put personal, philosophical, and policy concerns and differences aside, and find creative ways of filling the "voids" which would enable us to reach no kill. A successful major Pit Bull adoption program, a successful major cat adoption program, a televised Petathon to name a few. Together we CAN do what no one else has done before. Become the first major city in the US to reach statistical no kill.
>
> With such fond dreams and best wishes and Happy New Year for you and your family (two and four legged) in 2012,
>
>
> the team at C.A.N. and
Garo Alexanian
Companion Animal NetworkTV
[]
Companion Animal Network (C.A.N.) was the force behind the creation of the NYC Animal Care and Control and subsequently founded the nation's first surrender prevention program, and the nation's first low cost veterinary clinic for limited income pet parents. C.A.N. has been acknowledged by the New York City Council in Resolution #985 for its efforts to bring improvements to the animal control services of New York City. C.A.N. has advised, among other municipalities, New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York State Senator Frank Padavan, and numerous other public officials on animal control policies. C.A.N. has been honored in New Orleans for its continuing post-Katrina support programs for Louisiana municipal animal pounds
