CritterFest

Dogs Deserve Better
Monica Alcorn, Lafayette Animal Control Officer and Representative for DDB, will educate visitors about the cruelty of chaining dogs. DDB is a nonprofit organization dedicated to freeing the chained dog, and bringing our “best friend” into the home and family. DDB is a voice for chained and penned dogs, whose sadness speaks only through the eyes. As the days become years, many of these dogs sit, lay, eat, and defecate within the same 10-foot radius. Chained by the neck, they exist without respect, love, exercise, social interaction, and sometimes even basic nourishment. They live as prisoners, yet long to be pets. DDB has won awards for their work from the ASPCA, Animal Planet, and In Defense of Animals and currently has over 150 area reps in 38 states and Canada.
www.dogsdeservebetter.com

Dog Park Association of Greater Lafayette
The Dog Park Association of Greater Lafayette was organized to create and operate a fenced-in, off-leash dog area in Tippecanoe County, Indiana where well- behaved dogs and their owners can socialize and exercise in a clean, safe environment without endangering or disturbing people, property, or wildlife, while creating a greater sense of community by fostering social interaction between citizens within the dog park and reducing encounters with citizens apprehensive to the presence of dogs off leash in other public park areas and promoting the humane treatment of animals. The Dog Park will provide free face painting at CritterFest!
www.dogparkinlafayette.org

Purdue’s Helping Paws: Common Pet Behavior Problems
Helping Paws is a Purdue University student organization dedicated to bettering the lives of animals in need. We raise animal awareness in the community by volunteering for many animal related causes and coordinating fundraiser’s for animals and organizations. In essence, we do anything we can to make sure domesticated animals have every chance to live a good life. After all, we asked them to be our companions – they deserve our respect and care. These are some of the things we do regularly: walk animals at North Central Indiana Spay and Neuter, wash animals at the Tippecanoe County Humane Society, walk the greyhounds at the vet school, help out in a puppy obedience classes, and volunteer.
We will be at CritterFest to offer basic information about pet behavior problems, the number one reason that people give up their pets. We will offer handouts on the causes of inappropriate behaviors such as submiss- ive or marking urination, house soiling, or coprophagy (eating feces), the basics about pet fear and aggression, the causes of destructive chewing and possible solutions, the symptoms and causes of separation anxiety and possible ways to manage it, an explanation of conflict behavior and its causes and prevention, and more.
web.ics.purdue.edu/~paws

Midwest Prairie Dog Shelter: Outreach, Rescue, Advocacy
Midwest Prairie Dog Shelter, Inc. is a registered, nonprofit tax-exempt corporation located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was founded as a labor of love with one mission: to provide compassionate, life-long hospice care to prairie dogs that are unable to be released back to their natural habitat due to health issues, neurological impairment, injury, permanent disability. The shelter also accepts surrendered pets when space is available. MWPD Shelter promotes responsible attitudes toward all five species of prairie dogs and educating the public about the importance of preservation of the prairie dog and their habitat through advocacy and outreach via our website.
www.prairiedoglover.com

Volunteer Opportunities with Animals
There are a variety of ways that you can help Indiana’s homeless or wild animals, many of which do not require a lot of time or money. You can help local shelters and rescues out with long-term fostering, or you can provide short-term fostering to help with animals who need a break from the stress of the shelter or to nurse very young animals. You can also sponsor an animal as an alternative to fostering, which is one of the programs that Home for Friendless Animals, for example, offers. Transporting animals from shelters where they are in danger (often immediate) of being euthanized to other shelters or rescues or their forever homes is another way to help. If you are interested in helping with wild animals, there are a number of volunteer opportunities at places like Wolf Park or Black Pine Animal Park. Local volunteers will be at CritterFest to let you know about these and many more ways you can help.

Wolf Park
Wolf Park is a nonprofit education and research facility that was established in 1972 by Dr. Erich Klinghammer. Along with research and seminars on wolf behavior, particularly reproductive and inter-pack social behavior, Wolf Park provides interpretive programs to school groups throughout the year by prearrangement. We are also open to the general public from May through November and Saturday evening for Howl Nights. The park is home to several packs of gray wolves, plus foxes and bison. We are incorporated under the North American Wildlife Park Foundation, Inc. which is located in the small town of Battle Ground, Indiana.
www.wolfpark.org

The Law and Our Pets
Merrick Steinmetz will provide information to visitors concerning the law and companion animals. For example, he can answer questions about what you can do when you witness the abuse or neglect of an animal or find a stray animal or let you know about Indiana’s recent puppy mill legislation.

