Dog Fancy Magazine just voted Bend The Nation’s Dog Friendliest City 2012. It’s a title that we should be proud of, but is it accurate? We certainly love our dogs (and cats) we have great off-leash areas, trails and canine friendly businesses. We use their images to advertise our products and sell our newspapers. Yet, our great city still kills dogs (and cats) at our animal shelters every single week.
You probably did not know that.
We do not need to. It is wrong to do so. Over 200 cities and towns across the US have shelters that have stopped killing and now save over 90% of their cats and dogs. Many of these places have far fewer resources than we do.
Bendites, there is a movement sweeping across the United States called the No-Kill movement. It provides a proven, logical strategy for our shelters and community showing us how to not kill our dogs and cats. The strategy is not rocket science and will work. All it requires is for our leaders and decision makers to say no more killing and put the strategy known as the No-Kill Equation into place.
If you had been struggling to achieve your goal and someone offered you a plan that works, wouldn’t you do it?
The No-Kill Equation asks the shelters to invite the public to help them with a series of programs, such as comprehensive adoption programs, foster care programs, low cost high-volume spaying and neutering. There are also trap, neuter and release programs for feral cats, pet retention programs, and collaborations with rescue groups, medical and behavior retention and rehabilitation, public relations and community involvement and proactive redemption. Or simply put, safety net programs that work with the community to save lives.\
The only time that euthanasia is appropriate is when the animal’s behavior cannot be rehabilitated and he/she is a danger to society, or they are hopelessly sick and no medical intervention can help them. Feral (non-socialized) cats should never even enter a shelter; TNR is the solution for these animals.
Bend is rich in resources. Communities less equipped than ours have done this and stopped the killing. For example, Washoe Animal County Services, Nevada, which also provides animal control, decided to stop killing, asked their community for help and rearranged their programs and priorities. Now they save 92 percent of their dogs, a 51 percent change in the kill rate from 2006 to 2007. They had 30 volunteers in 2006, by 2007 they had 1300.
We can look the other way, accept false accolades and pretend the animals are not being killed, or we can offer to help our shelters and Bend can be proud to join the No Kill Movement. We will be told that they are “doing their best.” Well that is like saying Bend is okay with the bronze medal. Why can’t our city have gold? Why should healthy and treatable animals be given a lethal injection instead of a foster care placement, or medical help? It would be very wrong of us to ignore a solution if it exists and is proven to work over and over.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.
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I wasn’t going to write this comment but I just can’t stop my fingers from taking over my brain.I love my dog and I always tear up when I see the ones pictured in the paper in need of adoption.Cats I tolerate since they are better and more street smart at self preservation than I am.BUT,the writer does not seem aware that their oh so perfect little berg has,as I write this,only a few shelters for the homeless,hungry,jobless PEOPLE that wander within the city limits.I ask the writer to take a personal inventory of their favorite cause that clearly reeks with the bottom line,the goal,the obvious agenda aimed to guilt we readers into whipping out our checkbooks.Then consider the time spent on research,funding,and attention the author spent to produce the plea for a bronze star(meaning fork over more money) for ANIMALS instead of their own species.O.K. my brain is back in charge so my fingers will stop this rant but I cannot promise it won’t happen again.
Emma needs to get her facts right before criticixing all the central Oregon animal shelters. As a volunteer at the Humane Society of Redmond I am proud that our facility has a 98% save rate for dogs, and I know the Prineville shelter has a “no kill” policy. Let me give you just one example of the lengths our shelter goes to in saving animals. Earlier this year, a pair of husky-shepherd dogs were caught chasing livestock. The rancher killed the male, and the female was taken into custody and rights were relinquished by her owner. Our shelter paid $25 a day for four months (that’s more than $3,000) to keep Tess alive until the judge turned her over to our facility. After working with her for about one month, the judge approved her adoption outside of central Oregon to a home with a fenced yard. Our shelter’s director drove Tess over to the Multnomah County Animal Shelter where she was adopted in short order. We love our dogs and cats, so feel free to drop by and check out our operation and the care we give them.
In response to “Bend Can Do Better by Its Animals” August 16, 2012
Emma Clifford’s letter encouraging adoption of the No-Kill Movement’s philosophy by the Humane Society of Central Oregon is a welcome voice.
While the Bend shelter’s true statistics remain elusive to the public, other communities have achieved save rates approaching 100%. Crook County has been No-Kill since 2006 despite very limited resources and no municipal bailouts. Furthermore, Prineville’s statistics (admissions, return to owner, adoptions and euthanasia) are available to anyone who is interested. Crook County does not deceive the public by quoting “percent of adoptable” animals, a term used to hide the true percent of killing.
It is a matter of choice. Prineville chooses to care for its pets while waiting for appropriate homes rather than kill them.
The Source article by Eric Flowers “Licensed to Kill”, May 9, 2007 offers Bend residents the opportunity to educate themselves on the Bend shelter practices. The article is available on line.
To learn more about the “No-Kill” Movement, the reader is referred to Nathan Winograd’s books: Redemption and Irreconcilable Differences.
Leslie T. Lynch
ltlynch@crestviewcable.com
Prineville, Oregon