Do no-kill shelters help or hurt the fight against the overpopulation of cats and dogs?

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by Robin Loving

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I've spent the past few years actively involved in helping to turn my own local shelters into no-kill shelters, so I feel that I am 'almost' an expert in this field, and I will add my own emphatic, and resounding YES...they do help!

My County is mentioned several times in Nathan Winograd's book "Redemption", {The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America}, and the prognosis for our county animal-control was grim at best, with our Humane Society coming in a close second.
Nathan had been hired to make an assessment of animal-control, as well as hold a seminar to introduce the concept of no-kill to this community.

The number one problem area he discovered, is probably THE most vital element of a true no-kill shelter, and this problem was, that we lacked the hard working and compassionate director/staff to pull us into this new progressive mind-set of the 21st century, that helps to reduce the numbers of sheltered animals...but in a compassionate way.

Adhering to Traditional sheltering practices (adopting a few...kill the rest)appears to be the most popular choice for lowering the large population of homeless and abandoned animals, but in doing that...our own shelters are numbered among the thousands of shelters across the Nation that kill millions of animals every year. That is what we had here (notice the key-word...'had' ).

This accepted concept of "Adopt a few...kill the rest" has been the status-quo for generations, and in fact, is an attitude that is aggressively backed by the HSUS as well as PETA.
That just doesn't float-my-boat, and many other persons of conscience are also realizing that with the proper combination of programs and procedures in place...ie. "The No Kill Equation", we can dramatically lower the number of shelter intakes as well as drive-up the number of adoptions, in a loving and compassionate way..

No-kill shelters have the only proven way of pulling all the elements together to do this successfully, and yet, the movement in this direction has been criticized, ridiculed and fought against since it's inception. I have to ask myself "why"? And then I realize...change is difficult and often comes with a battle.

I've done intensive research, and am not embarrassed to say that I am some-what of a Nathan Winograd-groupie...a nd consider him among just a small handful of sincere people who are actually making a difference in the way our sheltered animals are treated.

Our leading National Animal Protection Organizations, while raking in the big money, don't even come close to the mind-set that a "shelter" is exactly that...a "shelter/refuge" for our homeless ones.
The Communities that have embraced the "No Kill Philosophy" in totality and incorporated the "No Kill Equation" into their programs-and-procedu res shelter-manuals...wi thout a doubt, are seeing a dramatic lowering of the numbers of unwanted, abandoned (and killed) animals anywhere from over-night, to the span of a few years.

A No Kill shelter can be private or public, limited or open-admission.
The true no-kill shelter is one that doesn't kill healthy or treatable dogs and cats. They offer education and support for feral cats care-givers as well.
Hearing this, many would think that soon, there will be cats and dogs falling from the sky (perhaps that's why the HSUS sends out so many umbrellas...I would also like to take this opportunity to thank them for all the address labels...I have papered my entire house with them).
There is still a small percentage (usually ranging from 5-10% of animals entering these shelters that are irremediably suffering or too temperamentally unpredictable (vicious) to rehabilitate...depen ding on your own communitie's resources. Some communities have endless resources, others are struggling.

The five to six million animals being killed in traditional shelters are seeing this dramatic reduction with the help of conscientious people who are sick of the killing and believe there is a better way. I am one of those people. Killing innocent animals matters to me, and I can say, with-out a doubt, that the No Kill Movement has made an enormous impact on how we look at the way we treat our shelter-animals.

I personally believe there is the right person for every animal out there, and it's just a matter of taking a pro-active approach to hooking them up together. This may take time, but it pays off knowing he won't be a return customer every other week.

In no-kill shelters, each animal is treated on his own merits, and help is being offered in every area from behavioral to medical rehabilitation, to fostering (for the needier guys, or those who need time to recover from surgery, new moms who are still nursing pups or kittens ((the ones we didn't catch soon enough))...everythin g is done, to either keep the animal with his guardian, or to find her a better situation.
These foster-animals are either returned to the shelter when the time is right, they might be on-line or records kept in a folder for prospective adopters.

I want to point-out at this time, that even though spay and neuter is a HUGE, possibly the largest cornerstone in any and every no-kill shelter/community, the efforts to buy these dogs and cats a one-way ticket into a new for-ever home, go far beyond sterilization.

