Saving SPOT! (Thank You, Miley Cyrus.)

I’m not a fan of circuses, or for that matter, of zoos.  I am a fan of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.  And this breaks my heart.  

I don’t want to even think about the animals who won’t be rescued because $9.3 million of donations to the ASPCA will be used, not for their intended purpose, but to pay this circus’s legal fees.  

But now that we’re beyond the year-end rush for donating to charities and getting a tax deduction for 2012, there’s a way that animal lovers can assist animals in need without donating money: by rescuing an animal from a high-kill shelter, even if only to foster the pet temporarily, until a permanent home can be found.  

That’s what an organization in Los Angeles, called Saving SPOT!, does; it rescues dogs and cats from high-kill shelters and provides medical care, if needed, and then places the pet in a home.  I have no connection with anything in Los Angeles, but I learned of the organization last week, when I read an article listing the entertainment celebrities who have donated the most to charity.  Miley Cyrus was number two on the list, mainly for her financial support for the organization–and for her efforts to publicize the lifesaving charity.  

There are, of course, similar nonprofits elsewhere, although, also of course, not enough.  Not nearly enough.  But they’re easy to learn of on google; you just have look.

Anyway … let’s hear it for Miley Cyrus.  And for the ASPCA, and for Saving SPOT!, and for similar organizations.  

And for any group active in trying to change the federal and state laws that make going to court against anyone with access to big-name lawyers, or against the government in any type of case not favored by the Republican right.  

It’s long past time for this issue to become a high-profile one.   

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PS: It just occurred to me that the ASPCA’s liability insurance might pay this settlement. I dearly hope so.