Thank You to everyone who made Run, Walk, and Wag a Success

Hosted by Millersville Stu­dents Kara Weber and Jor­dan Unroe, Run Walk Wag 5k Ben­e­fit raised over $1,000 for the Humane League’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund, which pro­vides med­ical ser­vices such as spe­cial­ized surg­eries, med­i­cine, and extended recov­ery time in fos­ter homes for pets in need! The event was a fun-filled day for pets and humans alike. The fun included raf­fle prize give­aways includ­ing items from Ful­ton The­atre, Lan­caster Com­edy Show, York Rev­o­lu­tion, Rain­bow Din­ner The­atre, Chameleon Club and many more! There were ven­dors such as Car­ing Angels Pet Ser­vice, Bob’s Bark­ery, K-9 Snack Shack, That Bounce Place and more! Walkers enjoyed live music and a yummy feast with food items from our con­ces­sion stand full of deli­cious baked goods, hot dogs, chips and even treats for our four-legged friends. And to top off a great day, the rain held off until the activ­i­ties were over! Thank you to every­one who came out to sup­port the Humane League and spe­cial thanks to Kara and Jor­dan for mak­ing this event possible!

Collars for Canines – What Is Best?

You have your dog, but now you need to pur­chase the right equip­ment. There are var­i­ous things you’ll need to buy your new buddy. Think about col­lars, leashes, toys, food, and more. Find­ing the right toys might be rel­a­tively easy; how­ever find­ing the right col­lar might be a lit­tle bit more confusing.

There are sev­eral types of col­lars. If you don’t know any­thing about them, it may be dif­fi­cult to pick the right one. Accord­ing to the Humane Society’s web­site at www​.humane​so​ci​ety​.org, col­lars can be summed up into three cat­e­gories: reg­u­lar, aver­sive, and spe­cial use.

Reg­u­lar Collars

There are roughly three types of reg­u­lar col­lars. There is the flat, head col­lar, and mar­tin­gale. The flat col­lar is the stan­dard type; this is the one that lies flat on the dog’s neck. The impor­tant thing is to make sure it’s not too big or small. Use the “two fin­ger” rule for this. Slide two fin­gers under the col­lar; if it fits firmly against your fin­gers then it should be good. The head col­lar is the type of col­lar that straps around the upper neck and around the muz­zle. The mar­tin­gale is a less severe ver­sion of the choke col­lar; this one only has lim­ited slip­page. It’s designed for dogs with nar­row heads, or dogs that are good at get­ting out of col­lars. This one will tighten up if the dog tries to get the col­lar off. If it is fit­ted cor­rectly it won’t get too tight. The mar­tin­gale and the head col­lar must both be fit­ted prop­erly. Ask a pro­fes­sional for assis­tance if you’re unsure. This is very impor­tant in the avoid­ance if future injuries.

Aver­sive Collars

 Aver­sive col­lars include choke chains, shock col­lars, and prong/ pinch col­lars. Choke chains are not as humane as mar­tin­gales. In fact; these col­lars can actu­ally cause dam­age to the dog. Choke col­lars are designed to get tighter as the dog pulls away. How­ever, it can lead to sev­eral painful injuries like tra­chea and nerve dam­age, among other things. A shock col­lar will admit a mild tingly sen­sa­tion or even a painful elec­tric cur­rent into the dog when it gets out of bounds or doesn’t lis­ten. Elec­tric fence col­lars usu­ally have a point where they sub­mit a warn­ing noise before send­ing the shock. Keep in mind shock col­lars can be irri­tat­ing to the dog’s skin. Make sure not to leave them on all day. A prong/ pinch col­lar is sim­i­lar to the mar­tin­gale, but uses a method of pinch­ing the skin. These col­lars must be fit prop­erly or they can do the sim­i­lar dam­age as a choke chain.

There are two big down­sides to aver­sive col­lars. Some of these col­lars can be dam­ag­ing to dogs. Addi­tion­ally these col­lars may teach the dog what not to do, but they don’t nec­es­sar­ily teach the dog good behav­ior. There are plenty of ways to train a dog in a pos­i­tive fash­ion, which will encour­age the right behavior.

How­ever, if you decide to go with an aver­sive col­lar, be care­ful. Make sure you get a good fit, and talk to a pro­fes­sional about it. Many peo­ple go with the elec­tric fence col­lars; these are usu­ally a much safer bet over the other aver­sive options. How­ever, don’t use a shock col­lar as means of train­ing any other man­ner­isms, other then stay­ing within the yard bound­aries. Also make sure to get a shock col­lar that emits a warn­ing sound to the dog.

Spe­cial Use Collars

These col­lars are designed spe­cially for train­ing a dog not to do some­thing. For exam­ple “bark con­trol.” Bark con­trol col­lars are used in order to stop the dog’s bark­ing. How­ever, a dog barks for a rea­son, even if you can’t see what it is, dogs bark as a form of com­mu­ni­ca­tion. It’s bet­ter to address the rea­son it is bark­ing, then to just elim­i­nate it.

Col­lars play an impor­tant role in the care of dogs. This is how you keep impor­tant infor­ma­tion on your dog, like iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and vac­ci­na­tion tags etc. Plus col­lars are used to con­nect to a leash. It’s an impor­tant and essen­tial part of dog own­er­ship. How­ever, you can choose which col­lar to use. Find a col­lar that fits the needs of the dog, but be care­ful not to choose any­thing that may put the dog in dan­ger. If you ever have ques­tions con­sult a local vet­eri­nar­ian or shel­ter for advice.

Guest Writer: Ash­ley Horst

Source: http://​www​.humane​so​ci​ety​.org/​a​n​i​m​a​l​s​/​d​o​g​s​/​t​i​p​s​/​c​o​l​l​a​r​s.html

HLLC and LCSPCA Partner to Help Lancaster City and Lancaster Township Felines

The Humane League of Lan­caster County is proud to announce that it will part­ner with the Lan­caster County SPCA to offer free spay/neuter ser­vices for the cats in their care. These ser­vices will be pro­vided at the Humane League of Lan­caster County, 2195 Lin­coln High­way East, Lan­caster, PA 17602. The Humane League of Lan­caster County was the recip­i­ent of a two-year, $200,000 grant from PetS­mart Char­i­ties (pets​martchar​i​ties​.org). This grant pro­vides the resources needed to not only con­tinue pro­vid­ing free spay/neuter ser­vices for Lan­caster City and Town­ship feral felines, and expands to include the owned feline pop­u­la­tions in these areas.

