Essay competition aimed at increasing awareness of pets’ value

Friday, Sept. 30, 2005 | 3:37 a.m.

WEEKEND EDITION

Oct. 1, 2005

Getting people to consider their pets as members of their families and not as just property is a major step toward helping to resolve the unwanted animal problem, local animal rights experts say.

To that end, Las Vegas organizers of a national pet essay contest that begins today hope they can emphasize the true value of pets and help local animal shelters prepare to receive scores of abandoned dogs and cats from the recent Gulf of Mexico hurricanes.

"I was watching coverage of the hurricanes and saw that animals were not allowed to go (into shelters) with their families," said Stacey Hall, who together with her husband Bill Hall operates the One Stop for Las Vegas Homes team of Liberty Realty Inc.

"I could never imagine evacuating my home and not taking our dogs, Tess and Maggie, or our cockatoo, Sunny, with us."

After donating money to local agencies to help human victims of the storms, the Halls began to think of ways to help the pet victims, thousands of which are in temporary shelters in Louisiana and Mississippi awaiting transfer to shelters in Las Vegas and elsewhere to be adopted to new families.

They said they decided to start donating 10 percent of their real estate sales commissions to three nonprofit animal rights organizations, and they also launched the "What I Am Most Grateful To My Pet(s) For" essay contest, which is open to people of all ages.

The beneficiaries will be the Nevada SPCA and Heaven Can Wait, both of Las Vegas, and Noah's Wish, a California organization that rescues domestic animals from disaster areas.

Essay entries must be received before Nov. 10. Details about the contest are available at onestoplasvegashomes.com, where the winning essays will be posted. Winners will be notified by Nov. 30, Hall said.

Contest entry blanks also are available at two Las Vegas Cold Stone Creamery locations -- at North Durango Road and Interstate 215 and at Warm Springs and South Durango roads. Entries also can be dropped off at those locations.

Winners will be selected in several categories, including Most Grateful Story, Funniest Story, Most Heroic Story and others.

Prizes to be awarded include PetsMart gift certificates and Cold Stone Creamery ice cream products.

"The essay contest is a good idea because it gets people to think of their pets as family members," said Doug Duke, director of the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals sanctuary at 4800 W. Dewey Drive, which was the old Clark County pound.

"People will not be so quick to drop off animals (at a shelter) if they think of them as family members."

Jennifer Palombi, president and founder of the Nevada SPCA, said, "We preach that constantly."

"We have a program this year where we will go to a different school each week to reach the children about the responsibilities of pet adoption," said Palombi, whose shelter houses 325 cats and 125 dogs.

"And we always stress to families adopting animals that they are making a commitment of 12 or 15 years or more."

Recently, the SPCA shelter adopted out a 6-year-old pug, Sally, who survived Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi after being abandoned by her owners.

Nicole Dutt-Roberts, president of Heaven Can Wait, said her group is bracing not only for abandoned animals from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita but also from the continuing practice of local pet owners getting tired of their own animals and then abandoning them.

"It is a struggle staying ahead of animal control, rescuing abandoned animals and getting them into good homes," Dutt-Roberts said.

Her organization cares for 400 cats and 35 dogs, which are sent to local prisons for obedience training by inmates, so they can more easily be adopted into good homes.

Stacey Hall can be reached at (702) 413-5316.