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This is an older article but worth repeating - a lovely
gesture by a lovely woman.
 It's
more than just puppy love. Katherine Heigl is behind a
$1 million initiative to help no-cost spay and neuter
programs in the Los Angeles area.
The
Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, named in memory of the
actress's late brother, will work with the Cesar
Millan's Millan Foundation, the City and County of Los
Angeles and various other organizations on the project,
called the
Compassion Revolution.
Heigl, who herself has six dogs, three of them rescues,
told PEOPLEPets.com at the press conference to announce
the pledge that she and her mother had felt hopeless and
overwhelmed by the pet population crisis in L.A. Over
50,000 of 80,000 shelter animals in Los Angeles County
were euthanized last year, according to the Heigl
Foundation.
"How can we change the results for these animals?" she
said. "[Shelters are not only] euthanizing sick, old
dogs. It's gotten brutal, you know. It's inhuman,
really."
The Heigl Foundation wanted a solution – training and
education on how to reduce the pet population
compassionately, instead of having to put down healthy
animals. Heigl says that her upbringing influenced her
when it came to the importance of spaying and neutering.
"When I was growing up, my mother and father had zero
desire for any one of our animals to have a litter," she
said. "I think it's a lot of work, it's a lot of energy.
Then, as an adult, because of the way I was raised and
because I had the means to do it, [spaying and
neutering] goes without question.
"But there are a lot of communities that don't have that
education, weren't raised that way and don't see their
pets that way," she added. "They have no idea that a
litter of 10 means a litter of, like, 400 in the future.
We can tell them and educate them, and provide a way for
them to spay and neuter their pets."
Source: People.com |
