American Animal Shelters: What I Believe

I first learned about the killing of healthy and treatable animals in our nation's "shelters" in the summer of 2006 when I had an unwelcome epiphany, thanks to the veterinarian who was the director of the tax-funded animal shelter in the city where I work. I was like most people back then. I though the only animals who died in shelters where those who were too sick or injured to save and the other animals were all reunited with their families, adopted into new homes or helped by rescue groups. I was wrong. The killing of healthy and treatable animals in our nation's shelters has continued for decades while the people doing the killing blame the deaths on "the irresponsible public" and on "pet overpopulation" while acting as though there is no other way to function. This awakening angered me so much that I began learning more about animal sheltering in America from those advocating for change and those leading the best performing shelters in the country. My education put me on a path I never expected and changed my life. I continue to learn new things to this day. Despite what some of my critics think, I am capable of admitting when I am wrong and I am capable of engaging in civil discourse with people who do not share all of my values.

The cure for the disease that is shelter killing has been known for almost 2 decades and is there for the taking: the No Kill Equation. I am a member of the No Kill movement and I am an unapologetic supporter of the No Kill Equation for one simple reason: it works. Shelters that have stopped killing healthy and treatable animals for space or convenience have not done that because all the irresponsible people moved away and were replaced by people who care more. The shift from ending lives to saving them is the result of a change in the culture at the shelter which embraces proven programs that reduce shelter intake, shorten the amount of time animals are in the shelter, help the public make better choices and still protect public safety.

I am bombarded every week by content from people who oppose the No Kill movement, promote the idea that shelters have no choice but to end the lives of animals and are more focused on how words are used than they are on the unnecessary deaths of animals that either were, or could have been, someone's beloved companion. Blogs. Social media posts. Media articles. I have historically spent a lot of time trying to reach out to these people, trying to start a conversation, only to find there was no conversation to be had in most cases. Some of these people are household names in our country (at least within animal welfare circles) and some are people who promote dangerous ideas online (like the photographer who administers a Facebook page called "Kill Shelters Care Too"). The reality is that large national animal welfare organizations - and people with lots of money or lots of followers - are heard the loudest. Folks like me in the trenches of animal welfare will never have the same reach and trying to connect with opponents individually is often of little value.

This blog is about what I believe. If you are open to the idea that shelter animals don't have to die, would not want your own healthy and treatable animal to be killed in a shelter, support reform of our nation's animal shelters or just want your tax dollars spent consistent with public values, I hope you will share my blog. I am happy to engage on these topics with anyone who is interested.

What I Believe

• I believe words have universal meanings and those meanings do not change for our convenience or based on location.
• I believe ending the life of an animal who is suffering or irremediably ill for reasons of mercy is euthanasia.
• I believe ending the lives of healthy and treatable animals is not euthanasia; it is killing them.
• I believe using the word euthanasia to describe destroying healthy and treatable animals in shelters devalues the lives of all animals we claim to value as a society.
• I believe most people are inherently good and want to do right by companion animals in our society.
• I believe most people who work in animal shelters mean well and most genuinely care for the well-being of the animals entrusted to their care.
• I believe tax-funded shelters exist primarily related to impounding animals running at large to promote public safety and those most progressive shelters have extended their missions to helping animals and helping people as a result of public demand.
  
• I believe that tax-funded animal shelters are not obligated to take owned animals absent a contract or law requiring them to do so and should only do so on a managed basis following surrender counseling to find alternatives to surrender of the animal.
  
• I believe that many people who write about issues related to animal shelters know little about why shelters actually exist and know little about the history of animal sheltering and animal welfare in the United States.

