The No-Kill
Administration
On Achieving No-Kill
Building a No-Kill Community
Going No-Kill
Converting to No-Kill
It Takes a Community
Stop the Killing
Saving Dogs in Shelters
Temperament
Testing
Starting a Fostercare Program
Feral
Everywhere
Release cats
FIVpositive?
Feral Cats Deserve
Attention
Adopt
Hard-to-Place Animals
Older Pets Need Proper Care
Diary of a No-Kill Director
Perspective: Asilomar Accords
Newspaper Articles
PACCA Blistered by
Expert
Expert Envisions No-Kill Phillie
Press Releases:
No-Kill Animal Control
---------------------------------------
NKN's No-Kill Effort
Rancho Seeks
No-Kill Director
County is History!
RC to Go No-Kill!
No-Kill Eval OK'd
NKN's Articles
No-Kill: An Act of Will
When
the Cages Are Full
Impossible You
Say?
Shelter Achieves
No-Kill!
No Kill References
Defining No-Kill
Shelter Law
No-Kill Resources
Shop Shelters
Articles were reprinted from other sources on the internet including
NoKillSolutions.com
BestFriends.org
MaddiesFund.org
Tomkins County SPCA in New York became renown as the first open-door
animal control facility in the United States to claim it ended the killing of all
adoptable and
treatable impounded animals.
Former director, Nathan Winograd, stated that within two years (starting
June, 2001), the organization went from a shelter
that was killing 100% of
feral cats to killing none , that was killing healthy dogs and cats to
killing none , that was killing treatable sick/injured dogs and cats to
killing none and that reduced the death rate by 75%
In
those same two years, he stated that the TC SPCA increased the animals
spayed/neutered before adoption from 10% to 100% , the number of volunteers
from a dozen to 181 and the number of animals fostered from a handful to
close to 800 per year. Furthermore, during that period, the SPCA claimed to have reduced its
expenses by approximately $150,000 per year, reduced the number of employees
from 16 to 12 , went from a $250,000 a year annual budget deficit to a
$23,000 surplus and "has so far raised $2.8 million dollars to build a
new shelter." In the end, contributions climbed even higher and a
state-of-the-art shelter was completed and now stands as a model for
other communities.
Winograd gives details on how this was accomplished in a 20-page manual,
"Building A No-Kill Community"
and in some of the other publications shown to the left of this page.
He left Tompkins in 2004 to form a no-kill consultation firm.
Following are some vignettes taken from his writings.
* * * * * * * * * * *
"What kind of shelter director should we hire? I believe that the best, most successful shelter directors around the county have no animal sheltering experience. Why? Because they are not schooled in the defeatist mentality that has thoroughly defined the soul of our nation's animal shelters for over a century. They have not adopted the excuses, they have not betrayed their obligations to the animals, they do not kill with impunity, they are not content to parrot the same old tired clichés, and promote the same old worthless programs without examining whether they are actually having an impact."
* * * * * * * * * * *
"In Tompkins County, we did it with a simple yet highly effective three-step process: (1) Stop the killing; (2) Stop the killing; (3) Stop the killing. I am not joking. No-kill starts as an act of will."
** * * * * * * * * * *
"Like so many shelters with animal control contracts, the
TC SPCA had relied on the fiction that the only solution to pet
overpopulation is the "blue [euthanizing] solution." Staff would shake their
heads and continue to blame "irresponsible owners" for the fact that so many
animals would go out the door in barrels rather than in the loving arms of
families.
Like so many other shelters, the TC SPCA never once saw the killing as its
own failure to find solutions, meet its real mandate to be an animal welfare
organization, or live up to the very real but often ignored shelter credo
that 'every life is precious.'"
* * * * * * * * * * *
"I developed a flurry of programs
to increase the number of homes, reduce birthrates, rehabilitate injured
animals, and keep animals with their loving, responsible caretakers. Next, I approached every
veterinarian in the community and asked, "How much will you charge me for
spay/neuter and for treatments? Will you waive your office visits?" We went to the media and said, "Can
you showcase our available pets once a week on the local news?" Now, we’re
on the local TV news once a week, we’re on the local radio station once a
week, and we’re in the local newspaper once a week. So at least three times
a week, we’re out there. I contacted every church, every
community group, and said, "Anytime you have an event, I’d like to be there
and bring some pets who need homes." I didn’t get any no’s. Everybody said,
'That sounds great!'"
I went down the list of what I thought we would need. I went to the local
universities and asked, "What can you provide? Do you have PhDs who can look
at my wacky dogs and tell me how to bring them back to normal behavior?"
* * * * * * * * * * *
"Say you live in Anytown, USA. Your community shelters
are killing 5,000 animals per year and you want to reduce that. Should you
start a TNR program? Should you open the shelter on weekends to do more
adoptions? What should you do? The number, 5,000, doesn't tell you anything
in and of itself.
"It really depends on who is dying. If you actually crunch your
numbers and categorize them, you can answer that question. So say, for
example, of those 5,000: 2,000 are feral cats. 1,500 are dog with behavior
problems. 1,000 are under aged kittens and puppies. 500 are sick or injured
animals.
"Now we know something. We know that to save the 2,000 feral cats, staying
open on weekends to do more adoptions won't help. We need a TNR program. For
the 1,500 behavior dogs, we need dog behavior and rehabilitation. For the
1,000 under aged kittens and puppies, we need a public spay/neuter program
and a foster care program for the shelter. And for the 500 sick or injured
animals, we need medical intervention programs."
* * * * * * * * * * *
