Archives for No-kill category
This week, there was an amazing article in Forbes Magazine.
They published “15 Key Insights From 2011 From 15 Key Thinkers And Writers.”
Here’s insight number 8:
“Most people assume that the ASPCA, one of the largest and most well-funded animal-rights groups in the world, who profess to prevent cruelty to animals, would be all for advocating that homeless cats and dogs not be killed at animal shelters. Not so. A big eye opener: The ASPCA has actively fought to prevent cities from establishing no-kill shelters and aggressively fights bills proposed in local city councils that aim to reduce the number of innocent animals being killed. Another shocker? PETA, does too. The true protectors of animals are not the bureaucracy-rich animal rights organizations, but smaller groups and individuals. Nathan Winograd, author of Redemption, and Stanford-law-educated ex-criminal prosecutor and corporate attorney, is the founder of a growing no-kill-shelter movement—and gets my vote for most important intellectual this year. His no-kill actions challenge the status quo by thinking beyond the box. He’s developed a creative and realistic plan that many cities are successfully using to save most of their homeless animals. New York City’s ACC, who murders hundreds of cats and dogs each week needs to reform and implement his ideas.”
What does this mean to us? To those of us in the trenches of the no-kill movement?
Simple.
It means that OUR views, our passion, and our belief that no kill is not only the right path for all shelters, but that it is the ONLY path, is no longer some small grassroots movement and idyllic philosophy.
The fact that Forbes would publish such a statement means that we have now entered the “mainstream media” (Ryan Clinton’s words). This article means much more than the statement it presented to the public. This article means that the mainstream media is not looking upon our movement as a small bunch of crazy radicals. Instead we are being taken seriously, we are being discussed, talked about, and written about, and that they look at Nathan’s book and his ideas and his statements as true, factual and realistic.
My friends, this is absolutely pivotal. Read the rest of this entry »
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No-kill by kerry on Dec 14, 2011. There are comments.
So all over the nation the no-kill movement is growing and growing and growing. Building momentum. More and more people are getting involved, not accepting the status quo (that they “have to die, there are no other options“), and putting an end to the killing in their neighborhoods. BSL is being fought, kill shelters are frowned upon, TNR is supported and good is conquering evil.
Each day, each week, each month, we hear more and more success stories. We learn more about the good that people are doing and we watch as the “evil-doers” are verbally and legally attacked by their community for their killing. People flooding meetings to standing-room-only status, bringing law suits against their shelters, and standing up for what is right and good. No longer backing down, but fighting to save lives. The “bad” is no longer covered up, but put out there with the press covering it, blogs light up across the internet with “do you believe this?? SIGN THIS PETITION”.
We rejoice that you are no longer tolerating it.
Good for you.
However it still seems that tiny people with small minds and with a wee bit of “power” are out there abusing it and trying to use it to do harm. Old-style shelter directors, animal hating animal control officers, town officials, co-op board members that seem to have nothing better to do than to continue to try to kill animals that their own communities want to protect and save.
On Tuesday we will be going to court to fight just such a situation. Let me tell you about it.
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Filed in
Legislation,
No-kill by kerry on Sep 25, 2011. There are comments.
I was wading through the hundreds of surrender requests we get each week. Almost none of them were dogs with no issues. Most of them had some sort of major aggression issue, or behavior issue, or were court ordered dangerous dogs, or had severe separation anxiety. Sigh. It is emotionally exhausting some days to read through them and I want to ask them all “why didn’t you address this behavior when it first started”? Why do so many people let it get to THIS point before looking to abandon the dog, when a little ounce of prevention could have been worth a hundred pounds of me taking their dog?
The no issue dogs are no brainers, we can take them in, even senior ones, but so many of our requests are nothing like that and each day I have to turn most of these people away. We are a sanctuary, yes, but we also adopt out about 2000 dogs between our two shelters each year. A percentage of them are, of course, going to come back over the years for various issues. So we will always have a source for these dogs that need a place to go and we always commit to our own dogs for life – that they will ALWAYS have space here and a safe place to go.
