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August 7, 2019
DACC is Redefining Care
I
am pleased to announce that DACC has adopted the term “Socially Conscious Animal Sheltering”
(SCAS) to describe its animal care philosophies and procedures. SCAS is a new
term being used by forward-thinking animal welfare organizations in a
response to the misleading terminology and negative consequences of “no-kill”
philosophies and practices.
The
term “no-kill” is poorly defined and misunderstood by many members of the
public. The term itself implies that a 100% live release rate (LRR) of
animals is achieved, but that is not accurate. “No-Kill” proponents
proclaim that a 90% LRR means an animal shelter can be labeled “no-kill”, but
there is no data to support this as a justifiable measurement. It is
simply a number chosen by “no-kill” proponents without any basis in
meaningful and objective longitudinal studies of animal shelter statistics.
While one national organization recently released a “dashboard” of statistics
for animal shelters throughout the country, it is fraught with errors and
cannot be relied upon. People investigating this topic must be educated
readers who closely analyze the information provided.
The
“no-kill” movement’s use of the LRR for animals as a measure of success fails
to consider various key factors. These include, but are not limited to:
- The adoptability of incoming
animals such as aggressive dogs, feral cats, and irremediably suffering
or terminally ill animals;
- The resources of the animal
sheltering agency to provide intervention and rehabilitation services;
- The household income and
population transiency of pet owners in the community, including the
increasing numbers of pet owners experiencing homelessness;
- Pets that are at the ends of
their lives and whose owners surrender them for humane euthanasia
because the owners cannot afford to seek this service at a veterinary
hospital;
- Low cost resources available
to assist pet owners.
Blaming
or shaming animal welfare agencies for circumstances beyond their control is
unreasonable and has caused great disharmony in the animal welfare field.
However, using the “no-kill” label have been an unbelievable fundraising
success for both national and local organizations. Adopting
“no-kill” has also been used as the easier response by both local government
agencies and private organizations to community activists, rather than doing
the difficult work of delving through the multifaceted issues surrounding the
care for unwanted animals. Like any social cause, animal sheltering is a
complex issue that cannot be explained away with a polemic slogan.
Many
“no-kill” practices have created a number of negative consequences in order
to meet the artificially established 90% live release rate of animals
established by its proponents. These include:
- Refusing admissions to
animals they cannot subsequently offer for adoption, thereby denying
these animals a safe haven from abandonment or neglect. This practice
results in animal abandonment and suffering, and threats to public and
animal safety because dangerous animals are not removed from the
community;
- Delaying admission through
waiting lists for space availability or reduction of hours of operation,
intentionally making it difficult for the community to bring in stray or
owned animals, resulting in animal abandonment;
- Refusing to accept cats that
are unwanted in the community, or re-abandoning the cats to fend for
themselves. While trap-neuter-return programs can be successful in the
context of saving cats’ lives, they require intensive management to
maintain humane conditions for the cats. Simply abandoning cats without
thorough and consistent support is inhumane and possibly illegal. There
are also significant negative consequences for native wildlife that are
preyed upon by outdoor cats. We should care about ALL animals in our
communities, including wildlife, and not dismiss their well-being to
serve a statistic.
- Refusal to euthanize animals
in the shelters, creating severe overcrowding, behavioral trauma,
disease outbreaks, animal attacks, and complaints of animal abuse and
neglect. A number of “no-kill” shelters have been cited by local
authorities for failing to provide humane environments for their
animals. Some have been taken over by national organizations to resolve
serious disease and neglect situations.
- Releasing dangerous dogs for
adoption into the community in order to meet the statistical live
release goals, seriously jeopardizing public and animal safety. It is a
sad reality that some dogs, through genetics or other factors, simply
cannot safely coexist in our society. Many of their victims are other
animals. Don’t we care about protecting these potential victims from horrible
and violent deaths caused by dangerous dogs?
- Increased budgetary needs of
more than five times the original budget in order to pay for staff and
programs to strive for a no kill status. In a time where government
budgets are stretched thin and nonprofit donations are dropping, finding
the gargantuan resources to respond to this demand is not sustainable.
Many
animal welfare organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals (PETA) have expressed deep concern over the negative results of
“no-kill” practices. The Colorado Veterinary Medical Association has taken a
strong opposition to “no-kill” because of the harm its practices have caused.
