KC DOG BLOG

Rethinking animal cruelty & neglect laws

Cruelty: behavior that causes pain or suffering to a person or animal; behavior that causes physical or mental harm to another.

Neglect: fail to care for properly

Over the past decade, animal welfare professionals and city governments have been cracking down on animal cruelty. The crackdown on animal cruelty has come as we've become increasingly aware of the connections between animal cruelty and mistreatment of humans,  and at a time when 95% of Americans consider their pets to be part of the family and 45% of pet owners say they've at least occasionally bought birthday presents for their pets. As Americans have more and more embraced pets as a part of the family, our tolerance for people who mistreat has decreased accordingly.

Now, more than ever, training is available for animal control officers to learn more about animal cruelty, how to gather evidence for it, and how to prosecute it. The ASPCA offers a series of online courses on the topic (with special emphasis on dog fighting).  The National Animal Control Association training includes similar information on evidence collection and fighting cruelty.

I think most would agree that this is a good thing, and that we SHOULD be more harshly punishing people who are cruel to animals. This increased awareness has led to an increase in fines, and even jail time, for violators of animal cruelty laws.

However, in many ways I think the idea of "neglect" has gotten completely overlooked. Or has gotten completely wrapped up into the notion of "cruelty" and the two are used interchangeably. 

It's understandable haw this happened. In looking at the bylaws of several Midwest cities, every single community I reviewed had "cruelty" or "abuse" laws and "neglect" laws as a part of the same city code. And I'd define these two as very different (in most cases) and needing different types of training to enforce.

Animal Cruelty would be the intentional hurting of animals through abusive behavior.

Neglect would be failing to care for properly and not meeting the needs of the pet. While obviously there are extreme situations where the neglect is so severe is crosses into cruelty, in a large number of cases it does not.

While "cruelty" should be met with the hammer of prosecution. Neglect would often be better met with compassion and assistance. In the May/June issue of Animal Sheltering there is a story that highlights this:

"Another of Russell’s early cases involved a thin, “very sickly looking” cat, whose situation at first didn’t seem much different from that of the starved puggle. But in talking with the owner, she found that he was trying to do right by the animal. He was feeding his cat two cans of tuna and a bowl of milk every day, using his food stamps to purchase those items. “He really loved his cat. He loved him to death,” Russell says. “He thought that’s what cats eat, because that’s what he saw on TV.”

With guidance from Russell, he switched to a commercial kibble and water, and the cat wound up thriving. “Sometimes,” she says, “it’s just … getting people to make that step into thinking that maybe the way their great-grandparents raised their pets isn’t the appropriate way.”

The case falls under "neglect".  Had there not been intervention by the Animal Control Officer Russell, the cat likely would have died. However, in this case the officer did the right thing by HELPING the cat owner learn more about proper feeding of the cat and helped him care for a pet he dearly loved.

This is often what simple neglect  looks like. It often involves an owner that really does care about the pet, but doesn't always have the proper resources (either education or $$$) to properly care for the them. It might be feeding their pet an improper diet; or an inability to provide full veterinary  care. Or they may not be able to afford a good collar, or left the dog out with a dirty water bowl.  While sometimes these situations evolve into a cruelty-type situation, very often simple neglect cases can solved by having compassionate conversations. This is what outreach groups such as Spay & Neuter Kansas City's Families Better Together Program and the HSUS Pets for Life Program have learned to do and do well. 

The battle against neglect is being won with compassion, not the hammer of harsh cruelty/neglect laws. 

Unfortunately, in too many communities, animal control officers are still meeting neglect cases with the hammer -- hitting already struggling pet owners with high fines and seized animals instead of helping owners provide better care for their pets. 

Fortunately this is changing in some progressive communities. 

In Austin, Animal Control officers are now carrying fence-building equipment in their vehicles to aid in fence repair in low-income neighborhoods, and are focusing on holistic solutions such as connecting them with low cost spay/neuter services.  Washington Humane Society Chief Community Animal Welfare Officer Scott Giacoppo (Washington DC) noted last week at the Best Friends National Conference that he is working with officers to issue fewer citations, and instead "solve more problems in the living rooms than the court rooms."

While mindsets are changing in many communities, the type of training being provided to officers doesn't appear to be matching the need and demand for these types of outreach efforts.

While there is significant focus on prosecuting dog fighting (which is horrible and should be prosecuted) most officers will see maybe one potential dog fighting case in their entire career. However, they will likely encounter neglect and owners who need help with their pets on a daily or hourly basis; yet, this type of mediation has little training available on a national level. 

So I wonder if it's time to rethink cruelty and neglect laws with the following proposal:

1) Separate cruelty laws from neglect laws in city statutes to recognize the difference in mindset and fine structures (allowing, of course, for severe or chronic neglect to be punishable as cruelty).

2) Change the fine structures for simple neglect so that fines for something like a dirty or tipped over water bowl are not punishable with the same fines as actually abusing an animal.

3) National organizations should provide better training for officers in mediation in the field so they are better equipped to build relationships in the field and help people resolve issues. These skills would be used daily by animal control officers in most communities whereas skills like "blood sports training", which is readily available, are seldom used by animal control officers. 

It seems that if we rethink how we view cruelty and neglect, it would help us focus on the fact that the two are usually different, and need a different strategy to overcome.

Which No Kill model is best for you?

A few weeks ago, I was talking to an advocate about her quest to try to instigate shelter change in the large Midwest city in which she lives. It seems that there is some political will to take the community's shelter no kill, and they are exploring how best to implement change to set them up for success.

During the conversation, we talked about the different structures that communities have used to get to No Kill.