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No-kill by kerry on Sep 13, 2011. There are comments.
You ever read the newspaper and read about these dog fighting rings being broken up? Police or Animal Control moves in and breaks up the ring, arrest people, put a stop to it? We all rejoice. Yay. More scum put behind bars where they should be. More dogs taken from the terrible life they lived, the ONLY life they have ever known – a life of horror, terror, fear, abuse, misery and cruelty. Saved. Those dogs SAVED.
Well. I hate to burst your bubble.
No. Mostly they don’t get saved. FUTURE dogs may get saved from this fate by breaking up these rings and putting the leaders behind bars (thank goodness), but the actual dogs involved – what happens to them?
Well. By and large they get euthanized.
Best Friends had to FIGHT tooth and nail and even go to court to save the lives of the Vick dogs. And recently in NYC over a dozen dogs were taken to the CACC and the owners arrested and all but one was euthanized.
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No-kill by kerry on Jul 16, 2011. There are comments.
So we were able to get Oreo’s Law put forth again to the Agricultural Committee (Thank you Micah Kellner).
This is just the first step of getting this bill passed.
Truly none of us felt it would be a problem, initially, to get it through this first committee. It was later we thought we’d have the true battle. But we underestimated the ASPCA – they have done this before, we were neophytes. They recognized that the best way to make sure it never saw the light of day was to influence the first committee to can it…and they did. They didn’t actually shut it down, they were just able to get it “tabled”, which meant that months ago they just all agreed NOT to vote on it until next session.
So in that time, we estimate that 16,629 number of animals have died in New York Shelters as a result.
Well here we are again.
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Legislation,
No-kill by kerry on Feb 11, 2011. There are comments.
You all know that Pets Alive often goes head to head with shelters that are still practicing archaic policies that result in the killing of perfectly healthy and adoptable dogs and cats.
Everyone knows by now about our experience with the ASPCA as we tried to save Oreo, a dog that suffered a life of cruelty and brutality. She was thrown off a six story building, had surgery, recovered, and then was killed by the ASPCA – even though we agreed to take her here.
We then went after the Jersey Shore Animal Center for their ridiculous policy of killing all FIV+ kittens and cats. We all know FIV+ cats can live perfectly normal and happy lives. It is also VERY difficult to spread, and kittens who test positive, often test negative for the disease after a retest once they are six months old.
We have gone after hoarders, the CACC, publicly denounced shelter directors that kill animals rather than take alternate options for them. We fight against archaic policies that result in animal deaths and we argue with shelters that want to kill dogs and cats rather than develop programs to help them get adopted.
We don’t just FIGHT and yell though. We work with shelters that WANT help and we try to take in their overflow, show them how to develop programs to get more adoptions, we help train their staff and we give them our policies, adoption contracts – anything that can help them get on their feet and stop the killing.
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No-kill by kerry on Jan 29, 2011. There are comments.
Ok…so when I wonder why Reno can save 94% of the animals that come through their doors, why Philly and Charlotte are making great strides toward becoming no-kill, why we can add Austin and Las Vegas and so many other cities to that list of places where no-kill is more of a reality than a dream, we have New York City…where Maddie’s Fund and the ASPCA have poured more than $20 million into making NYC No-kill, and Jane Hoffman hangs on by her fingernails to keep the Mayor’s Alliance deciding who will live or die needlessly while moving the goalposts of when New York will become No-Kill every year from 2008 to 2010 to 2012 now 2015.
The No-Kill Conference was overflowing with people who have actually DONE it…actually taken their major city or metropolitan area from killing animals to NOT killing animals. One of my favorite parts of the No-Kill Conference was Nathan Winograd (“New York doesn’t NEED a Nathan Winograd” – Jane Hoffman) asking speaker after speaker “After you decided not to kill animals anymore, how long did it take to become no kill.” This confused most of the people he asked. “Uh…it was instant.” “One day.” “That same day.”
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Filed in
Animal Rescue,
No-kill by Admnistrator on Aug 12, 2010. There are comments.
