Ruthie has been working with FCAF for 10 years and her work with the organization has touched so many and has raised so much awareness of the need for people to adopt more cruelty-free living. Ruthie has been instrumental in working with other non-profit organizations that are advocating for animals around the world and spreading the message of compassion to these other groups. She has so much influence in terms of her dedication to her cause, spreading awareness, and dedication to the community and animals in need around the world. We here at The Animal Rescue Site are so grateful to her for all of her work and we love that she is a part of our team! This picture that she recently posted on her Instagram account is an absolutely stunning photo of her. She says, “Sitting pretty with the sun on my face at the Humane League's 2nd annual Cocktails with Canines charity event with celebrity chef Lara Felthous and other celebrities. This is every PETA activist's dream job…what more can I ask for? Cheers!” We are so proud of Ruthie’s dedication and commitment to both animals and the future of the planet! We wish Ruthie the very best of luck in helping save more animals in need and spreading the message of animal advocacy throughout the world. We have so much respect for Ruthie and are incredibly grateful that she is a part of our team at The Animal Rescue Site. We are sure that her hard work and dedication to animal rights is only going to lead to positive change! Ruthie is a very, very inspiring woman. I just know she will be amazing! She inspires all of us! And what Ruthie’s doing is amazing. And I’ve always loved Ruthie (and you always have!) and there are a few things that we should know about Ruthie that we should have known about, way back when. Ruthie has been involved with the workings of the animal welfare movement since 1997, because she was involved with the killing of animals. Ruthie had a job with the Humane Society of Tampa (HSOT) in 1997, at which time HSOT was already using dogs and cats for animal testing and research, but they were not killing them for this purpose. That was the policy at HSOT: in 1997, HSOT did not kill animals. It was also Ruthie’s job to kill dogs and cats. She killed these dogs and cats for the HSOT “pet adoption program,” in which HSOT sold adoptable pets at fundraisers, the money from which went to the HSOT budget. Dogs and cats would also die when this program was used for fundraisers. The program was being used for fundraising in late 1999, Ruthie remembers, and the dogs and cats died, and this bothered her. She tried to get the program stopped. As a result of her opposition, Ruthie was fired from her job in early 2000, right before the first Humane Society spay/neuter program “was being phased out in favor of a more sustainable” program. She left the HSOT staff in 2002, but she still volunteers there now and then, for a yearly event. She’s an integral part of that staff. Her attitude about HSOT, and the attitude of her former colleagues, has not changed. In fact, Ruthie remains so “anti-suffering,” as she puts it, that she volunteered to assist in a 2011 HSOT spay/neuter program. And she did that in spite of the fact that the HSOT killed dogs and cats in 2010. That year, HSOT had a fundraiser, the spay/neuter program was in place, and some dogs and cats died. (Note that this is the same year HSOT took money for adoption programs from the National Canine Adoption Council. This is the fundraiser in question.) Says HSOT spokesperson John Van Zante, “The dog and cat adoptions were a small component of this event, but they were definitely taking place.” The money from the dogs and cats was used by the HSOT. Ruthie has always been anti-suffering, but now it’s on a much larger scale. She was already working on getting this work stopped. Now, she’s working on getting spay/neuter programs off the ground, and she continues to fight HSOT, even if she has to pick up where she left off and work with HSOT. She’s always fought against HSOT, and she continues to do so. And the same HSOT that has euthanized dogs and cats for experimentation since 1997 has just found $4.5 million dollars from Florida taxpayers to bring a new spay/neuter clinic to the area. The clinic, which opened on October 16, 2016, will provide services free to eligible owners of companion animals, including spay/neuter surgeries, vaccinations, rabies and microchip identification. Dogs and cats who need sterilization services for life-threatening health conditions are still allowed to receive them. It’s the only spay/neuter clinic in Orange County. There’s just one in Miami. There are just three spay/neuter clinics in all of Florida. “We have been working on a program that would provide sterilization and vaccination services to our community,” said John Van Zante, HSOT’s executive director. “The idea was that we were going to provide services on a case-by-case basis. We would never say that dogs that are aggressive are not needy, and we’ve never had a need for euthanizing.” If the spay/neuter program doesn’t work out, Ruthie is always there. This year, just weeks after the HSOT held its fundraiser in September, Ruthie was also there. She spoke out about HSOT. She’s always been there, from the start, she fought for the cause and the right of communities to reject HSOT. “I will never back away,” Ruthie told the media in October 2016. “I have never given up hope, and I will never stop fighting for a society free of animal testing.” Ruthie would never give up hope. She has always been anti-suffering. Ruthie may not be in the headlines now, but there is no doubt that she’s been an inspiration to all of us who believe in the end of animal testing and the end of so-called “surplus” or “unwanted” animals. A former HSOT office director has been named in a complaint in a US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Office of Inspector General investigation. The USDA said yesterday that it had been conducting a review since late 2013 of the HSOT’s pet adoption program, which has been used by HSOT since at least 1997. The program provides pets to HSOT for sale at fundraising events and for adoption to the public. In November 2012, HSOT changed its policy on who was allowed to adopt pet animals. Previously, adopters could have received pets only from shelters or shelters that had an independent policy that pets were not killed by HSOT. But adoption by HSOT personnel became a “frequent occurrence” in late 2013, after the US District Court for the Middle District of Florida granted HSOT’s summary judgment motion, denying a claim that HSOT was conducting illegal animal experiments in dogs, cats, primates, and rabbits. In response, HSOT changed its policy on who could adopt pets from HSOT, which USDA said is against its regulations and poses “a risk to the health and well-being of the animals.” In addition to Ruthie Snyder, two other HSOT employees, who worked as animal control officers at HSOT, were mentioned in USDA’s complaint to the Office of the Inspector General. They are Ruthie Snyder’s colleagues, John Van Zante and Lori White. The complainants are named in the complaint because USDA officials were “concerned that they [Snyder, Van Zante and White] would disclose confidential information.” Snyder previously held her job title of animal control officer, but HSOT changed the job title to animal adoption officer, which has a broader scope of duties. HSOT officials “reorganized the department and the position of animal adoption officer to be located in the HSOT Office of Donations,” according to USDA’s complaint. Diane Van Zante is named because she is HSOT’s executive director. There’s also a reference to HSOT’s CEO, Michael Colton. The complaint states that HSOT’s handling of adoptable dogs and cats was “not consistent with proper veterinary care” and that “pets were not spayed or neutered to adequately control the spread of communicable diseases.” The USDA complaint about HSOT’s animal adoptions program also referred to the HSOT’s “inappropriate euthanasia” and to “several dogs and cats that were subjected to the excessive and inappropriate euthanasia.” Snyder retired in 2013, but Ruthie Snyder was listed as an HS