While the things you need to do to get to no kill are pretty much the same everywhere: low cost spay/neuter programs, increased adoptions, strong volunteer programs, foster programs, strong RTO programs, strong medical and behavioral programs, etc, the structure for this has varied a lot from community to community.

In Austin, TX they have a very high-functioning shelter, but also have a singular key not-for-profit partner that pulls hard-to-place animals from the shelter in a very strong partnership approach.

In places like Dekalb County, GA (Atlanta) with Lifeline Animal Project, or in Kansas City, with Kansas City Pet Project, not-for-profits have taken over the operations of the city-owned shelter facilities so that the public/private cooperation was able to get the community to no kill.

In a place like Washoe County, NV, the community achieved No Kill with a private shelter opening up adjacent to the county shelter. While the county shelter handles the stray intake, the animals are then transferred to the not-for-profit for adoption and transfers. 

In places like Charlottesville, VA, they achieved No Kill when a not-for-profit entity, the Charlottesville SPCA, contracted with the city for sheltering services and worked out of a a building the not-for-profit owned. Lynchburg, VA achieved success using the same model.

In Jacksonville, FL, and Portland, OR, their transitions to No Kill Success happened with a coalition of several groups that worked together to achieve no kill - including the city shelter, a major rescue organization and low cost spay/neuter clinic. The coalition approach is the way No Kill LA is working to try to make positive changes in Los Angeles as well. 

And in places like Williamson County, TX, they achieved no kill success when new leadership took over the county-owned shelter changed its own leadership and led the community to change as a county-run facility. The same has been mostly true (I think) in Baltimore County. 

All of the different options can be a little overwhelming and confusing.  So after discussing many of the different structures, the advocate asked: "Well, which model do you recommend??"

There are strengths and weaknesses of each model to be sure, and yet the single common thread that all of them have is that they have strong leadership that has access to the resources (shelter facilities and $$$) they need to succeed.

So my recommendation was to use whatever model that could get them the best leader connected with the most resources the fastest given the players, and politics in their community. 

There are many different structures -- but I think all emerged differently based on how they were able to facilitate getting the right leaders connected with the right resources. 

Given the political nature of your community, and the resources available, which model will get you there fastest? 

Some thoughts on 4th of July Shelter Intakes, and solutions

You don't have to look very far to see a news story about how July 5th is the busiest day for animal shelters.  The theory goes that fireworks, with their loud popping and banging, scare dogs and many escape due to fear and then come into shelters on the following days. There are certainly no shortage of shelters making this claim.

The usually very thorough Emily Weiss at the ASPCApro has written blogs on consecutive years trying to dispel this as a myth, noting that in their survey of pet owners who had lost their pets, these owners said the 4th of July was not the reason their pet was lost. 

I'll preface this with noting that I'm a huge fan of challenging "Common knowledge" that exists in animal welfare circles as many "knowns" seem to be handed down for years with little or no evidence of them being true , including things like the myth about the need for heavy screening for adopters, or only 1 in 600 pit bulls that enters a shelter finds a home,  or the ridiculous math about the number of offspring an unaltered cat may produce or black dog syndrome. Many of these are just plain wrong, and often negatively impact animals in our shelters. 

However, in speaking with pretty much everyone in the shelter/rescue community, and observing the comments on Dr. Weiss's post, most people aren't going along with Dr. Weiss's assertion that the 4th of July isn't a major concern for shelters.

Last year, I ran numbers for KC Pet Project, and we saw a 15-25% increase in the number of dogs that came into the shelter in the days following the 4th of July. 

Kathy Pobloskie of Lost Dogs of Wisconsin noted a roughly 50% increase in lost dog reports during the week of July 2-8. 

Susan Taney of Lost Dogs Illinois cited roughly a 30% increase in lost dog reports during that same time period.

This year, Lost Dogs Illinois is reporting a 100% increase in lost dog reports following Independence Day -- from an average of 22 per day for the last 2 weeks of June to 44 per day during the first week of July.

In talking with shelter leaders and lost pets advocates that I know and respect from around the country, it seems that most report similar numbers -- numbers that indicate a pretty substantial increase in lost dogs surrounding the 4th of July Holiday -- usually not escalating to the level of straymagedon, but not inconsequential either.

And even a small increase in intake during the month of July (which is already the busiest month for shelters) is liable to make every additional intake a life or death situation as the high intakes in July have most shelters already busting at the seems with homeless pets.

So what is a shelter to do? 

Many good shelters are already doing a great job of taking to their websites, social media and even mainstream media about the importance of keeping pets contained during the "fireworks season" and the importance of having your pet up-to-date with their microchip and tags so in the event they DO get lost, they can be reunited with you quickly. If your organization is not doing this, you should definitely do so in your communities.

Meanwhile, another solution is to start making room in your shelter for the new pets by getting the pets that are there OUT before the 4th. For the 4th year in a row, KC Pet Project has hosted a major adoption event on July 4th to help get dogs OUT, before the new ones come in.

While many shelters close for the holiday, it is a day when most families are off work and have time to spend together -- and will often use the time to find a new pet. This has always been a very good adoption day for us, ranging from at least an average adoption day to our highest adoption day ever. (I think day-of-week of the holiday plays a big role in the success of the event). 

So instead of being closed while increased numbers of dogs are being scared into being lost -- KC Pet Project is OPEN -- getting animals out of the shelter to make room. 

And getting animals out, can at least reduce a bit of the sting of the animals coming in.

And finally, when you get lost pets in - -assume they are LOST and not stray. Take pictures, post them online and in social media and work to get them reunited with owners. It's the fastest, and best, way to get them out of the shelter. 

What is your organization doing to help diffuse 4th of July intakes?