“I am glad we are able to col­lab­o­rate in a way that helps ensure that all ani­mals adopted are spayed and neutered prior to their adop­tion. This will help con­trol unwanted lit­ters and help pre­vent health issues later in the ani­mals’ lives,” said Dr. Lan­glois. Pet home­less­ness and over­pop­u­la­tion are com­mu­nity wide prob­lems. By work­ing together with other ani­mal shel­ters and res­cues, the Humane League of Lan­caster County is cre­at­ing life sav­ing part­ner­ships. These life sav­ing part­ner­ships are essen­tial for the cre­ation and sus­tain­abil­ity of a No-Kill community.

To learn more about the Humane League of Lan­caster County’s spay and neuter pro­gram or to make an appoint­ment please email spayneuter@humaneleague.com or call (717) 393-6551 ext. 302

May Volunteers of the Month

The Humane League is so proud to high­light our amaz­ing spring semes­ter Millersville Uni­ver­sity interns!  These interns have been hard at work across a vari­ety of departments- thank you!

Jazzmyn Michaels

B.A.R.C. Pro­gram Intern: Jazzmyn has been a dynamo this semes­ter in the dog facil­ity as part of the B.A.R.C. Pro­gram, where she has focused on mak­ing sure the adop­tion floor dogs get their daily walks, play time, and train­ing. Jazzmyn spent time get­ting to know each dog to find their likes/dislikes, what moti­vates them, and who needs help on what man­ners and is con­fi­dently able to weave this into her ses­sions with the dogs. This addi­tional, on-going sup­port and infor­ma­tion about the dogs progress is a tremen­dous asset to the staff, fel­low vol­un­teers, and of course adopters! In addi­tion, Jazzmyn has been able to pro­vide addi­tional sup­port to our res­i­dent canine’s who need that extra sup­port while they are with us with a vari­ety of needs. Through­out, she has con­tin­ued to impress & inspire us and we thank our lucky stars to have Jazzmyn a part of the Humane League and are con­fi­dent she has bright stars ahead!

Krys­tal Murphy

Cat Facil­ity & B.A.R.C. Pro­gram Intern: Krys­tal has pro­vided hands on care, train­ing, and love to the shel­ter res­i­dents in the cat & dog facil­ity this semes­ter and her big heart and energy have made all the dif­fer­ence in the world. Krystal’s love and per­son­al­ized care to the ani­mals makes it so much eas­ier for them to adjust to the shel­ter, come out of their shell and feel con­fi­dent enough to ‘strut their stuff,’ which is all an impor­tant part of stay­ing healthy & happy until they are adopted. As part of the B.A.R.C. Pro­gram Krys­tal made sure the dogs got their morn­ing walks bright and early (she was here by 7:30 a.m.!) and pro­vided addi­tional train­ing and sup­port to dogs that needed that extra help on their jour­ney - teach­ing obe­di­ence, leash man­ners, pro­vid­ing extended play ses­sions to high energy dogs, and more. In addi­tion, she was always will­ing to jump in with ken­nel clean­ing tasks with staff mak­ing sure the ani­mals truly have the best of the best while they are with us. Chances are if you’ve adopted a cat or dog this spring they have ben­e­fit­ted from Krys­tals love & time! Thank you Krystal!

Emily Tay

Busi­ness Intern: Emily has done a won­der­ful job this semes­ter help­ing out in both the retail and mar­ket­ing depart­ments. Thanks to Emily’s hard work dur­ing this semes­ter, the Dog Adop­tion Cen­ter now has a beau­ti­ful new retail store ded­i­cated to help raise funds that are used to help care for all of the ani­mals that come to the Humane League. You may have also seen Emily’s efforts as she has been respon­si­ble for pro­mot­ing sev­eral items, includ­ing T-shirts and Front­line Plus, through E-Newsletter and Face­book updates. While much of her work has been behind the scenes, the impact of her work has been tremen­dous and for that the staff, vol­un­teers, and ani­mals at the Humane League are truly grate­ful to Emily for every­thing she has done.

Kara Weber and Kate­lyn Wissler

Mar­ket­ing Interns: Kara and Kate­lyn are both Mar­ket­ing Interns for the Humane League of Lan­caster County. This dynamic duo has given count­less hours mar­ket­ing the adopt­able ani­mals at the HLLC! Their work can be seen on our web­site, Face book page, and Twit­ter account. They not only write fan­tas­tic bios about the adopt­able ani­mals, Kara and Kate­lyn, are fab­u­lous pho­tog­ra­phers! Many rab­bits, guinea pigs, and other small mam­mals have found their for­ever fam­i­lies because of the adorable pho­tographs taken by Kara and Kate­lyn! If this wasn’t enough Kara and Kate­lyn have pro­moted spe­cial events at the HLLC, includ­ing the Wags and Whiskers Event! Their hard work allowed peo­ple to pre­view many of the silent and live auc­tions items that were avail­able at the event! Their hard work and ded­i­ca­tion to the ani­mals is price­less and they will be greatly missed when their spring intern­ship is finished!

You Are Invited to Leo’s 3rd Birthday Bash!

Leo is a seven year old poo­dle who was res­cued from a puppy mill. He gal­lantly rep­re­sents the Humane League of Lan­caster County through­out the com­mu­nity by attend­ing spe­cial events. In gen­er­ous part­ner­ship with the Senft Fam­ily, own­ers of Nat­ural Stoneworks, we are hold­ing our third birth­day party in Leo’s honor to bring the com­mu­nity together and to ben­e­fit home­less pet. Well behaved, leashed furry friends are more than wel­come to attend and enjoy a pet friendly cake and buf­fet. Human refresh­ments will also be provided.While there is no cost for this event, atten­dees are encour­aged to bring an item from our wish­list click here to view, make a finan­cial dona­tion on line click here and choose Happy Birth­day Leo, or make a finan­cial dona­tion a the door! All dona­tions will ben­e­fit the home­less ani­mals at the Humane League of Lancaster County!

For more infor­ma­tion or if you have ques­tions, email Joe Hess at jhess@humaneleague.com

Date: Sat­ur­day, June 1, 2013

Time: 5pm to 8pm

Loca­tion: Nat­ural Stoneworks, 455 Ice Ave, Lan­caster, Pa 17602

Rain or Shine: Join Us to Run, Walk, and Wag!

For a tail-wagging good time join us at Rapho Town­ship Com­mu­nity Park on Sat­ur­day, May 11^th 2013, from 9am-3pm. Be sure to bring your fam­ily, friends and most impor­tantly your furry friends for the Run Walk and Wag 5k ben­e­fit hosted by Millersville (http://​www​.millersville​.edu/) stu­dents Kara Weber and Jordan Unroe.

All pro­ceeds will ben­e­fit the Humane League of Lan­caster County’s Ani­mal Rescue Fund.

