We can fully, completely, and without reservation embrace No Kill as our future. Or we can continue to legitimize the two-pronged strategy of failure: adopt a few and kill the rest. It is a choice which history has thrown upon us. We are the generation that questioned the killing. We are the generation that has discovered how to stop it. Will we be the generation that does?
- Nathan Winograd
From everything I have read of Nathan Winograd this quote is completely the opposite of his philosophy:
ReplyDeleteAs part of the contract with the Municipality - Homeward Bound should be an open admission facility. They should be accepting any and all animals brought to them. And they don't. And that is wrong. AND they should be no kill - which doesn't mean that they don't kill (of course) - it just means that they have policies and protocols in place so that any treatable and saveable animals - are saved.
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Have you spoken with Andrea MacDonald of Animal Services about this? Is this fact? I can certainly phone her for some information.
Cheers,
Angela Granchelli
Are you kidding me, Angela? I think we must be reading different Nathan Winograd books then.
ReplyDeleteI could be mixing things up and when I have some more time later on today I will see what I can find. I do remember distinctly when I was volunteering with the SPCA in Cape Breton and liaising with the provincial SPCA that there was much talk that an open admission policy was simply a way to send a message to the public that we would happily accept all their mistakes. If it is not an idea attributed directly to Nathan my apologies for the error as I am multitasking but I do believe that simply accepting animals with open arms from anyone who wants to dump them is recipe for abuse from the public. I would be interesting to know official policy from our Animal Control and other municipalities. The SPCAs that I have had experience with who had animal control contracts have not been simply able to accept anything that came through their doors.
ReplyDeleteOverpopulation is a symptom of irresponsible breeding, lack or pet retention, and failure to spay or neuter.
As for the pet retention, as I said accepting pets with an open door policy promotes irresponsibility in my opinion.
It doesn't matter who has the contract. Animal Services make the rules. So a quote from Andrea would be useful.
Cheers,
Angela Granchelli
There are some very interesting things in the section here called "limited admissions"
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-kill_shelter
Nobody wants no kill more than me but sometimes it's a bit of a smokescreen and manipulation of statistics. I had a direct issue with the SPCA last summer who refused to take two dogs who were alone in an apartment building while their owner was in the hospital with brain cancer never to come out. They didn't want to take the dogs because it could be demoralizing for the staff if they had to be euthanized and bad for their statistics. I was told this in the first person. They were threatened with the media, and took the dogs after being threatened.
Both were adopted to my knowledge but it was quite a battle to get them admitted.
They were a no kill shelter at time of this incident.
Cheers,
Angela Granchelli
"“Open-admission” (also known as “open-intake”) shelters are obligated to take in strays (either serving as animal control themselves or accepting strays from animal control) and animals surrendered by people who live in the area served by the shelter — in other words, these shelters cannot pick and choose what animals they take in or how many animals they take in.
ReplyDelete“No-kill” shelters are ones that maintain a 90% or better live release rate. That is, 90% or more of the animals that come into the shelter leave it alive, whether they go to an adoptive home, a rescue, or are returned to their owners.
More and more shelters are managing to be both open-admission and no-kill, which is a revolution in animal sheltering."
~ No Kill Communities blog,
"This blog tracks open-admission no-kill shelters."
http://www.no-killnews.com/?page_id=8
An open-admission shelter/animal control may or may not accept owner surrendered pets.
For example, Calgary Animal and Bylaw Services does not accept owner surrenders (not that it's a certified no-kill facility, just an example). Owner surrenders there are handled by the Calgary Humane Society, which has pet retention programs. Reference - http://www.no-killnews.com/?p=1750
Best wishes