A leg tattoo is a good method of safeguarding your animal. Avoid ear tattoos as it has been reported that some animals' ears have been cut off to hide the i.d. marking. Animals have been stolen right on the street in both rural and urban areas. Do not leave your animal unattended at any time. Even animals leashed to street poles while their owner was in a store have been stolen.
Pound seizure is one of the most controversial issues of the animal research debate.
Pound seizure is the term for the method by which animal researchers obtain dogs and cats from local pounds or humane societies. After animals have not been reclaimed within a certain amount of time, shelters will release the animals over for experimentation. Some states require shelters to turn animals over, some states leave it up to individual shelters, and others have prohibited pound seizure. Most shelters do not release animals for experimentation. The problem with pound seizure is that animal experimenters are able to take cats and dogs, in many cases having just been surrendered by loving people, and place them in experiments where they will experience pain and suffering and eventually be killed.