I’m a fan of Doris Day — I love her movies, her songs, and her compassion for animals. I once watched a TV biography of her life, and they had filmed her saying how she really didn’t want to go to Morocco to film one of her movies, because she knew she’d see many homeless and mistreated animals there. I thought that was very endearing — most movie stars go to Morocco for the luxury five-star resorts and wild nightlife, don’t they? But not Doris Day — she’s concerned about the homeless and mistreated animals. (They never put mistreated animals in travel brochures, do they? Stay at this fabulous resort for very little money, but ignore the many suffering homeless and emaciated animals that will swarm around you if you ever venture outside of it?)

Anyway, the Doris Day Animal League is a “nonprofit, national, citizen’s lobbying organization working to improve the humane treatment of animals.” It’s an affiliate of the Humane Society of the United States, and it works with “the U.S. Congress, government agencies, and state and local officials, to pass new laws and enforce existing laws that reduce the suffering of animals anywhere they are mistreated.”

Similarly to the American Humane Association, the Doris Day Animal League has a page devoted to legislative updates where you can go to read about upcoming animal-welfare related legislation (If you’re interested in that sort of thing, you can sign up for e-alerts). There is an interesting subsection to that page where Members of Congress, public policy experts, and federal regulators write in about their feelings on supporting pro-animal welfare legislation (I thought that was interesting). There’s also a nice subsection with summaries of all the pro-animal-welfare acts that passed in the last year.

The Doris Day Animal League also runs some animal-welfare campaigns — one is to decrease the use of animal testing in favor of alternatives, one is to add a bittering agent to all antifreeze sold in the US so fewer dogs and cats die from eating it each year (antifreeze is really sweet yet toxic, so thousands of pets and wild animals eat it and die each year from it), one is to stop the practice of slaughtering horses and sending the horsemeat to Europe where it is eaten, one is to stop puppy mills, one is to encourage pet trusts, which are trusts set up to care for pets after their owner dies, and one is to encourage people to buy animal-friendly license plates, which are special license plates with pictures of cats and dogs on them — part of their purchase price goes to spay/neuter funds.

The Doris Day Animal League also has a “how you can help” section, where you can sign up to join DDAL for $10, donate to DDAL, sign up for e-news and e-alerts about animal welfare legislation, or learn how to write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper or member of Congress about animal-welfare issues of your choice.

The Doris Day Animal League also has some publications — Animal Guardian magazine, Basic Guidelines for Operating an Equine Rescue or Retirement Facility, Best Friends for Life — a guide to your rights to pets in rental housing, and Animal Fact Sheets 2007 – a series of fact sheets on animal protection issues.

There’s also an interview with Doris Day about her commitment to animal welfare.

Overall, the Doris Day Animal League looks like a great pro-animal-welfare organization.

Categories : against animal testing, cruelty free