This dynamic duo has spent count­less hours putting together this event. Brought together by their love for ani­mals and desire to help, Kara and Jor­dan met in a course at Millersville Uni­ver­sity and teamed up to orga­nize the Run Walk and Wag ben­e­fit for the Humane League’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund. “Dur­ing my time at the Humane League as the mar­ket­ing intern I came to real­ize the strong need of med­ical expenses for sick ani­mals,” said Kara. “By hav­ing this walk we hope to raise a gen­er­ous amount of money to donate to the ani­mals and have a day of fun for the ani­mal lovers of the com­mu­nity!”
All pro­ceeds from this event will be donated to the Humane League’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund. The fund­ing is used for much needed med­ical ser­vices such as spe­cial­ized surg­eries, med­i­cine, and extended recov­ery time in foster homes.

You don’t want to miss a day of fun, enter­tain­ment and food! There will be a raf­fle prize give­away includ­ing items from Ful­ton The­atre, Lan­caster Com­edy Show, York Rev­o­lu­tion, Rain­bow Din­ner The­atre, Chameleon Club and many more! Ven­dors such as Car­ing Angels Pet Ser­vice, Bob’s Bark­ery, K-9 Snack Shack, That Bounce Place, etc. will be mak­ing an appear­ance.  Get your wag on with live music ft. Fuz­zheimer and of course engage in a yummy feast with food items from our con­ces­sion stand full of deli­cious baked goods, hot dogs, chips and even treats for your four-legged friends.  Don’t for­get to grab your free iced tea thanks to Turkey Hill Dairy!

Run Walk Wag 5k ben­e­fit infor­ma­tion:

Where: Rapho Town­ship Community Park

Strick­ler Road Mount Joy, PA 17552

When: Reg­is­tra­tion begins at 9am

Walk begins at 10am

Day of fun will end at 3pm

What: A 5k ben­e­fit walk for the Ani­mal Res­cue Fund of the Humane League of Lan­caster County hosted by Millersville Stu­dents Kara Weber and Jordan Unroe.

Who:  This is a fam­ily friendly event for all ages. We encour­age you to bring your dog(s) to this event as long as your dog(s) are vac­ci­nated and people/pet friendly. Your dog(s) also must remain col­lared and leashed at ALL times for the safety of those involved.

Cost: Tick­ets for this event can be pur­chased the day of dur­ing registration.

$10/person

$40/ group of 5

$75/ group of 10+

Annual Meeting

The Humane League of Lan­caster County will hold its Annual Meet­ing on May 28, 2013. The meet­ing will begin at 6 pm in the Dog Adop­tion Center.

What: Annual Meeting

Where: 2195 Lin­coln High­way East Lan­caster, PA 17602 in the Dog Adop­tion Center

Time: 6pm

On the Road to Save Lives!

URGENT: We need trans­porta­tion to help save lives!

We use our vehi­cles for the most impor­tant pur­pose of all: Sav­ing lives. Our vehi­cles see a lot of open road as we trans­port home­less ani­mals from sur­round­ing .... shel­ters and res­cue orga­ni­za­tions to the Humane League. Once at the shel­ter, our vet staff is able to pro­vide nec­es­sary med­ical atten­tion and an adop­tion guar­an­tee! We need to raise $1,461.71 to get our com­pany vehi­cle through inspec­tion and back where it belongs: on the road, sav­ing lives! Dona­tions can be made on our web­site: click here  (please choose pro­gram des­ig­na­tion and then choose On the Road to Save Lives) We can also accept Pep Boys gift cards. Thank you for your generosity!

The Humane League of Lancaster County is so excited to once again partner with Weis Markets for their Paws for Pets Campaign!

The Humane League of Lan­caster County is so excited to once again part­ner with Weis Mar­kets for their Paws for Pets Cam­paign!  Weis Mar­kets Paws for Pets Cam­paign is a month long dona­tion drive where shop­pers can pur­chase and donate much needed sup­plies for the Humane League.  It is part­ner­ships like this that are such an impor­tant part of build­ing com­mu­nity solu­tions that save lives!

Part­ner­ing Weis Markets:

• Weis Mar­kets

1204 Millersville Pike

Lan­caster, PA  17603

• Weis Mar­kets

740 S. Broad Street

Lititz, PA  17543

•  Weis Mar­kets

1603 Lin­coln Hwy. East

Lan­caster, PA  17602

•  Weis Mar­kets

1629 S. Mar­ket Street

Eliz­a­beth­town, PA  17022

We are look­ing for vol­un­teers inter­ested in doing dona­tion pick-ups for each store and drop­ping the dona­tions off at the Humane League.  Vol­un­teer will be able to coor­di­nate pick-ups as best fits their sched­ule but will be required to check in with their store weekly to see if there are dona­tions ready for pick-up.  Last pick-up will be the week of June 2.  Please con­tact Lau­ren Monti, Vol­un­teer Coor­di­na­tor, at volunteer@humaneleague.com with what store you are inter­ested in part­ner­ing with and for more infor­ma­tion to get started!

Low Cost Vaccine Clinic for Felines Only

The Humane League of Lan­caster will be hold­ing a low cost vac­cine clinic for cats only on June 1, 2013. The clinic will be held at Stoltz­fus Feed, 80 Route 41, Gap PA 17527. The low cost vac­cine clinic will run from 9am to 1pm. Both rabies and FVRCP vac­cines will be avail­able for $10 per ani­mal. This is an open event, so no appoint­ments will be made. For the safety of pets and peo­ple, all cats must be kept in a secure carrier.

What: Low Cost Vac­cine Clinic for Cats Only

Where: Stoltz­fus Feed, 80 Route 41, Gap PA 17527

When: June 1, 2013 from 9am to 1pm

Cost: $10 per animal

Rabies vac­cines and FVRCP vac­cines will be available

Low Cost Vaccine Clinic for Canines Only

The Humane League of Lan­caster will be hold­ing a low cost vac­cine clinic for dogs only on May 25, 2013. The clinic will be held at Stoltz­fus Feed, 80 Route 41, Gap PA 17527. The low cost vac­cine clinic will run from 9am to 1pm. Both rabies and DHPP vac­cines will be avail­able for $10 per ani­mal. In addi­tion, yearly dog licenses will be avail­able for pur­chase. This is an open event, so no appoint­ments will be made. For the safety of pets and peo­ple, all dogs must be kept on a secure leash and collar.