For
these reasons and others, the Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC)
has instead adopted the SCAS term for expressing its operating principles.
SCAS strives to create the best outcome for all animals by treating them
respectfully and alleviating their suffering. The mission is to maximize live
outcomes for animals, while also balancing animal well-being and public
safety. Fundamental goals of SCAS are provided through DACC and its seven
animal care centers to:
- Ensure
every unwanted or homeless pet has a safe place to go for shelter and
care. DACC care centers will not
turn away animals in need of protection and care.
- Making
every healthy and safe animal available for adoption. DACC will not offer for adoption animals that are
irremediably suffering or dangerous to the community. Shelters that do
so create a public aversion to homeless pet adoption, making it more
difficult to achieve our missions.
- Assess the
medical and behavioral needs of homeless animals and ensure these needs
are thoughtfully addressed.
DACC, through its medical team and its animal behavior and enrichment
team, provides a holistic approach to ensuring each animal's needs are
properly addressed.
- Align DACC
policy with the needs of the community. DACC recognizes its responsibility to the public
trust, and ensures its programs and policies reflect and support this
obligation.
- Alleviate
suffering and make appropriate euthanasia decisions. DACC often accepts animals that are irremediably
suffering and cannot live without experiencing severe, unremitting pain
or other serious health challenges. In these situations, it is most
humane to relieve an animal's suffering with compassionate euthanasia.
- Consider
the health and wellness of animals for each community when transferring
animals. DACC participates in many
animal transport programs where animals are taken from DACC's care
centers to areas of the country that are experiencing a shortage of
shelter animals. These win-win programs save thousands of animal lives
each year. However, it is also important that animals transported
through these programs do not suffer from physical or behavioral defects
that could endanger animals or people in their new communities. DACC transferred
7,763 animals last fiscal year to low-intake animal shelters.
- Enhance
the human-animal bond through thoughtful placements and post-adoption
support. DACC works with potential
adopters to ensure animals they select are suitable matches for their
lifestyles, the adopter is able to properly care for and handle the
animal, and other factors to make certain the placement is successful.
DACC provides post-adoption support to adopters to ensure the placement
thrives.
- Foster a
culture of transparency, ethical decision-making, mutual respect,
continual learning, and collaboration. DACC remains committed to upholding the highest
ethical standards in meeting its mission of protecting people and
animals.
DACC’s
live release for dogs is 88%, and cat live release has increased from 26.5%
to 50.5% in the past five years. Through collaboration with strategic
partners, especially the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals (ASPCA), DACC has been able to greatly improve outcomes for animals
in its care.
Solely
relying on the LRR as a measure of success ignores many other factors. For
example:
- As animal ownership improves
in a community, fewer adoptable animals will be surrendered to the
animal shelter because they are all spayed or neutered and in permanent
homes. The only animals entering a shelter will be those that are truly
unadoptable (vicious, untreatable, etc.). In this scenario, the LRR will
drop to nearly zero because the only animals that arrive will in fact
require humane euthanasia. For this reason alone, using the LRR is
chasing a false target that will actually drop as the community solves
its unwanted animal problem.
- When we drive our cars, there
are many measurements that are important to ensure a safe journey.
Simply checking the fuel gauge ignores the oil level, tire pressure, and
other important indicators. Relying solely on the LRR ignores the health
of the animal population in the shelters, the average length of stay for
animals in the shelters, number of bites and attacks in the community,
and number of animals that died on the street. All of these, and more,
are important to evaluating a community’s approach to solving its animal
welfare issues.
The
term “no-kill” initially served a good purpose several decades ago to bring
to light the crises of animal euthanasia in our nation’s animal shelters.
However, animal sheltering has evolved tremendously since that time, and the
phrase “no-kill” cannot be used to describe or measure modern day animal
welfare best practices.
DACC
is committed to continuing our efforts through Socially Conscious Animal
Sheltering to save animals’ lives and protect our communities. Are you with
us?
For
more information about no-kill concerns, please see: PETA
For
an insightful commentary by spcaLA president Madeline Bernstein on this
topic, please see: spcaLA
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We have worked in concert with the National Canine Research Council (NCRC) and MILO Range, to create an evidenced based report , and an interactive training using a force option simulator.