• I believe healthy and treatable animals are killed in tax funded animal shelters not due to "pet overpopulation" but due to shelter overpopulation (when there are too many animals in the shelter) and failure of shelter leadership to embrace proven programs to save lives.
• I believe people have a right to know how their tax dollars are used at their local animal shelter because they are paying for it and in many cases are blamed for it.
• I believe any animal shelter can stop killing healthy and treatable animals and embrace a new culture using the No Kill Equation in which there are no excuses for ending the lives of animals needlessly.
• I believe the No Kill movement has changed our society, taking it from one in which 16 to 17 million animals died in shelters each year in the 1970s to one in which adoption from shelters and rescues is increasing more consistent with the values of many people.
• I believe we have the No Kill movement to thank for the fact that less than 1 million animals now die in shelters each year.
• I believe the phrase No Kill describes a shelter in which animals who are suffering or irremediably ill are euthanized and in which no healthy and treatable animals are killed.
• I believe it is appropriate to call a shelter that saves the lives of all healthy and treatable animals a No Kill shelter.
• I believe it is appropriate to call a shelter that kills healthy and treatable animals a kill shelter; I personally tend to use a double negative instead, saying "it is not a No Kill shelter."
• I believe it is never appropriate to describe the people who lead or work in kill shelters killers or murders because it is never appropriate to personalize the action to the actor; doing so is inflammatory.
• I believe many people who defend or excuse the killing of healthy and treatable animals in shelters (called shelter apologists) do so because they do not want to fall out of favor with the shelter or because they have a form of cognitive dissonance.

• I believe the vast majority of people who claim a No Kill shelter is one that saves 90% of animals have no concept of the source of that number or how it has been co-opted for the sake of fundraising or deception.
• I believe some national organizations that put themselves forth as champions of animal welfare spend very little of their millions to actually help shelters or shelter animals and are instead self-perpetuating, money making operations.
• I believe many shelters use the phrase No Kill to gain public favor while warehousing or neglecting animals (behavior that is criminal) causing some people to declare the No Kill movement as a whole is harmful to animals.
• I believe many shelters use deceptive methods of calculating shelter statistics to make it look like more animals were saved than actually were, again to gain public favor.
• I believe the challenges created during the pandemic and by a changing economy created opportunities to demonstrate the DIY genius of the Equation by modifying programs to address the problems people have related to their pets - animal problems are ultimately people problems.
• I believe some ideas put forth during the pandemic by former leaders in the No Kill movement harmed the movement as a whole as those people tried to shift responsibility away from tax-funded shelters and onto rescue groups and the public.
  
• I believe shelters that refuse to impound dogs found running at large by Good Samaritans, requiring the finder to foster the dog or let it go, are promoting abandonment of dogs (which is illegal when done by the public) and are failing in their public safety mission.
  

• I believe we can, in fact, adopt our way out of killing healthy and treatable shelter animals.
• I believe millions of people will acquire a new animal in any given year whether the source is a shelter, a rescue group, a pet store, a breeder, from someone they know or by finding an animal running loose and keeping that animal when no owner is located.
• I believe enough people acquire a new animal in any given year to end the killing of healthy and treatable pets in American animal shelters; this is not an issue of not enough homes, it is a market share issue.
• I believe sharing our lives with companion animals is good for our physical, emotional and mental well-being as they provide unconditional love and support often lacking in our relationships with other people.
• I believe people of limited means - including unhoused people - are worthy of sharing their lives with companion animals even if that means receipt of some form of assistance to help them (vaccinations, pet food, veterinary care).
• I believe most people in BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) communities primarily acquire pets through family and friends, often resulting in unaltered animals (source James Evans of CARE).
• I believe a 3% increase in pet adoption by people of color would give 2 million pets loving homes.
• I believe many animal shelters and rescue groups treat the public as the enemy who cannot be trusted with animals even when that means killing animals instead of placing them in homes.
• I believe many tax-funded animal shelters create barriers to reclaims and adoptions because they are only open when most people are at work or they openly discriminate toward the BIPOC community.
• I believe policies designed to punish people require resources to enforce (time, money, personnel, etc.) and we do better to use those same resources to help people instead.
• I believe access to affordable - or free - spay neuter is vital to any community reducing pet populations but that Mandatory Spay/Neuter (MSN) leads to more shelter intake.
• I believe some people who collect or hoard animals do so because they have a form of mental illness called "Noah Syndrome" which is a form of OCD; their behavior is criminal but is made worse by shelters that routinely threaten to end the lives of healthy and treatable animals.
• I believe rescue groups play a role in removing animals from shelters (as one element of the No Kill Equation) but cannot be expected to be the solution and carry the burden for municipal officials who are responsible for using tax dollars consistent with public values in their community.
  

So. That is what I believe based not on something I saw shared a dozen times on Facebook or because I have heard it so many times that I believe it to be true. These are some of my beliefs based on 2 decades of education and networking for the benefit of companion animals in my own community and across the country and for the benefit of people I believe want to do right by those animals. You are welcome to contact me if you have questions about this blog or want to learn more to advance your own education.