What: Low Cost Vac­cine Clinic for Dogs Only

Where: Stoltz­fus Feed, 80 Route 41, Gap PA 17527

When: May 25, 2013 from 9am to 1pm

Cost: $10 per animal

Rabies vac­cines and DHPP vac­cines will be available

Millersville University Students Join With the HLLC to Run, Walk, and Wag

For a tail-wagging good time join us at Rapho Town­ship Com­mu­nity Park on Sat­ur­day, May 11^th 2013, from 9am-3pm. Be sure to bring your fam­ily, friends and most impor­tantly your furry friends for the Run Walk and Wag 5k ben­e­fit hosted by Millersville (http://​www​.millersville​.edu/) stu­dents Kara Weber and Jor­dan Unroe.

All pro­ceeds will ben­e­fit the Humane League of Lan­caster County’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund.

This dynamic duo has spent count­less hours putting together this event. Brought together by their love for ani­mals and desire to help, Kara and Jor­dan met in a course at Millersville Uni­ver­sity and teamed up to orga­nize the Run Walk and Wag ben­e­fit for the Humane League’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund. “Dur­ing my time at the Humane League as the mar­ket­ing intern I came to real­ize the strong need of med­ical expenses for sick ani­mals,” said Kara. “By hav­ing this walk we hope to raise a gen­er­ous amount of money to donate to the ani­mals and have a day of fun for the ani­mal lovers of the com­mu­nity!”
All pro­ceeds from this event will be donated to the Humane League’s Ani­mal Res­cue Fund. The fund­ing is used for much needed med­ical ser­vices such as spe­cial­ized surg­eries, med­i­cine, and extended recov­ery time in fos­ter homes.

You don’t want to miss a day of fun, enter­tain­ment and food! There will be a raf­fle prize give­away includ­ing items from Ful­ton The­atre, Lan­caster Com­edy Show, York Rev­o­lu­tion, Rain­bow Din­ner The­atre, Chameleon Club and many more! Ven­dors such as Car­ing Angels Pet Ser­vice, Bob’s Bark­ery, K-9 Snack Shack, That Bounce Place, etc. will be mak­ing an appear­ance.  Get your wag on with live music ft. Fuz­zheimer and of course engage in a yummy feast with food items from our con­ces­sion stand full of deli­cious baked goods, hot dogs, chips and even treats for your four-legged friends.  Don’t for­get to grab your free iced tea thanks to Turkey Hill Dairy!

Run Walk Wag 5k ben­e­fit infor­ma­tion:

Where: Rapho Town­ship Com­mu­nity Park

Strick­ler Road Mount Joy, PA 17552

When: Reg­is­tra­tion begins at 9am

Walk begins at 10am

Day of fun will end at 3pm

What: A 5k ben­e­fit walk for the Ani­mal Res­cue Fund of the Humane League of Lan­caster County hosted by Millersville Stu­dents Kara Weber and Jor­dan Unroe.

Who:  This is a fam­ily friendly event for all ages. We encour­age you to bring your dog(s) to this event as long as your dog(s) are vac­ci­nated and people/pet friendly. Your dog(s) also must remain col­lared and leashed at ALL times for the safety of those involved.

Cost: Tick­ets for this event can be pur­chased the day of dur­ing registration.

$10/person

$40/ group of 5

$75/ group of 10+

Partnering to Help Fight Animal Cruelty

The Humane League of Lan­caster County has won­der­ful news to share. As you may re-call the Humane League as of Feb­ru­ary 1, 2013, had to place its Ani­mal Cru­elty Inves­ti­ga­tions on hold. This hold was the direct result of a lack of fund­ing for the Humane Offi­cer posi­tion. In response, the Humane League began to actively pur­sue many avenues, hop­ing to find a way to bring the Humane Offi­cer posi­tion back to Lan­caster County.

Well, the Humane League has fin­ished talks with the Penn­syl­va­nia SPCA (www​.pspca​.org) which is a Philadel­phia based animal-welfare orga­ni­za­tion with no local affil­i­ates in Lan­caster County. The out­come of the talks is that the Penn­syl­va­nia SPCA (PSPCA) and the Humane League have part­nered to help fight cru­elty in Lan­caster County. The PSPCA has hired Offi­cer Keith Mohler to act as a Humane Offi­cer for Lan­caster County. The Humane League will pro­vide care for the ani­mals who are removed from abuse and neglect sit­u­a­tions. This care will include hous­ing at the shel­ter, med­ical atten­tion, and if needed extended time in fos­ter homes. In addi­tion, the Humane League will also pro­vide some finan­cial sup­port toward the partnership.

We are so excited to announce this amaz­ing part­ner­ship, which will ben­e­fit the ani­mals of Lan­caster County.  How­ever, we need your sup­port now more than ever, as we Help Fight Ani­mal Cru­elty in Lan­caster County. By work­ing together we can con­tinue to cre­ate a com­mu­nity where all ani­mals are pro­tected and wanted! To Donate Now Click Here

Thank You!

Henry C. Brandt Legacy Award Winners: Chris and Sylvia Broam

Heart and Soul Volunteer: Sue Kirchner

The Humane League couldn’t be hap­pier to announce that Sue Kirch­ner is a Heart & Soul Vol­un­teer!  Sue has been a vol­un­teer with the Humane League since 2010, but even before becom­ing an ‘offi­cial’ vol­un­teer Sue was a ded­i­cated ani­mal advo­cate and Humane League sup­porter for many years.  Sue is always will­ing to go the extra mile for the ani­mals & staff, whether it is here at the shel­ter or out in the com­mu­nity, and we sim­ply can’t imag­ine the Humane League with­out her!

Sue has been a fos­ter fam­ily for sev­eral years, with a par­tic­u­lar exper­tise and soft spot for dogs that are our most timid and in need of a safe place to call their own while they learn to trust oth­ers and gain con­fi­dence, or those with med­ical needs.  It may be a long road ahead, but with Sue by their sides, these dogs are finally off to the fresh start they so des­per­ately deserve and need.  For this gift, words sim­ply can’t express our gratitude!

In 2011 as the Humane League moved for­ward, with the help of vol­un­teers, to pro­vide even more enrich­ment and sup­port to our shel­ter res­i­dents, Sue was inspired to do her part get involved, too!  Sue is a ded­i­cated mem­ber of our dog walk­ing teams and B.A.R.C. Pro­gram, com­ing in at least once/week to make sure all the dogs receive their daily walks, train­ing, and an extra spe­cial dose of love.

Per­haps you’ve attended the Humane League Tail­wag­gers Trot or Pug Pic­nic?  Then, you’ve most likely met Sue, as she is one of our most enthu­si­as­tic Tail­wag­gers Trot trot­ters and also puts on an annual Pug Pic­nic each sum­mer to ben­e­fit the animals.

Sue is a vol­un­teer that is not afraid to get dirty, jump­ing in with odd jobs around the shel­ter such as rak­ing, clean­ing out gut­ters, defrost­ing fridges, get­ting dona­tions of hay for the play yards, and so much more – just because she cares not just about the dogs, but every­one around her.  All the while Sue will have you crack­ing up laugh­ing, remind­ing you what is impor­tant in life, with a zest& energy that is hard to match! 

