Film: No Fair Fight (United States)

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00:00:00: SOUND UP
00:00:02: Explore
00:00:09: [GRAPHIC - SPCA - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Long Beach, California]
00:00:14: [GRAPHIC – DOGS - SOUND OF DOGS CRYING, PANTING, BARKING]
00:00:25: CHARLIE: How did you get involved with the SPCA?
00:00:27: MADELINE BERNSTEIN, President, SPCA Los Angeles: Well, I actually started my career as a Prosecutor in the Bronx. After prosecuting criminals and doing stings on New York City’s waterfront, I accidentally fell in an SPCA in New York and I realized that it’s the same criminals. It’s just a different target. I get very upset when there’s no fair fight. I always have to be on one side and it’s usually the side against the bully. The animals can’t speak for themselves. I’m just a middler. Our focus is to protect the animals from the people.
00:01:05: CHARLIE: Is animal abuse a big problem here in the city of Los Angeles?
00:01:12: MADELINE: There’s different kinds of animal abuse. There’s the kind that you think of where somebody beats a dog to death for fun, for sport and then you have somebody who’s making money giving pony rides when it’s a hundred ten degrees outside and not giving the animal a rest.
00:01:27: CHARLIE: People don’t realize how mistreated animals are in our society.
00:01:32: MADELINE: Well, let me darken this up, probably because my platform is violence, but it’s been my career most of my life. There’s more to that, which is if you learn to be nice and kind to animals, you have empathy, which is the ingredient missing in all violent felony offenders. Every serial killer started with animal abuse.
00:01:59: [GRAPHIC – Cats – MEOWING AND PURRING AS MUSIC PLAYS]
00:02:08: CHARLIE: Creating this spacial environment is for people to come and see how the cat would function at home, in a home-like environment, versus, like, putting him in a cage.
00:02:17: MADELINE: The real reason we did this is because we’re using fresh air and sunlight to fight disease, so these cats who can go in and out don’t get sick. Also, they’re calmer. They’re not cramped up in a little cage and then, number two, you get an idea, if you have more than one cat, how the cat behaves around other cats.
00:02:36: CHARLIE: Do you find, then, that this system of work is helping increase adoption, though?
00:02:41: MADELINE: It does increase adoptions because don’t they look more fun like this?
00:02:45: [GRAPHIC – SPCA LA has a 91% adoption rate.]
00:03:04: For further information go to: www.spcala.com
00:03:11: END OF FILM

Now Viewing: No Fair Fight

Animal abuse is not just about physical beatings. Basic mistreatment of pets — putting a cat in a cage that is too small, or not providing enough water for a dog on a hot day — also falls under the category of abuse. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) rescues mistreated and abandoned dogs and cats in the Los Angeles area. In 2006 alone, the organization found homes for about 2,200 animals and taught some 10,000 people how to treat animals more humanely.

: United States
Location:: Los Angeles, California
Date:: August 2005
Grants Awarded:: Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA-LA) ($25,000)