We Are ALL No Kill

I call on every animal welfare individual, organization, group and association to stand together and simply say, post and remind everyone - we are all "no kill" - who isn't? Of course!

I saw an interview of one of the actors in The Handmaid's Tale, who was discussing new Georgia anti-abortion laws, as this show films in Georgia. She looked into the camera and said - "we are ALL pro-life. Who isn't?" (Serial killers excepted)  She went on to discuss that we have to care for all life, i.e. the mother, the rape victim, the doctors, and, of course starving children and vulnerable populations everywhere so as not to be hypocritical. Is letting a mother die or killing a doctor pro-life? Of course not.

The question is not are we pro-life, (pro-choice people are pro-life too), but rather how are we treating life? What choices do we make so we ensure all a good quality of life and prevent suffering?

 This is also a truth for those of us in the animal welfare business.

We are all "no kill". Whether one calls it Getting to Zero, Compassion Saves or Save Them All. The point is to rehabilitate and place all who can be into homes, and eliminate pain and suffering from those who can't be safely placed. To do so requires community trust, volunteers, legitimate rescue/help, and increased outlets for our pets to be seen. These terms have no rational opposite. It is ridiculous to think that we, an empathetic and compassionate people, who rally to help a stranded puppy, a homeless person, or a disaster victim on the other side of the world is anything but that.

Yet the ideologues, whether political, religious, or one-issue wonders, are rabid, disruptive, sometimes violent and never helpful. For example, telling children not to adopt a pet from an overcrowded pound, a place with the greatest need, because the shelter does not adhere to their definition of "no kill", leaves more pets not adopted as visitors are scared away. As ideologues never actually help, but rather holler nationally issued talking points and rehearsed propaganda, they leave those who work in the shelters and rescue groups, who really have dedicated their lives to tending to these pets, to do it all against a cacophony of insults. The ideologues are neither "no kill" nor are they advancing an animal welfare platform, but rather, they disrupt and demonize those who are. They divert people and treasure from doing their jobs. They actually cause the killing by this behavior.

They are the opposite of no kill.

Haruki Murakami, author of Kafka on the Shore, defined ideologues as "hollow people". People who fill up on talking points, lies, and anger with no independent thoughts or moral center. They fraternize in a gang like atmosphere with other hollow people who mirror each other's positions. Sadly, when they pair up with hollow politicians they can make some think that they are of people of substance. They are not. They are parrots rather than serious thinkers. They never do. They just yell at the people who do. They obey their cult leaders.

The good news is that we, actually, everyone else in the world are not hollow people. We brim with facts, empathy, science and a solid ethical core that leaves no room for toxic sputum. As we soothe and heal those who suffer, ideologues, the hollow people, criticize this help. It is not just shameful behavior, it is grifting, as their aim is to divert help from the needy to themselves, and deliver nothing in return. Think about it, by scaring people away from the shelters they perpetuate themselves. Fundraising is often a factor as well. In other words, they sustain the problem and their fundraising platform! This diverts funds from those need them most. Our homeless pets and those who tend them.

We are all pro-life and "no kill".  We strive so that all may live a quality life. We must not invite or suffer the hollow people to fill spaces in which they can metastasize and ruin our good works.

Every animal shelter, public or private, and rescue organizations, is "no kill". Who Isn't? - Of Course!

Stop Playing Three Card Monte With Our Pets

this is what no-kill should look like

The term "no-kill" was abandoned years ago by enlightened and legitimate organizations as it became synonymous with horrific and sometimes hoarding conditions, as well as touted  by ignorant politicians, less than savory “rescue” groups and fundraisers to assuage a concerned public that all was well with the animals. After all, it's a catchy, quick concept phrase that achieved its original purpose of sparking an aspirational dialogue which advocated that all animals able to be physically and mentally rehabilitated should be placed into homes. (Even San Francisco, the birthplace of the term ceased its’ use a decade ago.) 

this is often what no-kill looks like

Unfortunately, mayors using the term to set goals, "rescues" promising life to a heartbroken pet owner who can no longer keep a pet, or city pound struggling to reach said no kill goal, are perpetuating a major fraud on the humane, well-meaning public. (Nothing here is intended to criticize those legitimate rescue groups without whose help we would be lost.)