Sue - on behalf of the thou­sands of ani­mals you’ve been a part of help­ing and the staff & vol­un­teers whose lives you brighten up every day - we extend our love & thanks to the moon and back to you!  THANK YOU!

Heart & Soul Volunteer: Lisa Sangrey

Heart & Soul Volunteer

Lisa San­grey

The Humane League is so proud to announce that vol­un­teer Lisa San­grey is a Heart & Soul Vol­un­teer!  Lisa started vol­un­teer­ing in 2011 as a dog walker and she is always ready to jump in with what­ever is needed for the dogs and look­ing to learn new things and take on new chal­lenges!  Lisa is such a pos­i­tive, can - do per­son, always ready with a smile for staff, fel­low vol­un­teers, and of course the dogs that you can’t help but be swept up in her excite­ment, too!

As a dog walk­ing vol­un­teer Lisa has always been a ded­i­cated team mem­ber that fel­low vol­un­teers & staff love work­ing with!  When she is dog walk­ing, you’ll find her play­ing fetch in the back­yards, snug­gling in a sun spot with a dog just look­ing to soak up the rays, or spend­ing that oh-so-needed extra time with dogs that need extra help com­ing out of their shell at the shel­ter.  Lisa is always look­ing for ways that she can con­tinue to learn and try new things and we absolutely love that about her!  Lisa has gone through B.A.R.C. Train­ing, learn­ing spe­cial­ized train­ing and han­dling tech­niques when work­ing with the dogs and eagerly jumped right in to putting what she’s learned into prac­tice with the dogs!

Start­ing in 2012 Lisa also became one of our amaz­ing Adop­tion Asst. vol­un­teers in the dog facil­ity after get­ting inspired her­self by a fel­low volunteer’s story and we can’t imag­ine cus­tomer ser­vice with­out her!  She is a rock star Adop­tion Assis­tant vol­un­teer and absolutely loves greet­ing & talk­ing up the dogs with vis­i­tors, help­ing the staff with meet& greets, and has been a part of mak­ing more adop­tion tales pos­si­ble than we can count!  Even out­side the Humane League Lisa is always shar­ing sto­ries of the ani­mals with oth­ers, lead­ing to even more adoptions!

Chances are, if you’ve adopted a dog from the Humane League, your furry friend has ben­e­fited from Lisa’s love and atten­tion or you’ve had the plea­sure of meet­ing Lisa your­self!  From the bot­tom of our hearts and on behalf of the thou­sands of ani­mals you have been a part of their jour­ney into a for­ever home, we extend a heart­felt THANK YOU to Lisa!

Heart & Soul Volunteer: Cherisse Feddock

Heart & Soul Volunteer

Cherisse Fed­dock

The Humane League of Lan­caster County is so excited to announce that Cherisse Fed­dock is a Heart & Soul Vol­un­teer!  Cherisse became involved in 2010 and from the begin­ning has been a ray of sun­shine and dynamo that inspires every­one around to her to get involved!

Cherisse started as a fos­ter fam­ily, open­ing her home to ani­mals in need and fell head over heels in love with the fos­ter care pro­gram!  We know that when we send a fos­ter ani­mal home with Cherisse, they are in great hands and they are in for some A+ pam­per­ing!  Beyond see­ing how all this love & care brings ani­mals out of their shell and their per­son­al­i­ties shine through, another favorite of Cherisse’s is bring­ing her fos­ter ani­mals out into the com­mu­nity to meet any­one & every­one so that her fos­ters are able to tran­si­tion from one lov­ing home right into the next!

Cherisse has also been a ded­i­cated mem­ber of the B.A.R.C. Pro­gram and dog walk­ing team, com­ing in at least once/week to make sure all the dogs get their daily walks and play time.  She’s always will­ing to go the extra mile for the dogs and is always shar­ing sto­ries of the shel­ter dogs look­ing for their home.  We always love hear­ing how vol­un­teers are inspir­ing oth­ers and being the con­nec­tion for our furry friends find­ing their new homes and can’t thank Cherisse for mak­ing so many of these con­nec­tions possible!

Cherisse is one of our great­est Humane League ambas­sadors and is always excited to be a part of edu­cat­ing & inspir­ing oth­ers. Cherisse is one of our trea­sured Humane Edu­ca­tion vol­un­teers (she has even got­ten her whole fam­ily involved with her pre­sen­ta­tions, kids and all!), pro­vid­ing Humane Edu­ca­tion to com­mu­nity groups, stu­dents, scout troops and more - she sim­ply lights up the room with her energy!

Thank you Cherisse for being such a pow­er­ful advo­cate and edu­ca­tor!  You light up the Humane League!

Five Tips To Keep The Pep In The Step Of Your Senior Canine!

Even if your dog is a lit­tle long in the tooth with some gray on his muz­zle, you can help him keep plenty of pep in his step. The aver­age lifes­pan of a dog is 12 to 13 years, but this varies by breed, with smaller dogs gen­er­ally liv­ing longer. A pet is con­sid­ered senior around age 7. But good and con­sis­tent care can help extend life and help keep your pet at the top of his game.

Here are five steps pro­vided by web​vet​.com to help your furry friend age well:

1. Visit your vet fre­quently and invest in annual blood work. Dis­cuss aging issues related to your dog’s breed and keep on the cusp of den­tal care.
2. Watch your dog’s weight. Over­weight dogs gen­er­ally suf­fer more mobil­ity and health issues.
3. Keep your dog mov­ing. Walk your dog reg­u­larly, alter­nat­ing between short and long walks.
4. Main­tain train­ing. Uti­lize rep­e­ti­tion to keep a routine.
5. Mod­ify your dog’s envi­ron­ment and activ­i­ties. Your dog may be a puppy at heart but his senior body can’t keep pace. Be sen­si­tive to how much your dog can do and ways to help him do it, such as mov­ing a dog bed for bet­ter access.

Guest Writer: Susan Jurgel­ski

Heart & Soul Volunteer: Mary Albaugh

Heart & Soul Volunteer

Mary Albaugh

The Humane League is so excited to announce that cat facil­ity vol­un­teer Mary Albaugh is one of our amaz­ing Heart & Soul Vol­un­teers!  Mary has been a ded­i­cated vol­un­teer since 2011 in the cat facil­ity and she sure is one spe­cial lady - you just can’t help but break into a big smile when you see Mary because she has this way of mak­ing your day bet­ter, whether you are 2 or 4 legged.

