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THE NO KILL MOVEMENTSaving lives one community at a time!
By Ryan Clinton, Attorney, Animal Advocate, Founder of www.FixAustin.org If you’ve even casually glanced through the pages of The American Dog Magazine before this moment, you are no doubt aware of the ever growing “No Kill” movement. The movement, which is largely decentralized but connected by a common dedication to improving the outlook for lost and homeless pets who enter animal shelters, is a policy-based, counter-status-quo effort to dramatically reduce the unnecessary killing of healthy and treatable companion animals at animal shelters in the United States and beyond. It is a movement of compassion and commitment and a movement that rejects traditional—and largely mythical and disproved of—excuses for the conditions and outlook that most animals face today at public and private shelters alike. Even though it is largely decentralized, the success of the movement has been rapid and measurable. Today, there are No Kill animal shelters, defined as open-admission shelters that save 90% or more of all impounded dogs and cats, in communities all across the United States. They exist in cities that are rich and poor, cities that are rural and urban, and cities in the Northern and Southern United States. They are communities like Charlottesville, Virginia; Tompkins County, New York; Reno, Nevada; and Hastings, Minnesota. More recently, the list has expanded to add communities like Shelby County, Kentucky and Marquette County, Michigan. And, truth be told, there will very likely be new communities announced by the time you read this story; that’s how fast the landscape of America’s animal shelters is changing. One of the most exciting places in the No Kill movement is Central Texas, where two communities are nipping at the heels of No Kill success. Due to the extraordinary work of Executive Director Cheryl Schneider, along with her staff and the volunteers at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter, the county directly to the north of Austin, Texas, saved more than 90% of all impounded dogs and cats from the months of December 2010 to March 2011. In Austin, too, the municipal Town Lake Animal Shelter—which serves a county of 800,000 people and averages a shelter population of far more than 20,000 animals annually—has also saved approximately 90% of impounded dogs and cats during the same period. And more great things continue to be expected in Austin. A nonprofit and the largest private shelter in the city, Austin Pets Alive recently announced its intent to expand beyond the city’s borders. At the same time, the City of Austin has recently hired a new shelter director, Abigail Smith (formerly of Tompkins County, New York), who is committed to No Kill and brings a proven track record of success to the city’s already exciting and fruitful efforts. In addition to the communities that have achieved or are close to achieving No Kill status through leadership and programmatic implementation, there is also a growing effort to pass legislation to force old-guard, high-kill shelters to implement basic standards of decency and humane care (and, when applicable,humane euthanasia). The State of Delaware passed a version of the “Companion Animal Protection Act” in 2010, and similar legislation has been introduced in the Texas and Rhode Island legislatures. Although each is different in its details, these acts often seek to ban gas chambers in favor of more humane lethal injection, bar shelters from killing animals when 501(c)(3) rescue groups are ready and able to save them, end unethical breed-discrimination adoption policies at shelters, require shelters to publicly and honestly report their intake and outcomes data, and end the practice of “convenience killing” (i.e., killing healthy, adoptable animals while cage space remains available). In other words, these acts aim to force shelters to do the things that most people think their shelters are already doing. As I’ve said before, we will end the horrific levels of systematic shelter killing that take place all over the United States today—roughly three to four million animals a year. It is not a matter of whether, but when. But the movement continues to need smart and compassionate Americans—like the readers of The American Dog Magazine—to join in and stand up for our nation’s sheltered animals. You can get started today by following the No Kill Advocacy Center and No Kill Nation on Facebook and by reading two incredibly important books in this movement: Redemption and Irreconcilable Differences by movement-leader Nathan Winograd. The animals will thank you. For more information please visit: |
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