DISCOVERY ’67

[Music] if you wanted to adopt an orphan anything from a full-grown horse to a baby kitten or an armful of puppies like these you'd find them all here at the aspca where they provide food and care for over a quarter of a million different animals every year we're going to see how they do all that and much more today when discovery takes a look at the world's biggest dog house [Music] discovery 67 the award-winning program for young people with bill owen if you live in new york city and you wanted to adopt a pet like one of those kittens or one of these puppies you probably come here to the aspca the american society for the prevention of cruelty to animals chances are that in your own hometown there's an animal shelter similar to this one which was established in 1866 a little over a hundred years ago it was the very first humane society in america the people who work here sometimes call it the world's biggest dog house but they provide many services for all kinds of animals in addition to dogs for instance the aspca operates a complete modern hospital and clinic with animal ambulances and rescue service the animal port at kennedy airport is equipped to handle any kind of animal traveling by air there are obedience classes for training dogs and their owners an education department with a miniature zoo where young people learn about animals a traveling art that visits schools and playgrounds plus the regular humane work of the aspca making sure that owners dealers and exhibitors are taking proper care of their animals and not neglecting or abusing them here in the new york city area there are nine aspca shelters where lost animals mostly dogs and cats are given a temporary foster home they're given food care and medical treatment if needed while waiting for their owners to claim [Music] them [Music] if a dog has his license on his collar when he's found it's easy to locate the owner in other cases people can call in a description of their lost pet and all nine shelters in the area will be alerted to look for their pet if an animal is unlicensed and no one claims it within 48 hours it's offered for adoption the adoption service does a remarkable job finding homes for twenty one thousand animals every year fifteen thousand dogs five thousand cats and a thousand other animals and they're all given away free of charge if you wanted to adopt a kitten you'd probably look here first to see the kittens that are on display in these windows when you've chosen the one you want you fill out the necessary papers of course they make sure that you're able to give your pet a good home to help the new owners along the aspca gives them a supply of food and a special carrying carton that they designed for animal owners you can also get lots of information about the right way to take care of your pet from booklets published by the aspca [Applause] there isn't any charge for the adoption service but if you're getting a dog the law requires you to buy a license for him so the people will know who the owner is if he's ever lost and you can arrange to buy your license right here when you pick out your dog if you should want to adopt an older pet a larger dog or cat you would choose one from the kennels here at the shelter on any day of the year you can find all sizes and shapes all different breeds and personalities sometimes it's difficult to decide which one you want you'd like to take all of them home but usually you find one that's just perfect for you [Music] in addition to the regular medical care while they're at the shelter one of the 14 veterinarians will give each adopted animal a thorough examination free of charge before you take them home usually a new owner arranges to have his pet get his first inoculations right here at the hospital it's highly recommended for all dogs or cats as an excellent way of preventing illness if you want a special breed or a particular kind of animal they have a special adoption service where your request is put on a list and as soon as one of your special kind is found you're notified of course most of the requests are for dogs and cats but they also find homes for many other types of pets horses goats birds snakes fish and monkeys are all part of those 21 000 orphans adopted every year there are many more services besides adoptions that go on here all the time upstairs there's a miniature zoo where school classes come in every day to study and learn first-hand about kindness to animals and how to care for them we're going to see all of these animals and we'll watch an obedience class to see how they train the dogs and their owners in just a minute [Music] this is miska one of the animal members of the education department of the aspca every day different classes from kindergarten to high school visit this miniature zoo instead of just being looked at these animals can be picked up and handled because they're all tame after school and on saturdays you'll find a group of these volunteers called junior members aged 9 to 18 helping care for the animals grooming them and feeding them walking the dogs and helping conduct tours of the shelter and hospital some of the junior members take turns lecturing visiting children on how to take care of their pets and others help out in the office with clerical work and mail some of these animals are really a part of the staff by now many of them were donated by owners who couldn't keep them others were brought in as lost or as strays my now rose how would you like to feel this little creature here and see if you can tell me what you think he is kind of feel his hair well let me see what it is all right i'll tell you you kind of feel around him to see how big he is what kind of fur he has he feels like a guinea pig he's a guinea pig good for you this is what we call it this part of the dog house is always a busy place sometimes you can even find a group of blind children here learning about animals by touching them honey and see if you can feel him too there he goes this is a baby and he was born right here in the aspca and it's probable that we'll be giving him to some school children who want a nice pet of their own okay now how about you there oh your character how come his kid's playing guess what that's his nose he's trying to sniff along he's probably looking for some food they're very greedy okay let's get brian in listen there's no food for you no oh don't tell him that he might stop uh behaving properly um i think i know what this is uh-huh you want to tell us a guinea pig good you've been listening and paying attention right oh honey what did um this was his mother here uh he was born mother was here yes the nice thing about guinea pigs is that when they're born they're all ready with their fur all right let's have uh rose touch it see if she can tell me okay rose