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Oprah Highlights Pets Once Again

April 22, 2008, 10:18PM MT

By Jennifer S Hayes

Follow-up to puppy mill show featured PAWS Chicago.

Follow-up to puppy mill show featured PAWS Chicago.

By Jennifer Hayes, Best Friends Staff

Yesterday, Oprah once again covered the plight of homeless pets with a follow-up piece to her April 4th program which highlighted puppy mills. She stated the “response was inspiring” to her expose and she received letters from animal shelters from around the country saying that both adoptions and donations were up.

PAWS Chicago, a no-kill adoption center located close to Harpo Studios, was one of the organizations who wrote to her complimenting the coverage. PAWS Executive Director, Rochelle Michalek, stated of the show, “Not only did it bring to light what’s happening in puppy mills and where these puppies are coming from that people are buying in pet stores, but just as important it highlighted spay/neuter and it highlighted what’s happening today in the animal care and controls across the country and it also highlighted no-kill. If you take a look at what PAWS Chicago’s mission is and what we do, we basically dropped her a letter talking about what we do and what we’ve done in the City of Chicago and what a great alignment it is with what she was talking about.”

After receiving the note, the show’s producers contacted them to set up a time to film at their facility, but everyone was completely surprised when Oprah herself arrived. Not surprisingly, she immediately gravitated toward the puppies and selected Breeana, a little chow mix, to be her escort on the tour through the new state-of-the-art adoption center hosted by PAWS Chicago Founder, Paula Fasseas. During her visit, Oprah presented Fasseas with a $10,000 check from Target and was so impressed by what she saw; she also decided to personally sponsor a room in memory of her dog Sophie, who had recently passed away.

During the ensuing week, Oprah had the suite remodeled to include a bed, play house, toys, and a banner on the wall which states, “In honor of my beloved Sophie – Oprah” along with a large photo of the room’s namesake. Two puppies, RJ and Rochelle, were introduced to the room and enthusiastically checked out the new makeover and gave it a paws-up.

Since the facility opened in 1997, PAWS Chicago has been instrumental in the saving of homeless pets’ lives. Their focus has been to reduce pet overpopulation through offering free and low-cost pet sterilizations through their Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic, having done over 60,000 surgeries since they opened with 70% of the 14,000 performed in 2007 done at no charge.

Last September, they opened the PAWS Chicago Adoption and Humane Center. “One of the things that we’re trying to do with the new adoption center is really change the concept of urban sheltering and setting a new benchmark and model,” noted Michalek. “People are just blown away when they walk in.” Instead of what one would expect when entering an animal shelter, the adoption center houses their animals in suites, each with their own air ventilation system and piped in classical music. Animals receive regular social time in play rooms and dogs are walked at least five times daily.

PAWS is committed to making Chicago a no-kill community and is now Chicago Animal Care and Control’s largest transfer partner. The no-kill center anticipates saving over 3,000 lives this year.

Since the original Oprah episode aired, the center has seen a significant increase in visitors and a 25% increase in adoptions. RJ and Rochelle, the first puppies introduced to the Sophie memorial room, were adopted on Saturday and the Oprah film crew was at PAWS again today, to record Breeana with her loving new family.

However, yesterday’s broadcast, spotlighting PAWS Chicago specifically, tripled their website hits and they received phone calls throughout the day from people asking for no-kill facility recommendations in their own communities. “It is so exciting to hear the country start talking about no-kill and understanding what no-kill is,” stated Michalek. “If you take a look at what our mission has been, how focused we’ve been, we are just so excited to have Oprah recognize the work that we’re doing and the impact it’s having.”

With Oprah’s support of PAWS Chicago, along with her animal-friendly message recently aired to millions, Sophie’s legacy will continue to help homeless animals for a very long time.

FIVE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

1. Click on the puppy to the right to please thank Oprah for her continued coverage of this important topic. ?

2. PAWS Chicago is a privately funded non-profit organization. You can help by adopting a dog or cat, donating, volunteering, or fostering. Michalek noted, “In order for a community to be no-kill, it really takes the efforts of the entire community, not just the organization” and recommends that those in other geographic areas research and support their local no-kill facilities.

3. Join The Truth About the Pet Trade community on the Best Friends Network and subscribe to receive the new monthly newsletter, “Breeding Bytes.”

4. If you are considering a new pet, please adopt from a shelter or rescue. Do not purchase from a store or breeder. Search through the thousands of homeless animals posted on Petfinder.com, 1-800-save-a-pet, or Pets 911 to find one near you.

5. Become an advocate for homeless animals in your own community and oppose puppy mills. Check out Resources for Individuals for ways you can help in your own community or What can one person do to help stop puppy mills?.

For more information:
PAWS Chicago Adoption and Humane Center
1997 N. Clybourn
Chicago, Illinois 60614
Phone: 773-935-PAWS (7297)

Lurie Family Spay/Neuter Clinic
3516 26th Street
Chicago, Illinois 60623
Phone: 773-521-SPAY (7729)

• Oprah’s original puppy mill show coverage
• Oprah’s PAWS Chicago segment

Photo credit: photo of the television during the Oprah puppy mill show by Jennifer Hayes.

Comments

Posted April 24, 2008, 10:23AM by Fletch

AWESOME!!! Oprah rocks! A HUGE thank you to PAWS as well. That place sounds terrific!

Posted April 25, 2008, 11:28AM by bellamicuore

Unfortunately, I missed the show. But this is fantastic. Also, this shelter sounds wonderful. I can't wait to catch the show when it repeats. I'm so glad that 'no-kill' was a highlighted topic!

Posted April 25, 2008, 1:46PM by PamelaB

Thanks for this very informative story, Jennifer! I love to see so many elements coming together--celebrity, love for a companion animal, enlightenment and education, TV and contacts, puppy mills, spay-neuter, no-kill, local shelters, money, and the initiative of the PAWS Chicago group, which just happened to be close to HARPO Studios!

I agree with Rochelle Mickalek, PAWS Executive Director: "“It is so exciting to hear the country start talking about no-kill and understanding what no-kill is."

Posted April 23, 2008, 2:12PM by dawgmom

Thank you, Oprah.