This is wonderful news. Over one thousand animals were rescued from a horrible prison -- which makes me SO FUCKING ANGRY! that I was to scream. The people at Best Friends teamed up with local people to effect the rescue of over one thousand animals -- which makes me want to smile.

Check out the web pages on this rescue:

Summary:

http://editor.ne16.com/he/vO.aspx?FileID=189240&Memberid=93217266&ListName=bfas&MailID=5881227

Details about their rescue:

http://news.bestfriends.org/index.cfm?page=news&mode=entry&entry=F5370A0E-19B9-B9D5-9DC60133BDDDCE4F

I can't stand it. I really just can't stand commercial enterprises that breed and warehouse animals, exterminating them when they're too old to sell only to breed another generation of prisoners who will suffer in cages all their lives only to meet death when they're no long so young, cute, adoreable, and profitable. It makes me FUCKING ANGRY!!!

Years ago Best Friends was a major part of the Feral Cat Aliance. As an unpaid U. S. Forest volunteer I had a problem on my hands when a camp known as "Camp Follows" was raided and the people living there were evicted, many of them abandoning their cats, leaving them behind in the Angeles National Forest because the people who were thrown off of the camp had no recourse but to live on the streets or in their cars.

So many cats were left behind that disease and starvation was a problem for them and with the humans gone and no longer able to feed them, the cats -- over 40 of them! -- were adversely impacting the fauna of the local region.

The United States Forest Service could not help. Animal Control could not help. The abandoned cats were the responsibility of no one -- no agency would take responsibility for the cats and it was left up to me, an unpaid, poverty-level volunteer to cry over the fate of these cats. I searched for any shelter or any volunteer group that could help and the only people who could was the Feral Cat Alliance (now called Best Friends.)

Despite their own shelters being full to capacity and despite difficulty with funding, the Alliance met me in the forest, bringing food, equipment, AND COMPASSION with them. They evaluated the situation, developed a capture plan, and over the next couple of weeks they rescued something like 40 animals, all of the survivors.

Their latest recuse effort exceeds by two orders of magnitude the fantastic work they accomplished in the Angeles National Forest. I love it when I see people committed to DOING SOMETHING getting the hell off their chairs, setting aside their keyboards, and taking to the streets, the mountains, the trees, where ever direct action is needed to right a wrong, and these Best Friends people are a group that I have come to love very dearly.