3 amigos -- of animals

A press release from Houston, TX, describes a “woman with a gigantic heart,” . . . who has “devoted her life to helping starved {sic] and mistreated animals get the care the need and the love they deserve.” This woman, Alison Sawyer Current, together w/ a team of volunteers, has reportedly saved numerous dogs and cats from a horrible death on the street, by providing animal population control through ongoing spay/neuter programs, education, vaccination and adoption.

Proceeds from Current’s novel, No Urn for the Ashes (Bayfire Press Publishing), will further the care of her “beloved extended feline and canine family.” Her website is http://www.islaanimals.org/.

It seems that there are Alison Sawyer Currents everywhere. One in this area is Joyce Arciniaco, who sounds as if she personally underwrites much of the TNR (trap, neuter, release) activity in Mercer County, NJ, and beyond. She spoke eloquently at the Ewing council meeting last week about how other efforts to deal with animal overpopulation are ineffective or worse, and that TNR is the way to go.

A worthy subject for a profile (hopefully, to come!), Arciniaco stresses the need for animal advocates to be part of the solution, which she believes is TNR. She talks persuasively about the world-wide "cat issue" -- overpopulation -- and TNR as the only real way to solve it. Though she understands why some animal activists are into adoption, that's not the solution, she says. First of all, cats' ready reproduction must be curtailed.

Another area woman who operates in the “Current spirit” is Lauren Wospil, who not only works full-time or more at her and her fiance’s ice cream store and is in the throes of planning her mid-September wedding, but also takes in kittens and cats (currently, four kittens) to foster until they can be adopted. They temporarily join a household that already includes two cats.

All three women: operating so far above and beyond. And only now does this question occur: why are all the animal activists one might think of -- from PETA's Ingrid Newkirk, to Lauren Wospil -- women? Is this a pink-collar calling? There’s a subject for another post.
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