Introducing Four Paws Handbook!
Four Paws: Handbook for a Pet-Friendly Community is for the people in our community who love pets.We hope that the information in this handbook helps you keep your pet healthy and happy. It includes resources available in nine east Tennessee counties—Anderson, Blount,Grainger, Jefferson, Knox, Loudon, Roane , Sevier and Union. You’ll find listings for spay/neuter clinics,adoption centers and dog-friendly restaurants. There are useful tips and articles for every pet owner.
How animals are treated at home is just one measure of a pet-friendly community. Another measure of pet friendliness is how a community handles animal welfare challenges—from rescue, sheltering and adoption to education, legislation and government and business support. Our community has many accomplishments to be proud of, like low-cost spay/neuter programs in every county in our region, local initiatives that support the human-animal bond and dozens of shelters and rescue groups helping animals.
Being a pet-friendly community is always a work in progress and there are still hurdles to overcome, If we all work together, these are just a few of the goals we can achieve:
• End euthanasia for adoptable animals with wide-spread spay/neuter campaigns and more adoptions from shelters
• Reduce the number of cats and dogs that are surrendered to shelters with educational campaigns about choosing and caring for pets
• Reunite more lost pets with owners with increased use of microchips and identification tags
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Cats and dogs are our companions, partners and friends. They deserve the best from their humans. In the course of our everyday lives, we can each make a difference in how animals are treated. Examples of some of the good things that people are doing in our community are on page 70.Check out page 72 for how you can help.
Share your ideas for making our community more pet friendly at www.facebook.com/knoxpets. In future editions of the handbook, we’ll highlight the progress that’s been made and renew our commitment to meet the challenges ahead.
YOUNG-WILLIAMS ANIMAL CENTER
UT COLLEGE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE / COMPANION ANIMAL INITIATIVE OF TENNESSEE
KNOXVILLE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION
MOST PET-FRIENDLY COMMUNITY INITIATIVE
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