 A major "adoption" festival in Los Angeles, where most of the pets were simply moved to "rescues" and could well be condemned to live out their lives in agony in an airline carrier is disgraceful. These are not adoptions into loving homes but rather a Three Card Monte game with our pets. Un-vetted "rescues", often just hoarders, some who may have already been convicted of animal cruelty, may be holding your former pet in miserable cesspools of anguish while advertising and soliciting funds for their “sanctuaries”. Other "sanctuaries" are simply warehousing our pets in crates in places where they will never be seen by potential adopters and will never find a home. 

The shell game of moving pets from location to location solves nothing - except maybe soothing the collective consciences of the perpetrators and the uninformed public. I don't expect that the public be knowledgeable in the nuances and ins and outs of this business. I do expect that they be told the truth. I am also not talking about legitimate transports such as our Air Chihuahua™   program where our excess of little dogs is sent to a state with no little dogs and is greeted by a line of adopters awaiting their arrival. I am speaking of removing animals from the shelters and stashing them in the dark corners and recesses of our city.

or this - from a no-kill location

Finally, those vestigial clingers to this sham suggest they are the righteous and the rest of us are - what - pro-kill? 

It is time that we expose this for what it is and commit to treating our animals humanely, to finding them forever homes, to educate those who know not what they are saying, and to prosecute those that deceive us and harm our pets.

Please Don't "Rescue" Me

Courtesy spcaLA

There seems to be an epidemic of animal hoarding cases  involving 501(c)(3) not for profit corporations who characterize themselves as “rescues” or “no kill” shelters,  but are in fact the perpetrators of animal cruelty. It is critical that animal shelters, both public and private, screen, physically inspect, and research the reputations of these “rescues” before releasing animals to them or giving them pull privileges. Animal hoarding is defined as keeping higher-than-normal numbers of animals without the ability to properly house or care for them, while at the same time denying this inability.  Part of the problem is the hoarder’s incapability to part with any animal and thus, contrary to their representations will not work to find animals in their care new homes.

  

Pressure by sincere citizens and out-of-state organizations with deep pockets and misguided ideology can lead well-meaning, but ill informed city and county officials to release animals to hoarders in an effort to save them all so that they may create ‘happier’ statistics. However, the reality of releasing animals to such groups is all-too-often condemning a pet to a slow, lingering death sentence. This is particularly heartbreaking as a lot of energy and care was put into these pets by the shelters to ready them for transfer to a group who promises to find them homes. Instead, the animals suffer a fate worse than death.

While “no kill” was a popular phrase 15 years ago in the animal welfare environment, spcaLA, and most other legitimate entities, do not find its use responsible. In fact, the San Francisco animal welfare community that coined the term “no kill” stopped using it as it became more associated with hoarding, statistical acrobatics and deception as it always connotes something that it is not, is fraught with an inchoate vocabulary and provides a false sense that all is well.

In its over 135 year history, spcaLA has investigated, arrested, and worked to convict countless animal hoarders and other animal abusers of felony and misdemeanor animal cruelty. It has become common place and quite daunting to see the defendants, the hoarders, self-identified as animal “rescuers,” often connected to or incorporating as a “no kill” 501(c)(3), with “pull” privileges at local animal care and control facilities or private shelters. 

spcaLA urges shelters to perform regular inspections of rescue-partner facilities and  to investigate the background of the heads of these groups.  Very often, hoarders convicted of animal cruelty will move to a different city or state, adopt a new name, create a new 501(c)(3), and begin their cruel enterprise anew.  Further, spcaLA urges donors to give locally and to do their homework before simply responding to a sad Facebook post or the very convincing pleas of a hoarder.

Make no mistake - there are responsible and heroic partners that provide a real service to overcrowded shelters and to our community who are the real rescue partner deal. For the sake of our pets - we need to ensure that we do our due diligence and only work with such groups.