Every animal, of course, is spayed or neutered before adoption..and often shelters gain enough support from the community to expand the high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter programs, but the director of a No-Kill shelter can either make-it or break-it.
He/She needs to be driven by compassion and hard-work. The staff will follow or leave. There are many people out there looking for work, who love animals and are even volunteering their time, so finding replacements for an un-caring staff is not a problem.

Through broad media coverage, (a vital element of alerting the public to what the shelter needs)it's no longer possible to turn a blind-eye to the kitty who was rescued from a fire, trying to save the lives of her babies. It's no longer acceptable to allow your pet to have just that 'one' litter so that your children can see the 'miracle of life'. And it is absolutely unforgivable to run a puppy-mill or dog-fighting operation.
Media is vital to no-kill and often offered free. Many animals will find homes, or be spayed and neutered due to media attention.

One way of controlling our 'overpopulation of dogs and cats' is to kill them all. This is actually one approach suggested by both PETA and the HSUS on many occasions, and just recently, while considering what the final disposition of the Michael Vick dogs might be. Luckily, there were conscientious Rescues and no-kill shelters that were willing to take on the responsibility of these dogs, and give them a second chance at a better life. The pictures I've seen of these rescued dogs are priceless.
To punish the helpless 'victims' of a crime (by death) is unheard of to me.

Why is it that our largest and wealthiest National Animal Protection Agencies...HSUS and PETA, to name only two, are so against "No Kill", and go so far as to send out propaganda that backs-up the 'Draconian' killing, to our shelters all over the country?
These two organizations, which reap in huge amounts of donation money are doing very little to protect shelter-animals. Quite the contrary. They are fighting to keep things at status-quo... where a few animals are adopted-out, and the rest are killed. They seem to think it's just fine to 'kill' the 'overpopulation'.
The HSUS has even gone so far as to send representatives to any community who is actively engaged in changing this traditional way of catch-and-kill sheltering, to a more compassionate and comprehensive way of reducing the population of off-spring, while treating the shelter-animals with a bit of dignity and love.
The No Kill Movement is a revolutionary movement of consciousness, that no longer accepts killing as a form of 'population control'.

No-kill shelters offer many programs to reduce the numbers of unwanted and abandoned animals:

*Comprehensi ve TNR (Trap, Neuter, Return) programs for feral cats (as mentioned above).
Feral cats have traditionally been considered a nuisance to many, and even with care-takers, as well as many of us speaking on their behalf...it's an on-going battle (thank-you HSUS).
The traditional way of dealing with these cats is to round them up...take them to the local shelter and kill them. These cats may be the off-spring, one generation removed from 'fluffy' who is sitting on your lap right now.
TNR offers a compassionate way of reducing the growing numbers of these colonies over a period of a few years. It's amazing...trust me.

We can't just call our-selves a no-kill shelter and quit killing without having many programs set and ready to go...
Each shelter will have needs tailored just to them-selves, but here are a few general programs I didn't mention above, for all shelters when following the "No Kill Equation";

*Off-site adoption venues are priceless. Just today there were three wonderful Pit-mixes adopted out at Petsmart, who might have been over-looked at the shelter.

*Foster program for cats and dogs...even the temperamental rascals.

*An army of volunteers are no longer afraid of the shelter...win/win.

*V et techs and Behaviorists who offer their time pro-bona.

*Pet-retent ion program. Someone available to help guardians with their own animals problems, before considering relinquishing them.

*Having a good working-relationship with local and breed-specific rescues.

*Great public relations (MEDIA)

For a much clearer idea of this revolutionary movement to lower numbers, compassionately, you can google nokilladvocacycenter .com. There is much information offered that can help each of us take a closer look at what is really going on, and how we can all be a part of making this long over-due change.

I want to end this with a short quote by Martin Luther King Jr.
"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter".
I will never be silent as long as innocent animals are being killed needlessly.
No-kill shelters are definitely my top-pick for lowering the numbers of unwanted and abandoned dogs and cats...compassionate ly.

Learn more about this author, Robin Loving.
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