Well, I’m covered under in work, but ran across this blog this morning, and it “sparked” my curiosity, and then got me all riled up again. And you know I can’t keep my mouth shut when I’m riled up. Here is the link: http://oisforonward.com/2010/09/denial-aint-just-a-river-in-africa/ And THANK YOU!
No-Kill is becoming more visible by the day. More and more bloggers, more and more rescuers, more and more people who simply love animals and work on their behalf, are picking up on it AND sharing it. More importantly, and more encouragingly, it is being blogged in POSITIVE light. Sure, we’ve talked about “No-Kill” for years, or more accurately, “THEY” have talked about it…about how it doesn’t work and have resorted to attacking the messenger in the person of Nathan Winograd. But sometimes, great paradigms evolve as a small, almost singular point of light, which continues to spread as it’s truth is revealed. We are watching the birth of a new paradigm.
This is my response to the wonderful blog above…
I also invite the world to start looking at a “little” municipal shelter in Plano, TX. They are a beacon for success in our area, and I don’t think anyone even knows about them. They have placement rates consistently in the 80 percentiles, year round…had over 50,000 people through the shelter last year, and had 8,000 volunteer hours. They have a clean, bright, happy facility, and just added a new addition to the shelter, a surgical suite and additional kenneling, and are making improvements in the outside areas around the shelter, so that several different, safe, enclosed, play yards can be provided, including those under shelter. It is happy place.
I think there are many shelters out there, unknown, unappreciated…that are doing fabulous work in our communities…and probably doing IT without any knowledge of “No-Kill” philosophy or Nathan Winograd per se. Plano is a community of approximately 275,000 people, and has a municipal, open-admission shelter, that receives it’s budget through Code Compliance, which in some cities is a HUGE problem since animal services are treated in much the fashion tall weeds and condemned buildings. Plano is just more proof of how something CAN still be successful, even when in other cities, it is a huge detriment. There is not one-size-fits-all for “No-Kill”. That is the beauty of “No-Kill” as Nathan has provided. Each community has the latitude in which to design and custom fit “No-Kill” within their community, as long as the basic framework is laid as the foundation. ”No-Kill” can work in a variety of environments. When it worked in San Francisco, that was “explained away” as an anomaly…and the inference as to why was based on bigotry and prejudice. Everywhere it was successful, there was a reason why it worked “there”, but a plethora of rantings would naturally follow as to why it couldn’t work in the mainstream. Well, a lot of those little “creeks” and “ditches” are draining into the “main stream”, folks.
I don’t care what they “call” it in Plano…but it works. The manager, Jamey Cantrell, stated that killing for “space” is an extremely rare occurrence (about a dozen animals last year) and one which they strive to completely end. They had ONE case of disease, a case of kennel cough, which was treated, and the animal placed. They have a state-of-the-art “green” shelter, with a highly efficient air recycling system, and a highly qualified, and highly motivated staff, AND volunteer corp. The animals are bathed, groomed, socialized, even trained by volunteers when available, and even cared for with injuries or minor conditions, AND placed. They even have donors, groups AND individuals, and veterinarians that will care for the serious cases that come in, IF their long term prognosis is good, and if good quality of life can be reasonably expected. Even dogs which are hit, or are heartworm positive, have hope in this shelter.
In addition, we have several other communities in the area that are seeing their placement rates increase significantly…Lewisville, Carrollton, Flower Mound. And many shelters in the area, are now beginning to place MORE than they kill. Perhaps not “flagship” status yet…but we are moving in the right direction as a region (DFW) if shelters in the area are beginning to place more than we kill. And I think once a shelter “tastes” success it becomes “addictive” and spurs them on to greater success. And when there is success, when there is a “feeling” of good, then the community will be drawn to help as well…and the success continues even further. NONE of this success can take place without the support of the public, to HELP AND to ADOPT! But NO ONE is drawn to dark, depressing environments, to work, or to access a new pet. Shelters that understand and invite their communities to be part of the solution, find that most communities WILL volunteer. And offer their suggestions. When volunteers are perceived as “snoops”, or as potential “hoarders”, or as an “opponent”…well, guess what…they won’t help. Which in some cases, in some shelters…I strongly believe is the intent. I don’t believe placement is the goal in too many shelters. I think maintaining the status quo is the goal. But I think the tide is turning, because for every successful shelter we KNOW about…I think there are FAR MORE we don’t know about…that just go about their work, and do it well.
How many of these stories do you hear? There’s a LOT of good going on out there.
And then, there remain the hell holes, the equivalent of the inquisition, the literal torture chambers, where cats starve in walls of the shelter, where a cat is removed from the night drop with a catchpole, breaking it’s jaw, tearing flesh from it’s legs, tearing out it’s nails, and bursting the blood vessels in it’s eyes, and where ACOs are called to accident scenes, where a dog with mutiple breaks in both rear legs, it approached by the ACO, who first forces the dog to try to walk, and when it cries, pulls it up by the rear fur, and when that has no success, drags the dog to the truck with a catchpole. Until the police officer on the scene takes over, and transports the dog. AND REPORTS the ACO. Yes, the Dallas Animal Shelter. $17.3 million dollars BOUGHT WITH TAXPAYER’S MONEY less than three years ago… It was touted as one of the FLAGSHIP shelters in the country. Totally “green”, wastewater recycling (doesn’t work), complete air reclamation/recycling (doesn’t work), surgical theater to inexpensively spay/neuter all outgoing animals (?????), air-conditioning hasn’t worked most of the summer (several reports of over-heated and extremely uncomfortable animals…big fans were brought in…), drains in the floors in several areas of the building have never worked…and it goes on and on…those are just the highlights. And then couple that with the above acts, all of which occurred within weeks of each other…and you have yourself some kind of “FLAGSHIP”!
However, those of you that know me, know that I’m a very positive person, and that I hate ending stories on a anything but a happy note…so here we go…from the Humane Society of North Texas, just this past week… link:
“Today we celebrated 105 years of life.
At a quiet but happy luncheon, our September numbers were reported. For the first time in HSNT’s 105 year history, we are running out of adoptable animals. Simultaneously, euthanasia numbers are at a historic low. Never before in the entire history of the Humane Society of North Texas have we faced the dilemma of “not enough adoption animals.”
Halleluia!