Mary vol­un­teers every Thurs­day as an Adop­tion Assis­tant vol­un­teer and focuses on talk­ing up the cats to vis­i­tors, help­ing with meet & greets with adopters, and is always will­ing to go the extra mile for staff, fel­low vol­un­teers, and vis­i­tors.  We hear all the time that some­thing as sim­ple as a smile and hello is the rea­son so many peo­ple decide to stay and adopt, and for that we can’t thank Mary enough for being a part of mak­ing so many adop­tion tales pos­si­ble! In between help­ing adopters you can find Mary cud­dled up with the cat colony cats, mak­ing sure they have all the snug­gles and love they need and mak­ing the rounds amongst the rest of the res­i­dents get­ting to know their spe­cial quirks, tricks, and mak­ing sure they all get the TLC that keeps them happy & healthy until their for­ever fam­ily walks through the door!

In 2012 Mary came on board as a Vol­un­teer Men­tor to help train new vol­un­teers, a role that she absolutely excels at.  The one-on-one time she ded­i­cates to help­ing new vol­un­teers get started makes all the dif­fer­ence, and see­ing her in action you can’t help but be inspired, too!

Thank you Mary for lit­er­ally being “the cat’s meow” for all of us here at the Humane League!  With such a lov­ing, pas­sion­ate cat advo­cate by our sides we can’t help but count our lucky stars and send Mary purrs of appre­ci­a­tion and thanks!

Heart & Soul Volunteer: Karen Simpson

The Humane League of Lan­caster County LOVES our vol­un­teers!  We have vol­un­teers in every depart­ment, shar­ing their pas­sion and love for the ani­mals by work­ing as a team with each other and the staff, as well as amaz­ing com­mu­nity vol­un­teers and busi­nesses who are at the ready to orga­nize ser­vice projects, donate pro­fes­sional skills, open their home to ani­mals in need, and so much more.  It takes every­one doing their part to cre­ate com­mu­nity solu­tions that save lives, and we want to thank our vol­un­teers for being the magic that makes this pos­si­ble!  On behalf of the thou­sands of ani­mals our vol­un­teers and com­mu­nity has been a part of help­ing, we extend a heart­felt thank you!

Heart & Soul Volunteer

Karen Simp­son

The Humane League is so proud to announce that Karen Simp­son is a Humane League Heart & Soul Vol­un­teer!  Karen has been a vol­un­teer since 2009 and has helped in so many dif­fer­ent ways, with her first and biggest love being any­thing dog related.  She’s always ready with a smile, a joke, and bound­less love for the dogs, and she keeps us laugh­ing and has become such an impor­tant part of the Humane League family.

Karen has been a ded­i­cated dog walk­ing vol­un­teer from the begin­ning, mak­ing sure that no mat­ter rain, shine, or snow, the dogs all still get their daily walks and play time.  Karen has a wealth of pre­vi­ous dog expe­ri­ence, and this shines through when you see her in action in the play yards, know­ing just what each dog needs.  As the Humane League expanded the B.A.R.C. Pro­gram to pro­vide more sup­port for the dogs, Karen was on board from the start, ready to go the extra mile for dogs that needed that extra boost and train­ing help on their jour­ney.  Now, she’s a reg­u­lar mem­ber of the Mon­day evening dog walk­ing team, and we can’t imag­ine a bet­ter way to end a Mon­day than with Karen & the dogs!

Also, Karen soon fell head over heels in love with the shel­ter pit bulls, and wanted to be a part of giv­ing them the pos­i­tive image they deserve in the community.  She has been one of our biggest Pit bull edu­ca­tors, jump­ing right in to be a part of annual pit bull edu­ca­tion events, includ­ing the now annual Humane League Pit­ties in the Park event now held every fall! Thanks to Karen’s pas­sion and help, Pit­ties in the Park has become a com­mu­nity event for all ages and dogs to come together that just keeps get­ting big­ger and better! 

In addi­tion to all this, Karen is always will­ing to pitchin and help with mail­ing projects, spe­cial events, and offer ideas and feed­back about ways to con­tinue to improve and grow to do more and more for the ani­mals.  With a heart as big as Karen’s, it is hard to put into words just how much she means to us - Thank you Karen for being a part of the Humane League, we sim­ply can’t imag­ine it with­out you! 

Volunteers Needed to Help with Wags and whiskers event

Wags & Whiskers Event Vol­un­teers Needed!

Wags and Whiskers is right around the cor­ner, April 26, to be exact! We are eagerly antic­i­pat­ing an evening of fun, food, and enter­tain­ment. How­ever, to make sure this event is per­fect we need help from vol­un­teers like you. If you are inter­ested in help­ing with this event please take a look at the vol­un­teer oppor­tu­ni­ties listed below!

Thurs­day April 25th:

Day Shift:  10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Vol­un­teers will be meet­ing at the Ware Cen­ter to unload truck and dec­o­rate for event

Evening Shift:  5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Vol­un­teers will be meet­ing at Ware Cen­ter to set up auc­tion items and final details

Fri­day April 26th:

Day Shift:   10 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Vol­un­teers will beet at Ware Cen­ter to fin­ish event set-up and final decorating

1^st Evening Shift: 5 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Vol­un­teers will help at Wags & Whiskers auc­tion assis­tant volunteers

2^nd Evening Shift:  8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Vol­un­teers will help clean up and load truck after event

Sat­ur­day April 27th:

Day shift:  11 a.m.

Vol­un­teers will meet at the Humane League to unload truck

For more infor­ma­tion & to get started please con­tact Dana Kopp at:

jwkopp@hotmail.com

717-333-9448

Attention HLLC Foster Families!

Secu­rity Life Insur­ance has picked the Humane League Fos­ter Care Pro­gram as their May char­ity of the month and will be doing a dona­tion drive & fundraiser through­out May to sup­port the fos­ter care pro­gram!  They are inter­ested in fea­tur­ing YOUR fos­ter care suc­cess sto­ries as part of their events to get employ­ees excited and involved!

If you love fos­ter care and want to be a part of inspir­ing oth­ers, please contact:

Vol­un­teer Coor­di­na­tor at volunteer@humaneleague.com with a brief descrip­tion of your fos­ter ani­mal, why you love fos­ter­ing, and a pic­ture, if you have one by Tues. April 23.

It takes every­one work­ing together to build com­mu­nity solu­tions that save lives - thank you for mak­ing a difference!

Secu­rity Life Insur­ance pro­vides ancil­lary insur­ance ben­e­fits, but most impor­tantly, they are cre­at­ing solu­tions that fit. They build rela­tion­ships and offer the flex­i­bil­ity to pro­duce results their clients can rely on. Find out more about what makes them dif­fer­ent! http://​www​.secu​ritylife​.com/home

April Flowers Bring: Puppy and Kitten Showers!

