I know I don’t normally do this, but this is a cause that is very near to my heart, and I want to get this message out. There is an animal shelter 2 towns away from me (Town of Hempstead Animal Shelter in Wantagh, NY) that is extremely corrupt and run by people who care more about themselves than the animals. They are given an extremely large budget (one of the largest shelter budgets in the country) and most of the money goes to paid workers that are hired by the town. The animals that are taken to this shelter are starved, neglected, and abused. About 4 years ago, my dad and a few of his friends started a campaign against the shelter (Hope for Hempstead Shelter) to get the word out about the corruption and hopefully make revisions to their processes. While the campaign became popular nationally, the shelter is still using some horrific methods of “caring” for these animals. The unpaid volunteers that have spoken out against the cruelty have been “banned.” This poor guy, Rebel, is one of hundreds of examples of the cruelty that has occurred in this shelter, along with the famous “Kill the kitty” video that my dad helped release to the public. The video shows the shelter’s director cheering on a man about to euthanize a kitten for fun. (I don’t recommend watching this, but if you’d like to you can find it on Youtube under “Pat Horan kill the kitty.”) Rebel was sadly not one of the shelter’s favorites, and was starved and kept alone in his kennel for months after being labeled “food aggressive”. Starving animals will almost always be food aggressive. He needed surgery on 2 of his legs, which he never received, although the shelter made note of his condition. Currently, he is sick, distressed, and in desperate need of donations to help cover his boarding fees, surgery, rehabilitation, and training to undo the damage that the Town of Hempstead Shelter has caused. If you want to make a donation, you can find a link on the Facebook page attached above. However, the bigger picture here is spreading the word of the damage this shelter has done to many animals and preventing it from happening again. Please reblog this post and help spread awareness for Rebel and the many animals that have suffered as he has.