you feel the ears yeah it's so cute he's shedding though he's shedding you bet we're all gonna have seasons after this yeah all right what do you think it is from your little exploration well let me check it nothing from right we don't want to make a mistake it feels like a good girl you're just too bright for words here this is our little esmeralda rabbit um and her name is eloise now eloise somebody apparently got tired of her and put her in a little box and just threw her out so they heard her crying and crying and someone brought her in here and i decided that i just had to have her for myself so this is little eloise 14 year old chihuahua and how about having you honey is he your patch this is my own little pet my only girl and she's sweet and friendly and those are little tongues hanging out if you feel very gently [Music] another important educational activity at the aspca is teaching animals to get along with people in 1944 they began the first obedience training class for dogs in the united states we're going to do the sixth day ready [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay stay return to your dogs [Music] to the left gather it up holding them in place if necessary all right when you're back in position a little praise always very important good all right everybody ready for some healing the dog's name the word heal and move out on your left foot ready [Music] stand stand [Music] the classes are held in different locations all over the city they meet one evening a week for eight weeks there are classes for beginners and for advanced dog students all conducted by professional trainers the k-9 students should be at least four months old to be eligible but no dog is too old to learn the dogs are taught to heal to come lie down stand stay and sit on voice command and hand signals the owners are taught to handle their dogs with confidence at the end of eight weeks the best students and their owners may go on to advance classes and even professional dog shows like all students the dogs certainly know when class is over we've seen how you can adopt a dog and how you can train a dog but how about sending a dog across the country or over the ocean alone in an airplane well for that matter how do you send a horse on an airplane we'll find out here at the animal port at the airport we'll do that in just a minute we're looking at the most unusual hotel in the western hemisphere the animal port at new york's kennedy international airport it's the first shelter in america designed exclusively for animal air travelers within the united states and overseas as well eighty percent of all the animals that enter the united states arrive by air so you can see why the animal port has a big guest list over 65 000 animals stop off here every year [Applause] [Music] because there are animals arriving and departing at any time of the day or night the animal port is open 24 hours every day of the year it provides shelter food and water exercise and even medical care for anything from a hummingbird to a baby tiger here's a newly arrived passenger she's a six-month-old royal bengal tiger on her way from west bengal india to the international pet festival here in new york she'll soon be placed in her own hotel room here just like the other guests meanwhile she has to be fed raw beef given water and calmed down from her long trip each animal comes in a crate or cage with a destination tag and name marker some even have special instructions from the owners on any average day here at the animal port you'll find dozens of guest dogs [Music] and quite a few cats there are 60 individually tiled kennels for cats and dogs in addition you're likely to find most any other kind of animal such as a tucon a boa constrictor and even mites every one of these guest rooms is cleaned steamed out and disinfected for each new arrival when an animal comes in from overseas part of the animal port's job for health reasons is to make sure all of the food and litter in the animal's crate is carefully disposed of and it can be pretty challenging trying to clean out a tiger's crate or that of a couple of chimpanzees [Music] in the kitchen here at the animal port they're able to prepare all kinds of special meals and more routine ones such as pellets for mice bananas for the monkeys and of course carrots for the rabbits they even have pets of their own here at the animal port like tom the cat this is one cat that's used to getting along with all kinds of animals nothing surprises him anymore this is another permanent guest philly the goat he was donated to the aspca and the animal port adopted him as their own pet here billy although these stalls are used for other animals they're primarily for horses these are race horses that have to do a lot of air traveling these stables are actually convertible they can be turned into a large indoor corral as they do sometimes when 20 or 30 cows and a few dozen horses all arrive at once you never know what's going to arrive next here at the animal port right now for instance there are some horses arriving let's go outside and watch these are both racehorses the second one is being flown to italy this afternoon how do you get a horse onto an airplane well here's how you do it the horse transport van drives to the airplane loading area and stops alongside a specially designed ram the horse is led up the ramp into the airplane and placed in his own private stall where he's fed and made comfortable for the 14-hour flight to italy this is quite a hotel they even have a fully equipped veterinary clinic for first aid and medical care with a private veterinarian who's on call at all times nothing has been overlooked for the care of these guests it's a full-time job running the animal port the manager george bower actually lives right here on the premises his apartment is upstairs on the roof he's the only person whose home is right inside the airport 24 hours a day in the eight years since it was built the animal port has cared for more than 600 000 animals of 139 different species all of the people we've seen today who work for the aspca are dedicated to their humane work they all try to follow this motto handle with love we'll find out about another part of their work in just a minute this is one of 30 ambulances operated by the aspca this one's for small animals but they have a large animal ambulance as well next week on discovery we're going to see how the animal rescue squad goes to work saving injured and trapped animals we'll ride along in one of the ambulances we'll watch them using special rescue equipment and we'll see how their hospital handles over 30 000 animal patients every year be sure to join us then so long [Music] [Applause] [Music] this has been a jewels power production in association with abc news and public affairs