 Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet. So it is with a bouquet of animal welfare initiatives that are blooming all over the United States.
Call them part of the "no-kill movement". Say they are initiatives to make sure there are "no more homeless pets". Or, take a whole different approach and label them something like "Mission: Orange". In a way, it doesn't really matter. What does matter is that all of these programs and initiatives, being launched and run by the best and the brightest the animal welfare movement has to offer, share a common vision and goal: to end the unnecessary killing of healthy, adoptable companion animals in animal shelters. More importantly, they are achieving spectacular results.
In years past, before programs such as these were implemented, in what now seems like the dark stone age of the animal welfare movement, animal shelters in the United States routinely destroyed about 17 million dogs and cats every year for want of homes. In the late 1977, when Animal Ark was formed, hardly anyone in the country had heard of a no-kill shelter. That was because virtually all major shelters of the day had policies and practices that stemmed from their often duel functions of private animal shelters and municipally-funded impound centers. Their policies and practices were often more focused on issues like rabies control than animal welfare.
While many animal shelters in those days seemed perfectly comfortable trying to serve two very different masters, others were not. As early as 1978, Richard Avanzino, who was then the Executive Director of the San Francisco SPCA, had published articles questioning the organization's "open admission" policy. Then, in 1984, he announced that the San Francisco SPCA planned to terminate their contract with the City of San Francisco. The SPCA would no longer serve as the municipal impound center. The SPCA believed they could better advocate for the welfare of animals if they were not also serving as the local dog pound.
The San Francisco SPCA was widely criticized by other animal welfare organizations when they did this. However, looking back more than twenty years later, that decision helped launch what became known as the "no-kill"movement, a grass-roots collection of initiatives launched all over the United States that, collectively, have already reduced the number of unnecessary shelters deaths by more than two thirds. Not only that, the City of San Francisco quickly became one the safest communities in the United States for pets as the SPCA set out to reduce the flow of animals into animal shelters.
 They saw pet overpopulation in their community like an overflowing bath tub - with the faucet still running. Humane societies had been trying to bail out the tub each year, by destroying surplus pets. They had failed, however, to turn down the faucet that was dumping water into the tub. San Francisco SPCA, and others that followed, got busy turning down the faucet.
A whole new approach to animal sheltering was taking form throughout the 1990's, with outstanding leaders at organizations like Best Friends Animal Society, Maddie's Fund, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, the Richmond SPCA and others, animal welfare organizations across the nation began understanding - and documenting - what needs to be done to solve the pet overpopulation problem. The solution, it turns out, is not rocket science. Humane organizations need to implement programs focusing on reducing the numbers of animals entering animal shelters, increasing adoptions from animals shelter, increasing the numbers of lost pets reunited with their owners, and educating the public about the need for these programs. The success of this simple formula has been proven in city after city across the country.
In 1994, San Francisco officially ended the killing of healthy dogs and cats in shelters and impound centers. In 1995, they set out to guarantee the life of any pet, even if they were sick, injured, orphaned, or needed behavior training. They quickly became the city in the country with the lowest kill-rate for companion animals.
With successes like that, you may think that humane societies would have flocked to San Francisco to learn what they were doing. But they didn't.
Nathan Winograd from the No Kill Advocacy Center explained that when the City of San Francisco virtually ended the killing of healthy, adoptable pets at shelters and impound centers, many organizations in the country ridiculed the very programs that achieved these results.
"They denigrated it," said Winograd. "They tried to say it was all smoke and mirrors that we [the San Francisco SPCA] were killing animals in the middle of the night. HSUS and ASPCA both said our approach couldn't work."
But, more than a decade later, other organizations are changing.
Most recently, the ASPCA announced the launch of Mission: Orange, a program designed to create model humane communities in Austin, TX, Philadelphia, PA, Tampa, FL,Gulfport-Biloxi, MS and New York, NY. Modeling their efforts after the outstanding work done by the Richmond SPCA in Richmond, VA, who saw a reduction in the surplus pet population community-wide of more that 41% in 1 year, following the organization's transition to a "no-kill" operation model.
Thanks to the ground-breaking work of outstanding leaders in humane organizations around the country, in communities of all sizes and types, we now know what is needed to solve the pet overpopulation problem. The formula is well-documented and tangible.
Humane organizations need to implement large-scale feral cat programs. They need spay/neuter assistance programs for pets living in their communities. They also need to report their "euthanasia" statistics in a clear and transparent way, so that members of the community can understand the problem.
Call it the "no kill movement", the drive to ensure there are "no more homeless pets", or "Mission: Orange", it doesn't really matter. The momentum with which this new humane movement is growing is inspiring.
Shakespeare was right. A rose by another name smells just as sweet. It is wonderful to watch this beautiful bouquet blooming across the country. |  | Related Links:
Best Friends Animal Society
No More Homeless Pets
ASPCA
The No-Kill Advocacy Center
Maddie's Fund
Richmond SPCA
San Francisco SPCA
Minnesota Homes for All Pets |