How Shelter Pets are Brokered for Experimentation: Understanding Pound Seizure

by Allie Phillips

Overview

Back in the 1940s, the practice referred to as 'pound seizure' 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 what's 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442202115
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/16/2010
Pages:	248
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Allie Phillips is an author, attorney and advocate for the protection of animals and vulnerable victims. She is a former prosecuting attorney who has worked for the National District Attorneys Association where she launched the National Center for Prosecution of Animal Abuse. She was previously employed with American Humane Association as the Vice President of Public Policy and Vice President of Human-Animal Strategic Initiatives. Allie is a nationally-recognized expert on issues involving animal protection and advocacy. She is a volunteer with King Street Cats (Alexandria, VA) and Vice President of No Paws Left Behind. She co-founded Michiganders for Shelter Pets, is a council member of the Michigan State Bar Animal Law Section, on the steering committee of the National Link Coalition, and a Practitioner Member of the Shelter Animal Reiki Association. To learn more, please visit www.alliephillips.com.

Table of Contents

Section I - Discovering the secret
Chapter 1 - A terrible discovery
Chapter 2 - What is pound seizure?
Chapter 3 - Laws and Legislation on pound seizure
Chapter 4 - Betrayal of Trust
Section II - The faces of pound seizure
Chapter 5 - Exposing dealers that violate the law
Chapter 6 - Experiments on random source animals
Chapter 7 - Alternatives to animal research
Chapter 8 - The victims of pound seizure
Chapter 9 - Voices of the research community
Chapter 10 - Shelters and pound seizure
Chapter 11 - Voices of the advocates to stop pound seizure
Section III - Taking Action
Chapter 12 - Advocacy Techniques
Chapter 13 - Threats, intimidation and lawsuits
Chapter 14 - Conclusion
Appendix A = Laws
Appendix B - Federal and Michigan pound seizure bills
Appendix C = PCRM medical school charts

What People are Saying About This

Sue Leary

Allie Phillips reveals a tragic failure to protect former pets from unnecessary-and at times, unlawful-use and abuse in science labs. She lays out the issues and the influences that have evolved over decades, and points to a solution that starts with each of us. She is an inspiring, model advocate, with courage and tenacity.

Hugh Tebault

Allie Phillips shares an insider's view of the generally unknown business of Class B animal dealers and pound seizure. As a lawyer, pet owner, shelter volunteer and currently VP of Public Policy for American Humane Association, Allie details the ways that some animals have been silently diverted from pounds and sold into a murky research world. The good news is it appears fewer are being sold now, but that pound seizure exists with no visibility violates a public trust. This book is a recommended read for everyone working in animal welfare. If we could change the hearts of people...

Debrah Schnackenberg

This book is a must read for anyone who knows nothing about pound seizure, as well as for the person well versed in this heinous practice and who wants to understand what she or he can do to make the madness stop. This book is for anyone who considers themselves a "Good Samaritan" in helping to get animals in-need to shelters, yet may be contributing to the delivery of a pet to an animal research facility. This book also painfully illuminates how owners who surrender their pets due to situations beyond their control, or have their precious pets stolen from their own yards, can never be sure that their pet won't end up splayed on an operating table or housed in sterile lab conditions and subjected to repeated experimentation. The message is simple - this is a practice that could literally affect you and your pet tomorrow. For the local animal control or community animal shelter, this book is a message that engaging in pound seizure is a practice that, if discovered, can and will result in the withdrawal of precious donation dollars, loss of community support, and loss of compliance with stray dog laws and abuse/neglect laws. I highly recommend this as an important book both for educating the pet-owning public as well as for animal advocates seeking advice and a road map in their work to ban pound seizure in our country.

Stephan K. Otto

Consider this your go-to source on the tragedy that is "pound seizure" and all of its ugly truths.

Editorial Reviews

When Phillips, who had once worked as a volunteer at an animal shelter, learned of the practice of pound seizure, she turned a "betrayal of trust" into action. As vice president of No Paws Left Behind and director of public policy at the American Humane Association, the former prosecutor has made it her mission to expose and fight the practice of shelter's giving or selling cats and dogs to research facilities, universities, or Class B Dealers (animal brokers licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture). Extensive research and expert opinion result is a thorough history of a little known practice "often intertwined with the legitimacy of medical research." Phillips outlines some of the ways in which seized animals can be used for research, including "the testing of medical techniques (surgical techniques or medical tools), pharmaceutical testing (human and animal drugs), blood banking for other animals, cosmetic, industrial, and biochemical." Though many organizations are phasing out the use of such testing, these sections are still disturbing. Taking readers methodically through the facts of the issue, Phillips hopes to not only create awareness but also advocacy, and provides a bounty of practical resources for anyone who wants to take action.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Publishers Weekly

Allie Phillips reveals a tragic failure to protect former pets from unnecessary-and at times, unlawful-use and abuse in science labs. She lays out the issues and the influences that have evolved over decades, and points to a solution that starts with each of us. She is an inspiring, model advocate, with courage and tenacity.

Sue Leary

The target audience of this book is the lay public. However, laboratory animal professionals, administrators, and scientists would be well served to read it in order to better understand the public's perception regarding the use of shelter dogs and cats in research.

American Association for Laboratory Animal Science

By far the best researched report on pound seizure to appear between book covers.

Animal People

This book is a must read for anyone who knows nothing about pound seizure, as well as for the person well versed in this heinous practice and who wants to understand what she or he can do to make the madness stop. This book is for anyone who considers themselves a "Good Samaritan" in helping to get animals in-need to shelters, yet may be contributing to the delivery of a pet to an animal research facility. This book also painfully illuminates how owners who surrender their pets due to situations beyond their control, or have their precious pets stolen from their own yards, can never be sure that their pet won't end up splayed on an operating table or housed in sterile lab conditions and subjected to repeated experimentation. The message is simple - this is a practice that could literally affect you and your pet tomorrow. For the local animal control or community animal shelter, this book is a message that engaging in pound seizure is a practice that, if discovered, can and will result in the withdrawal of precious donation dollars, loss of community support, and loss of compliance with stray dog laws and abuse/neglect laws. I highly recommend this as an important book both for educating the pet-owning public as well as for animal advocates seeking advice and a road map in their work to ban pound seizure in our country.

Debrah Schnackenberg

Consider this your go-to source on the tragedy that is "pound seizure" and all of its ugly truths.

Stephan K. Otto Esq.

Allie Phillips shares an insider's view of the generally unknown business of Class B animal dealers and pound seizure. As a lawyer, pet owner, shelter volunteer and currently VP of Public Policy for American Humane Association, Allie details the ways that some animals have been silently diverted from pounds and sold into a murky research world. The good news is it appears fewer are being sold now, but that pound seizure exists with no visibility violates a public trust. This book is a recommended read for everyone working in animal welfare. If we could change the hearts of people...

Hugh Tebault

This is not an easy book to read, but it is a necessary one, and Allie Phillips is uniquely qualified to tell the story of "America's Dirty Little Secret." Allie takes her own wrenching experiences with pound seizure and applies her legal background to present the definitive volume, from the law, policy and legislation, to the science and personal stories-and more-about the animals and people caught up in this world.

Beatrice M. Friedlander

The target audience of this book is the lay public. However, laboratory animal professionals, administrators, and scientists would be well served to read it in order to better understand the public's perception regarding the use of shelter dogs and cats in research.

American Association For Laboratory Animal Science