Defining No Kill Sheltering
August 27, 2012
Note: Like all posts on this blog, the following is representative of my opinions and not intended to represent the views of any shelter or other group.
Dahlia (ID #633902), an adoptable cat at Austin Animal Center in TX, as posted on Facebook.
What No Kill sheltering is about:
Saving every healthy pet who enters the shelter, regardless of arbitrary criteria such as age or body shape, by adopting them out, placing them with fosters or transferring them to rescue groups.
Saving every pet whose illness or injuries are treatable.
Saving every healthy/treatable feral cat.
Saving every healthy/treatable dog in need of behavioral modification unless -
(a) Rehabilitative efforts have failed as determined by a behaviorist and no sanctuary options exist OR
(b) A judge has deemed the dog too vicious to live with people.
Promptly and humanely euthanizing pets who are suffering and whose veterinarian determined prognosis for recovery is poor or grave.
Working with the general public, rescue groups, foster homes, sanctuaries, hospice groups and pet advocates to save pets’ lives.
Aggressive marketing of every pet in the shelter through such efforts as online postings, offsite adoption events and weekend shelter hours.
Maintaining transparency in shelter operations.
Providing environmental enrichment, socialization and exercise to all pets on a daily basis.
Following proven shelter protocols for disease prevention (e.g. vaccination upon intake, cleaning practices, quarantine, etc.)
What No Kill sheltering is not about:
Warehousing (aka “hoarding”) pets including such practices as:
- Leaving pets in cages 24/7
- Leaving pets in cages which haven’t been cleaned at least daily
- Failing to remove deceased pets from cages
- Failing to seek prompt veterinary care for pets in need
- Failing to provide clean food and water at least daily
- Failing to provide comfort items (soft bedding, etc.)
- Killing pets the shelter has been unable to sell
- Refusing volunteer assistance
Killing healthy/treatable pets, even if an owner requests the killing.
Threatening to kill healthy/treatable pets.
Allowing pets who are medically hopeless and suffering, as determined by a veterinarian, to continue suffering.
Manipulating numbers, skewing statistics or sharing otherwise false data with the public.
Hiding pet records, statistics or other basic information from the public.
Locking animals away from the public except those few who are in need of quiet recovery, as determined by a veterinarian.
Marketing only a selected portion of the pets at the shelter for adoption.
Requiring adopters to submit to unreasonable screening protocols or charging unreasonable fees for some or all pets at the shelter.
Unidentified kitten at the Edgecombe Co pound in NC.
August 27, 2012 at 9:16 am
BRILLIANT! Concise, accurate and very much welcomed as I move forward on the road to achieve No Kill in our area! Thanks, your timing could not have been better
August 27, 2012 at 9:20 am
Someone get that kitten outta there!
You nailed it, Shirley, again!
August 27, 2012 at 9:23 am
We are always being accused by some proponents of No Kill in our area that we are “hiding” animals in Foster homes ;-)
August 27, 2012 at 9:26 am
What would the benefit to a shelter of “hiding” pets in foster homes? I can’t think of anything.
August 27, 2012 at 1:15 pm
Well, we don’t really understand it either. But then again, who really understands No Kill proponents?
August 27, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Having once spoken with a no-kill opponent at a party awhile back – so this was no deep discussion, mind – I think maybe what’s meant is that because fostering is counted in the stats as live-release it ‘hides’ the total number of pets remaining within the system off-site. Since a large population of pets = ‘hoarding’ irrespective of their care & condition – not to mention the absence of actual hoarding disorder – it’s a bad, bad thing. Ergo, fostering is bad!
I think. I was wearing Bloody Mary goggles at the time.
August 28, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Peter, you mean ‘opponent’. :-)
August 27, 2012 at 9:23 am
Reblogged this on FixNC and commented:
I’m reblogging this YesBiscuit post as-is because it’s clears up so many misconceptions about what No Kill is and is not. I have discussions about this topic regularly because so many people mistakenly believe that No Kill means warehousing pets in cages or kennels forever, keeping suffering pets alive despite their pain or adopting out truly vicious dogs. In fact, all No kill means is not killing healthy or treatable (medically or behaviorally) pets by harnessing the compassion, energy and resources of your community to save them.
August 27, 2012 at 10:21 am
Paws up Lisa. So it begs the question – who would be against this and why? Follow the money trail.
