National Animal Shelter Reform/Appreciation Week -- Redux

This week is Animal Shelter Appreciation Week.

Or,  Animal Shelter Reform Week.

It depends on who you ask. The first is celebrated by HSUS. The second by the No Kill Advocacy Center.  Which group is right?  Which should we be celebrating? 

The answer is probably both.

The following are my thoughts that I posted a year ago about the topic - -and I feel they are worthy of a repost. While there are unquestionably a lot of great shelters out there -- the reality is that there are still too many shelters -- many publicly funded shelters, that are are still operating under a 1970s catch and kill model of animal sheltering. We can, and must, do better. And while we should be careful to not treat every shelter as a horrific place for animals, there are still way too many shelters like the one in Memphis out there.  And we should undeniably push for change in those shelters.

From last year:

There is no doubt that this country there are many very good shelters and tens of thousands of volunteers who work with animals and save the lives of animals every day. There is no doubt that we should take the time to show our appreciation for these people who give so much of their lives to help homeless pets.

However, the reality is that there are still approximately 4 million pets savable pets killed in shelters every year -- and a large number of them could be saved tomorrow if shelters and cities would embrace policies that would lead to their lives being saved, instead of ended.

A large number of these killed pets are feral cats (likely near 25% of them) that could live out their lives in complete happiness if cities and shelters would embrace TNR programs.

Another large percentage of the animals killed in shelters are 'pit bulls' -- dogs that wuld likely be able to find homes if cities would end their breed-specific bans - or if many of the nation's shelters would end policies that prevent 'pit bulls' who enter the shelter from ever being able to leave. Earlier this week, Donna over at BAD RAP noted that three 'shelters' in the Houston area, the Houston SPCA, the Houston Humane Society and the Harris County Animal Shelter, have policies that prevent pit bulls from being adopted from the shelter.  This isn't unique to Houston -- many shelters have policies like this, including most public shelters in the state of Ohio and even the Loudon County, VA shelter has sued the state for the RIGHT to kill all 'pit bulls' that come into the shelter.

Then there are the countless shelters -- most of them run by government entities  -- that make virtually no attempt to adopt out animals in their communities. In Carroll County, GA, during the summer months the shelter took in 902 cats and killed 904. The shelter in director in Dallas, TX allowed a cat that was trapped inside a wall to die a slow death and only removed the cat after it was dead and began to stink. Heck, virtually every day, YesBiscuit! has examples of shelter that is completely failing at its main job -- saving animals.

Many of these situations could be dramatically improved with overhauls in shelter management. Last year, Kansas City, MO made the decision to privatize the city shelter. While the shelter isn't without it's problems (by all accounts, the shelter is still pretty poorly managed) the shelter still increased adoptions by 150% in its first year -- decreasing shelter kill rates by 35%.

One can only imagine if these houses of horrors were to have significant changes in shelter management and shelter policies what a huge difference it would make in the 4 million healthy animals killed in our nation's shelters each year.  In fact, I'd go so far as to say as long as such a large number of shelters in this country continue to operate with little regard for the lives of animals, there is little opportunity to decrease the number of animals killed in this country -- regardless of all the efforts put into spay/neuter programs and shutting down puppy mills.

So in spite of the much good that is done in shelter throughout this country, there is little doubt that one of the primary reasons that so many shelter animals are dying is because of the shelter policies of too many shelters in this country.

So I'd recommend 'celebrating' the week in both ways. Celebrate the shelters that are doing it well. But also realize that there is much work to be done in reforming the shelters that are making little attempt to adopt out animals, and instituting kill policies for all 'pit bulls' and feral cats that enter their shelters that are leading to the deaths of millions of animals in this country.

 

Comments

[Carianne]

Great post, as always...

We are a public shelter in OH that adopts out pit bulls like any other breed. With that said, we are filling up with them since the state still has statewide restrictions on them that make them harder to own, which does turn off many potential adopters. If anybody can help by taking a couple into their more pit bull friendly states, please do let me know.

[Carianne]

I forgot to post one final thing, many of our pit bulls have either gone through basic obedience classes, and some of them have their Canine Good Citizen.

[kmk]

I like the shelter in Carroll County, Georgia that took in 902 cats and killed 904. did they kill two of them twice, LOL?

Nevermind - my husband just reminded me cats have nine lives. ;-)

But seriously, if other cities are like Kansas City, Missouri I can guarantee you they're seizing animals from perfectly good homes for perfectly stupid reasons, and that needs to stop.

[kmk]

Carianne - one of the things that disturbs me about BSL is public servants give no thought to the impact on the shelter and rescue system. Where do they think dogs and cats go when the government rips them out of their homes?

I really like it when cities pass BSL but put a clause in their ordinance that allows licensed rescues to come in and take "pit bulls" out of the shelter. Since most cities pass BSL because the breed is "inherently dangerous" it makes perfect sense to allow them to go to another city to kill and maim people. Either that or these folks feel guilty about killing pets and cities with multi-million dollar budgets expect rescues with a couple of thousand dollars, if they're lucky, to clean up their mess.

Carianne, you stated your shelter is public, so your hands are tied, but it really grates my nerves then private shelters under contract to cities continue to play into their madness. Private shelters need to start telling these municipalities they will not renew the contract when it comes up again unless BSL is rescinded, and the city can stack crates full of pit bulls in the mayor's office. We have far too many shelters around here that are nothing more than enablers.

[CristyF]

Loudoun County Animal Care and Control did not sue the state. Somebody sued them because of their stupid policy on killing all pit bulls except the ones they allow to be taken by Misunderstood Pit Bull Rescue or one of the 2 or 3 all breed rescues they actually work with (they are horribly unfriendly to all-breed rescues), and Loudoun County fought back and won. VA has statewide legislation that prevents BSL, but there are no laws anywhere preventing shelters from killing whatever breeds they want for whatever reasons they choose.

[Jeanne Odell]

I have a pitt bull/ shepard mix and she is one of the best dogs I have had. She strives to be a good girl. I recently decided to foster a little pitt /mix from the Mahatten NY shelter(I live across the state in Western NY)she was about to be put down and they said she was dog aggresive. She has been in my home for almost a month and she has been a very good dog to have. Pitt bulls are very sweet. It is the people that have the problem. She is also a cuddler.Just like people don't want to be profiled dogs shouldn't be .