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Films ‘Marley & Me,’ and ‘Hotel for Dogs’ make push for pet adoption
BY PATRICK HUGuENIN
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Sunday, December 21st 2008, 4:00 AM
This year’s cute-dog epic "Marley & Me" could make you crave your own Christmas puppy. But before you sniff out the pick of the litter, consider the message of another canine caper about to hit screens.
Starting Jan. 23, "Hotel for Dogs" spins the tale of two kids (Jake T. Austin and Emma Roberts) with a scheme to create the ultimate animal shelter. When asked to give up their own beloved pooch, named Friday, they transform an abandoned hotel into a high-tech permanent home for him and his motley menagerie of friends.
The film’s tag line states the kids’ business plan: "No stray turned away." The pooches are both young and old, fluffy and frumpy, one has only three legs. And off-screen, pet food brand Pedigree is donating $250,000 help shelter dogs. The message comes at a time when animal adoption faces a crisis: Dogs and cats need homes this holiday, and the cute puppies aren’t the animals most in need.
The ASPCA estimates that the foreclosure crisis has put 3 million to 4 million pets at risk of abandonment nationwide. While New York City real estate hasn’t been hit quite as hard, the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals, a coalition of more than 140 local animal-rescue groups and shelters, reports that municipal Animal Care and Control has seen an increase in pets in need of adoption.
"And then you have other private shelters and many rescue groups that take in animals and work to get animals out of animal control," says Alliance spokesman Steve Gruber. "They’re being inundated."
Most of the animals arriving in shelters are not puppies – they are older pets whose owners could no longer support them. Puppies and kittens, says Gruber, "typically don’t have much trouble finding homes." Older, injured or disabled pets do.
So if you’re game for a new addition to your household, consider following the message of "Hotel" rather than "Marley." As cute as a roly-poly pup is, Gruber points out, many young animals end up back in shelters a year later when they’ve grown into adolescents and surprised their owners with new responsibilities.
Plus, a more mature animal may actually have an easier time integrating into their new household. One of the organizations under the Mayor’s Alliance umbrella, Kitty Kind, runs a "Seniors for Seniors" program that pairs senior, more relaxed cats with senior owners.
Meanwhile, the Picasso Veterinary Fund, a Mayor’s Alliance program, helps pay for life-saving treatment and therapy for sick and injured animals, and facilitates their adoption through Alliance member shelters.
A glance at the organization’s Web site introduces Brady, a 3-year-old German shepherd rehabilitated after he was diagnosed with a ruptured spinal disk that had crippled his hind legs. On Picasso’s Web site, the pooch poses for a snapshot with a set of wheels harnessed to his hind quarters – part of his therapy with specialists upstate – but he is expected to walk on all fours again with continued treatment.
"We call them ‘very special animals,’" says Gruber, using the PC (pet correct) term. "It can mean a cat who’s been hit by a car and had a leg taken off, a diabetic cat, blind dog – anything a little out of the ordinary, because there is a special attention the adopter or family would give to the animals."
For more information about the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC Animals and the Picasso Veterinary Fund, visit www.animalalliancenyc.org
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