I”m home. After I velcro my dogs off me and take a shower I settle down in front of my computer to really go over the emails I have received while I was gone. While we’re away Kerry and I always have our BlackBerrys and our laptops, but we only answer the urgent and emergency emails and trust that Jenessa and Janet can handle the uglies that pop up back home.
I left the conference with the same familiar feeling…so honored and proud to have the privilege of working on this team and an overwhelming sense that we need to do more.
This time was no different, except that we arrived home with four cats from the DC shelter and a sweet, precious little girl with a shattered pelvis from the Baltimore shelter. She followed us home. Really. Kerry’s email to staff had me roaring…”Ok. Look. We’re coming home with four cats and a dog that needs rehab and/or medical attention. And one of the cats may be sick. None have heartworm tests and aren’t spayed or neutered. Before you say anything just shut up.” We are total saps. We arrived after hours and of course Janet and Jen and Juan stayed to make sure we got in and the animals got attention.
They will, of course, have all their tests and get altered and shake whatever they may have before they go on to their forever homes, happy and healthy.
Being at the conference allowed Kerry and I to talk with other people who do what we do, face the same problems we face, make the same mistakes we make. We love it. We love it when other shelters invite us in, other organizations ask to come see us, people who are starting sanctuaries ask for our advice. We learn from all of it, and if we take even ONE thing from the sessions and the one-on-one conversations we are thrilled. I know at one point I ran out of paper from taking notes, and my mind is still spinning from all the great stuff that was flying around in my head that whole time.
Advocating a no-kill position can be difficult and dangerous, and makes you a target for other people’s guilt, indifference and ignorance.
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No-kill by Admnistrator on Aug 08, 2010. There are comments.
So I’m here in Washington, DC at the No-Kill Conference put on by The No-Kill Advocacy group, and I’m listening and talking to mostly like-minded people. I, of course, have an overwhelming feeling of pride and feel fortunate that you all have given us the resources to be where we are at this point in time.
Oreo’s Law is a huge topic of conversation here, and we’ve learned a lot from it. “The Movement.” I didn’t realize I was part of the movement until Paul Berry used those words at Pets Alive in 2007, which seems so far in the past when I look at it now.
It’s never really been a “movement” to me. I’ve always seen it as a simple recognition of our moral responsibility toward companion animals. We have a moral obligation to each and every one, and we should not allow anything to get in the way of that. Pets Alive has been successful because that is the overriding tenet that controls everything we do.
There were four people speaking here today that really connected with me personally. Really touched me deeply and really helped me to understand that this is truly a movement in the purest sense. It’s a shift in ideas, in foundations, in manners of thinking and acting. And that’s what we’re witnessing.
We don’t have to kill adoptable animals. That is something that all of us respect, understand, and appreciate. Even the ASPCA, which has put itself out there as the kill shelter poster organization because of their words and actions, pays lip service to the idea that killing should be a last resort.
We all believe this. It is part of our core and flows logically from the stuff inside of us we call our morality. There can be no moral equivalence for death, which is a nice way of saying we don’t throw around the phrases “fate worse than death” or “better off dead.”
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No-kill,
Why we do this by Admnistrator on Aug 01, 2010. There are comments.
Just wanted to update everyone on what’s going on.
We are currently waiting for the vet from the Jersey Shore Animal Center to examine the kittens and determine if they are too sick to live.
Our attorney is going to get in touch with their attorney in the next day or so.
Other attorneys are getting involved and there will probably be a lawsuit.
Pat Wallace, their Executive Director, is a liar. My impression of their board is that they are weak and don’t challenge what Ms. Wallace says. Been there. It never ends well. Ms. Wallace is an arrogant tyrant who views animals as “her property.” Here’s what she said to one of our supporters:
“they are our property and we have rules.” I replied that considering them property may be the problem. She also said that the woman who found them should have done her research prior to dropping them off.
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Filed in
Animal Rescue,
No-kill by Admnistrator on Jul 29, 2010. There are comments.