Bully Breeds: Facts and Myths
Volunteers for Casa del Toro, a pit bull rescue and education organization from the Indianapolis area, who have long been involved in the rescue and welfare of pit bulls, will share their knowledge of and experiences with these often maligned animals and answer questions from visitors.
www.casadeltoro.org

Bully Buddys
It is the mission of Bully Buddys to provide the most complete, honest, and accurate information about pit bulls to the public and to promote responsible pet ownership. It is also our mission to help owners provide the best medical care to their companion animal, at an affordable price. Pet overpopulation is a huge and growing problem in Indianapolis and every major city in the United States. A majority of these dogs are pit bulls. These poor animals are entering Animal Care & Control in large numbers daily, many of them showing signs of neglect, cruelty, abuse, and starvation. Sadly, the numbers are not going down. People continue to breed these dogs for financial reasons, giving little consideration to the welfare of the dogs. Recognizing the need for the advocacy and aid of pit bulls, Bully Buddys works to promote responsible pet ownership in a number of ways. Along with our efforts to educate the public, we offer low-cost ($10) microchipping, assist owners with low-cost spaying and neutering, and help them obtain inexpensive, quality medical care for their pets.
www.bullybuddys.com

Best Friends Animal Society
Best Friends Animal Society is guided by a simple phil- osophy: kindness to animals builds a better world for all of us. When it was founded in the 1980s, roughly 17 million dogs and cats were being killed in shelters every year. Best Friends started a grassroots effort to place dogs and cats who were considered “unadoptable” into good homes, and to reduce the number of unwanted pets through effective spay and neuter programs. Since then, the number of dogs and cats being destroyed in shelters has fallen to approximately 5 million a year. The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, at Angel Canyon in Utah, is home on any given day to about 2,000 dogs, cats, and other animals, who come from shelters and rescue groups around the country for special care they can only receive there. Best Friends works with their members — and with humane groups, individuals and entire communities — to set up spay/neuter, shelter, foster and adoption programs in neighborhoods, cities, and states throughout the country. Best Friends has led some of the largest animal rescue efforts, including natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina, wartime situations, and animal hoarding or failed shelter situations.They also offer workshops, internships, training programs, and conferences to help people to set up and manage their own shelter, rescue, adoption and spay/neuter programs.

Local Best Friends representative Cheryl Hart will provide materials about this organization and will be showing a heart-warming video. She will also provide information to visitors about the efforts being made to change the laws in Indiana about cruel puppy mills, and the recently enacted Public Law 111.

Wildcat Wildlife Center
Wildcat Wildlife Center is a federal and state licensed wildlife rehabilitation center consisting of a team of volunteers including students, veterinarians, veter- inary technicians, and citizens. Our goal is to protect and conserve the wildlife and ecosystem of Indiana through rehabilitation, public education, networking, and providing an educational volunteer experience. We are dedicated to the best veterinary and most humane care possible for wildlife. We seek to ensure the health, safety, and ultimate release of injured, orphaned, diseased, and displaced animals, including federal and state endangered or threatened species. We also have a public education goal, which is to develop a community of people committed to helping wild animals and preserving the ecosystem of Indiana. We hope to encourage an interest, appreciation, and understanding of wildlife through education programs for groups such as schools, scout troops, civic organizations, and businesses. We also strive to educate about humane, non-lethal means of conflict resolution between humans and animals. We coordinate our unique services with many other organizations concerned with wildlife, such as the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association. In addition, we appreciate the assistance from businesses and hospitals who have generously donated critical supplies to the center. The center has developed a volunteer network of citizens and Purdue University students, for whom the center provides a unique hands-on experience in wildlife rehabilitation and non-profit organization operations. In addition, veterinarians and faculty from the Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine have donated their time and expertise to perform vital surgeries and procedures on animals at the center.
www.wildcatwildlifecenter.org