January 24, 2013 at 1:38 am
While I would agree with YesBiscuits outline of what a no-kill shalter should and should not mean, i have to disagree somewhat in your assumption that such as Yesbiscuit’s list actually IS what can be assumed all or even most that identify themselves as no-kill shelters are like. You note conversations with people “uninformed” that ‘mistakenly” believe those ugly things, warehoused unplacable animals, hopelessly sick or injured animals being kept alive to suffer, adopting out dangerous or with other severe behavioral problems, or sick animals, but I think you are being unfair and unrealistic to and about them in their objections and concerns…just because no-kill shelters should or shouldn’t be, whatever, doesn’t mean that actually conform to those definitions or standards. Many do not. At least some ARE exactly what those objecting them beleive them to be. I’ve seen too many of those personally and know too many others that have, to not accept the reality of that.
August 27, 2012 at 6:52 pm
That last picture is awful. Thats a shelter?! Anyway, I completely agree w/ this post. It is a nice checklist for people to know/keep in mind in order to do the right thing. And it boggles the mind that we still have to have a “what it is not” (i.e. “getting dead animals out of cages”- Seriously?!) checklist in 2012..but then again, apparently we also have to redefine rape in 2012 also. :)
August 27, 2012 at 9:35 pm
I agree with Julia and Lisa: this is a wonderfully concise description of the topic, and if you’re like me, and tend to get tongue-tied when trying to deal with a tsunami of irrational BS coming at you from these morons, it might not be a bad idea to print this out and laminate it onto a pocket-sized card! How can anyone seriously dispute this argument?
August 27, 2012 at 11:29 pm
Well said and a great idea!
January 24, 2013 at 1:52 am
It occurs to me that since this forum is open to pretty much the whole country and maybe other countries, some may not realize that regulation and oversight of shelters, or even what can be called a shelter, vary WIDELY from state to state, even county to county. Here in Texas, out in unincorporated areas, not all those that raise those arguments are ‘morons’….such horrible conditions in so-called shelters are NOT hard to find down here.
August 27, 2012 at 11:18 pm
It is not getting to 90% just so you can call yourself No-Kill and raise more money.
September 21, 2012 at 12:16 am
Hey Shirley we are preparing our press release regarding the opening of a No Kill open admission county Shelter in GA and wanted your permission to borrow, alright I mean plagiarize some of your eloquent and practical terminology in our release. For example “Promptly and humanely euthanizing pets who are suffering and whose veterinarian determined prognosis for recovery is poor or grave.
Working with the general public, rescue groups, foster homes, sanctuaries, hospice groups and pet advocates to save pets’ lives.
Aggressive marketing of every pet in the shelter through such efforts as online postings, offsite adoption events and weekend shelter hours.
Maintaining transparency in shelter operations.
Providing environmental enrichment, socialization and exercise to all pets on a daily basis.
Following proven shelter protocols for disease prevention ”
This is on the front end. Also wanted your permission to state what no kill is NOT if any objections are made. Let me know asap.
Thanks in advance,
Ali
September 21, 2012 at 5:55 am
Happy to support the cause, Ali!
October 21, 2012 at 9:18 am
[...] made several posts on “Defining no kill sheltering“, on “A spate of oops-killings“, and, my favourite “Dear Shelters, You Can [...]
December 27, 2012 at 3:56 pm
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March 12, 2013 at 11:49 pm
Ideally I agree with you, but from my experience though the adoption demand isn’t high enough. In my opinion, State spay/neuter laws, like in New Mexico, need to be reenforced to lower the amount of captured strays. Animal control care quality typically depends largely on city taxes as well and then it becomes a question of what our economy can afford. Higher fines and stricter laws regarding spay/neuter and confinement are what’s effective, it means less pets in the shelters and the streets and the fines go to higher animal control care quality. Higher veterinary volunteers would help as well. The stray and unwanted pet population is too high for an effective non-kill system. When I used to work at a rescue shelter, the other non-kill shelters didn’t have enough room and were barely adopting out a percentage of what people were wanting to bring in. I studied wildlife biology and I worked at a rescue shelter, so the no kill way is ideal and what I’d like to see, but right now it’s just impossible. I would like to see it change someday.
March 13, 2013 at 8:08 am
State spay-neuter laws like in NM? Misinformation alert.
March 14, 2013 at 12:20 pm
It may just be the city of Albuquerque, apologies if I’m wrong. Point is something needs to be done.