Honest Definitions of No-Kill
The No-Kill Advocacy Center -
Some shelters have adopted the rhetoric but not the programs of No-Kill. As a result, they are using "temperament testing" to deem dogs
unadoptable and make their statistics look better.
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The MaxFund - is a true no-kill shelter. There is no
pre-sorting of animals into "adoptable" and "non-adoptable"
categories, discarding the so-called "unadoptable." The MaxFund
takes every animal it has the space for.
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Animal People News - The no-kill
concept had already won the battle for public opinion decades before
no-kill sheltering existed on any significant scale. Dogcatchers were a
familiar film villain even before animated cartoons and “talking
pictures” were invented.
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Best Friends Society - There
has often been a certain tension between traditional humane societies
that are involved in euthanizing the animals they receive into their
care, and the growing no-kill movement.
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Maddie's Fund -
The history of
no-kill goes back more than half a century when independent caregivers
began rescuing and sheltering homeless animals with the intention of
keeping them alive. This was in reaction to the standard operating
procedure of most humane societies and tax-supported animal control
services that killed stray and abandoned animals.
Read
more >>
Richard Avanzino -
Richard Avanzino has had a major
influence on the nation's animal welfare movement. As president of the
San Francisco SPCA from 1976 to 1999, Avanzino led San Francisco to
become the first (1994) city and county in the nation to offer an
adoption guarantee for every healthy shelter cat and dog. The vast
majority of the city's sick and injured shelter animals were saved as
well. In 1998, Avanzino revolutionized animal sheltering with the
opening of Maddie's Pet Adoption Center, the first facility in the
country in which cats and dogs awaiting adoption were housed in cozy
home-like settings rather than cages.
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At the opposite
end of the range is Monterey County Animal Control in California,
who expands the term 'unadoptable" to any animal it fails to find a home
for! "The way the law reads is you can euthanize any unadoptable animal,
but it also allows each shelter to come up with its own definition of
''unadoptable.'' We are going to define ''unadoptable'' animals as
animals that are not going to a home." Many would disagree with this
extraordinary interpretation which ignores state law and begs for a
legal challenge by shelter reformists.
Read more >>
Tails A Waggin -
Many shelters are classified as 'no-kill' and this has
been a controversial term ever since
shelters were
created. It divides people and has become the
center of many debates. Many believe that this
cannot be practiced humanely.
Tails a' Waggin is a 'no-kill' shelter. We follow the
following criteria to meet this classification:
* We never kill an animal, except for a humane reason
such as pain and suffering. We will do
everything
possible to treat the animal and try to save the
animal regardless of expense.
* We will never transfer an animal to another shelter or
facility that euthanizes animals for any
other reason than
those mentioned above.
Read more >>
Wikipedia - No-kill Shelters are a type of
animal shelter with an anti-euthanasia policy for the animals they
house. The most widely accepted definition of a no-kill shelter is a
place where all adoptable and treatable animals are saved and where only
unadoptable or non-rehabilitatable animals are euthanized. Humane
societies and SPCAs often euthanize pets because they cannot find homes
for them. In 1994, the City of San Francisco originated the current
trend towards "No Kill" shelters. The San Francisco SPCA guaranteed a
home to every healthy dog and cat who entered the shelter system.
However, the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control
euthanizes many dogs and cats. In 2001, Tompkins County, New York became
the second community in the nation to adopt this policy. And in 2002,
Tompkins County went one step further by saving 100% of sick and injured
treatable animals and 100% of feral cats. It repeated this in 2003,
becoming the community with the lowest per capita euthanasia rate in the
United States. Nathan J. Winograd is the former Executive Director of
the Tompkins County SPCA and Director of Operations for the San
Francisco SPCA. He has created successful No Kill programs in both urban
and rural communities, and his organization, No Kill Solutions is often
hired to help communities transition to No Kill. Italy outlaws the
euthanasia of healthy companion animals and controls stray populations
through trap, neuter and release programs (TNR).
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No-Kill Animal Association, Lethbridge - The current band-aid
solution to overpopulation is that many “excess” pets are killed. More
“upstream” measures, such as mandatory sterilization, are not in place
to control the burgeoning companion animal population. A question of
morals and responsibility: Is killing the most humane and responsible
way to control the pet population?
Read more >>
Alley Cat Allies -
Are you looking for the most
humane, cost-effective solution to the endless numbers of feral cats
brought into your facility? Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only way to
effectively bring down the numbers of feral cats in your community, in
both the short-and long-term.
Read more >>
Animal Ark - What no kill
really means. In her article, Ms. Dixon writes that "Many people don't
realize that 'no-kill' does not mean 'no-euthanasia'." In writing this,
Ms. Dixon seems to confuse the act of killing for convenience
("killing") and humanely ending the life of a terminally ill pet
("euthanasia"). In my experience, any responsible "no-kill" organization
believes in the later and not the former. It probably shouldn't have to
be said, but it is important for animal shelters to understand the
difference between those two things. Dixon
suggests that the only way for an animal shelter to help an animal is to
take it in. But, in many cases, what an animal needs may not be
available at an animal shelter. Feral cats are a great example.
Read more >>
Declaration of the No Kill Movement in the
United States - No Kill sheltering models, based on innovative,
non-lethal programs and services, have already saved the lives of tens
of thousands of animals. But instead of embracing No Kill, many
shelters—and their national agency allies—cling to their failed models
of the past, models that result in the killing of millions of dogs and
cats in U.S. shelters every year.
Read more
>>
Dr Craig Bestrup - First, there's a basic discrepancy between
the words and the actions of a "full service" shelter. Animal welfarists
commonly speak of the preciousness - the intrinsic value - of animals'
lives. Yet their shelters are the place where healthy animals are daily
killed, and people bring animals there knowing this. This leads to
diminished credibility and effectiveness in the shelters' education
programs.
Read more >>