Spring is bloom­ing in Lan­caster County, which means puppy and kit­ten sea­son is just around the corner!

Our com­mu­nity will soon be over­flow­ing with pre­cious new­born ani­mals in need of extra care and sup­plies. From adorable puppy and kit­ten toys to canned kit­ten food or puppy pee pads, there are plenty of options on how you want to make a huge impact in the life of a pre­cious puppy or kitten!

Here are some ideas for the per­fect “puppy or kit­ten shower gift”

Kit­tens

-Canned kit­ten food

-Kit­ten toys

- KMR

-Bot­tles

-Baby (human) food

Pup­pies

-Esbi­lac

-Toys

-Blan­kets (could also use for kit­tens as well)

Ready to pick out just the right gift for our new arrivals? View our “baby reg­istry” at Ama​zon​.com by click­ing on

http://​www​.ama​zon​.com/gp/registry/registry.html?ie=UTF8&id=GG8PS250MXFO&type=wish­list

Want to make an even big­ger impact in the lives of these pre­cious babies? Con­sider open­ing your home to a baby ani­mal in need as a fos­ter fam­ily. Fos­ter par­ents pro­vide a safe haven for ani­mals that are too young or sick to be placed for adop­tion, giv­ing them the extra boost they need to pre­pare for their per­ma­nent homes! Email foster@humaneleague.com for more infor­ma­tion about our fos­ter care program

Can’t decide on a gift? You can always make a mon­e­tary dona­tion! Please click here  

Join the HLLC for the Grand Opening of our Wellness Clinic!

Please join the Humane League of Lan­caster County on April 17, 2013 at 4 pm for the Grand Open­ing of our Well­ness Clinic. The after­noon cer­e­mony will include a rib­bon cut­ting by Carol Culliton-Metzger from the Gun­ter­burg Char­i­ta­ble Foun­da­tion, tours of the Well­ness Clinic and Dr. Boyd Kyle will be on site to answer ques­tions about the new Well­ness Clinic.

As an expan­sion of the Humane League of Lancaster’s pet-retention ser­vices, it is our goal to pro­vide high-quality health care for income qual­i­fied pet own­ers. We hope to help pets stay with their fam­i­lies and enjoy a greater qual­ity of life. Through the Well­ness Clinic, the Humane League of Lan­caster hopes to ensure that fam­i­lies of all means have access to treat­ment options that they can afford, for their canine and feline companions.

The clinic pro­vides basic vac­ci­na­tions and thor­ough phys­i­cal exam­i­na­tions for each pet at prices that are reflec­tive of lower income sta­tus. We also offer de-worming, micro-chipping, urine and fecal analy­sis, nail trim­ming, blood work, and ear and skin man­age­ment. A wide vari­ety of pre­scrip­tion food, flea and tick treat­ment, and heart­worm pre­ven­ta­tive will be avail­able at com­pet­i­tive prices. All dogs will receive a cur­rent license if applic­a­ble. This is a great way to bring your pet up to date on vac­ci­na­tions and receive a phys­i­cal exam which will screen for poten­tial under­ly­ing medical issues.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Well­ness Clinic please click here

Don’t Wait! Purchase your wags and whiskers tickets today!

You are invited to join the Humane League of Lan­caster County for its Annual Henry C. Brandt Memo­r­ial Wags & Whiskers: Mardi Gras Mas­quer­ade, to be held on Fri­day, April 26, 2013.

Lais­sez les bons temps roulez pour les chiens and les chats!

Let the good times roll for the dogs and the cats!

Be sure to mark your cal­en­dars for this year’s Wags and Whiskers! Join us Fri­day, April 26, 2013, from 5pm-9pm, for the annual Henry C. Brandt Memo­r­ial Wags and Whiskers: Mardi Gras Mas­quer­ade. Let the sights, sounds, and smells of Mardi Gras carry you along Bour­bon Street and whisk you away!

Grab your le masque’s and une perle’s (your masks and beads!) for a délec­table casual cock­tail party “New Orleans” style! You will receive the full Mardi Gras expe­ri­ence includ­ing live and silent auc­tions, a New Orleans vin­tage jazz band, New Orleans style hors d’oeuvres (Bone’ Appétit!), and bar with every­thing from beer, wine, and Mardi Gras themed cocktails, yum!

Tick­ets cost $70 per per­son with open seat­ing. To pur­chase tick­ets click here!

Run, Walk, and Wag-5K Benefit Walk for the Humane League of Lancaster County

Sat­ur­day, May 11^th 2013 from 9am-3pm

Rapho Town­ship Com­mu­nity Park

Strick­ler Road

Mount Joy, PA 17552

Mar­ket­ing Intern Kara Weber and Millersville Stu­dent Jor­dan Unroe, who both share a strong love for ani­mals, teamed up and planned an awe­some 5k ben­e­fit walk/run in honor of the Humane League of Lancaster!

The walk/run will take place on Sat­ur­day, May 11^th, 2013 at the Rapho Town­ship Com­mu­nity Park located off of Strick­ler Road in Mount Joy, PA.

Par­tic­i­pants will be able to com­plete the 5K at their own pace. When they are fin­ished, they can pur­chase food and drinks from the con­ces­sion stand, enjoy some music and par­tic­i­pate in the raf­fle prize give­away!  There will even be a moon bounce for the chil­dren (and those who are still kids at heart)!

Can my furry friend join in on the fun you ask? Why of course! Dogs are more then wel­come to come and give us a wag as long as then are kept on a leash at all times and cleaned up after.

Reg­is­tra­tion will begin at 9am to pur­chase your tick­ets.  Fol­low­ing reg­is­tra­tion, the walk will offi­cially kick off at 10am sharp!

Ticket Costs:

$10/person

$40/group of 5

$75/group of 10+

All pro­ceeds will be donated to the Humane Leagues Ani­mal Res­cue Fund.

Humane League of Lancaster County’s Board Member Selected by the Central Penn Business Journal as Finalist

The Humane League of Lan­caster County is proud to announce that Board Mem­ber, Kyle Tex­ter, has been selected as a final­ist in the “Com­mu­nity Ser­vice” cat­e­gory of the 2013 CFO of the Year Awards.

His nom­i­na­tion for this award was based upon his proven lead­er­ship and achieve­ments within his place of employ­ment, Paul Davis Restora­tion and Remod­el­ing, and through his work in the com­mu­nity. Kyle started a $500 schol­ar­ship at Penn Manor High in honor of his mother. The schol­ar­ship is awarded to a Penn Manor senior pur­su­ing a career in Nurs­ing. Cur­rently, Kyle serves on the Board of Direc­tors, Finance Com­mit­tee and Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee for the Humane League of Lan­caster County.

Kyle joined the Board in 2010 and became Trea­surer in 2011. Prior to join­ing the Board he served on the Finance Com­mit­tee and took care of fos­ter dogs. In 2008 and 2009 Kyle adopted his two pit bull dogs, Syd­ney and Hadley from the Humane League of Lan­caster County.

When the oppor­tu­nity came to give back to an orga­ni­za­tion that gives back to the com­mu­nity in so many ways, I jumped at the chance to offer my pro­fes­sional skills to help guide the Humane League down the path to growth and suc­cess,” Kyle said. “The orga­ni­za­tions efforts to pro­vide humane treat­ment to all ani­mals and edu­cate the com­mu­nity on a num­ber of issues, includ­ing pit bull advo­cacy, is some­thing I’m proud to be apart of.”

All hon­orees are listed on at http://​www​.cpb​jnow​.com/​s​e​c​t​i​o​n​/​C​F​O​o​f​t​heYear.  In addi­tion, all final­ists and award recip­i­ents will be rec­og­nized at an awards cer­e­mony in May 2013, at York Col­lege of Penn­syl­va­nia. In addi­tion, they will be fea­tured in a spe­cial sup­ple­ment to the June 7, 2013, issue of the Cen­tral Penn Busi­ness Journal.

Cen­tral Penn Busi­ness Jour­nal is the award-winning busi­ness news­pa­per of record for Cen­tral Penn­syl­va­nia, pro­vid­ing more infor­ma­tion, more analy­sis and more advice per­ti­nent to busi­ness than any other local media out­let. As the most widely read local busi­ness pub­li­ca­tion in Cen­tral Penn­syl­va­nia, the Jour­nal reaches entre­pre­neurs, cor­po­rate boards, mid­dle man­agers and CEOs. In short, the decision-makers are read­ing the Busi­ness Jour­nal. Visit them at www​.CPB​Jnow​.com.

April Volunteer of the Month

The Humane League of Lan­caster County is so proud to announce that Roger Gor­don is the April Vol­un­teer of the Month!  Roger started vol­un­teer­ing at the Humane League in Decem­ber and right from the begin­ning Roger had a spe­cial way to jump right in and hit the ground run­ning with the staff & fel­low vol­un­teers!  No mat­ter the task, or how dirty the job, Roger is up for the chal­lenge with a ready smile that makes any job eas­ier and more fun just because he is involved.

Roger has been vol­un­teer­ing sev­eral morn­ings a week bright & early (7 am.!) to help the staff with the morn­ing clean­ing and shel­ter projects to pre­pare for the day ahead.  Roger helps with just about every­thing – laun­dry, dishes, clean­ing cages & ken­nels, mak­ing the small mam­mal room sparkle for our smaller friends, and the first to jump in with any sur­prise project that is wait­ing for us that morn­ing, and so much more.  In addi­tion, Roger has helped with mail­ing projects, work­ing tire­lessly to put mail­ings together and is the first to vol­un­teer for run­ning moun­tains of let­ters through the postage machine. 

Roger is one of the most friendly, pos­i­tive, and trust­wor­thy go-getters you may ever meet, and whether it is the staff, fel­low vol­un­teers, or the ani­mals, Roger will make your day bet­ter, just by being around him!  When asked to sum up why they love Roger, staff replied, “Roger is so great with the ani­mals and is such a hard worker.  I know if he is given a task to com­plete we trust him that it will be done well, and he just makes us laugh along the way!”  From all of us here at the Humane League, we extend a heart­felt thank you for hav­ing Roger a part of the team here - we are so lucky to have him with us here at the Humane League!

View the World Through a Cat’s Eyes-Addressing the Myths about How Cats See

View the World Through a Cat’s Eyes – Address­ing the Myths about How Cats See

There are var­i­ous myths when it comes to cats eyes. Have you ever won­dered if they really can see bet­ter at night, or if they only see in black and white? Have you been curi­ous why their eyes seem to glow in the dark? Whether their eyes come in green, yel­low, brown or blue, they are a rea­son for intrigue.

Cat’s eyes are cre­ated sim­i­lar to humans; with rods and cones. We share a use of depth per­cep­tion and periph­eral vision. The biggest dif­fer­ence is that cat’s eyes have more rods than cones, which is the oppo­site of humans. Cones work bet­ter in bright light and rods work bet­ter in dim light. Basi­cally cats can see bet­ter in dim light­ing than humans. How­ever, that doesn’t mean cats can see in pitch dark­ness. There needs to be some light in order for them to see, even if it’s just a lit­tle. Although a person’s idea of total dark­ness is dif­fer­ent than a cat’s. Cats also have a reflec­tive layer behind the retina, called the tape­tum lucidum. This is what causes the eyes to look like they are glow­ing. The light reflects off the tape­tum lucidum. This helps with their night vision; the light reflects through the retina and increases the light avail­abil­ity for the cat.

Cats are “far-sighted.” They have keen eye­sight at a far dis­tance, how­ever up close objects may appear fuzzy or blurry. They don’t have the best eye­sight for detail; although the slits in their eyes allow them to draw more or less light. In a close range, cats use their whiskers and a sense of smell to help them dis­tin­guish peo­ple and things.

As for cats see­ing in black and white, let me debunk that myth. It’s not entirely untrue that cats are col­or­blind, how­ever they do see more than just black and white. Their color blind­ness can be com­pared to a person’s col­or­blind­ness. Cats can see col­ors, how­ever they can’t see as many as an aver­age person.

There have been numer­ous myths cre­ated about cats and their eyes. The glow­ing eyes have been the cause of super­sti­tions, the term ‘col­or­blind’ has cre­ated con­fu­sion and some­how the idea that cats see in the dark has been exag­ger­ated. It’s like any story; after it gets passed down a line it gets changed. Unlike these embell­ished sto­ries, cats can see color and their eyes are bet­ter suited for dim light­ing, not pure blackness.

Guest Writer: Ash­ley Horst

Sources:

http://​cats​.about​.com/​c​s​/​e​y​e​s​v​i​s​i​o​n​/​a​/​c​a​t​s​_​e​y​e​s​_2.htm

http://​en​.wikipedia​.org/​w​i​k​i​/​T​a​p​e​t​u​m​_​l​ucidum

http://​www​.way​of​cats​.com/​b​l​o​g​/​w​h​a​t​-​c​a​t​s​-​s​e​e/1085

HLLC will be Closed for Easter Sunday

The Humane League of Lan­caster will be closed 3/31/2013, for Easter. We will return to our reg­u­lar hours of oper­a­tion 4/1/2013. From every­one at the Humane League have a happy and safe holiday!