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orange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies t g No-Kill Advocacy Center See http //www nokillsolutions.com/philosophy.htm Our Philosophy The Birth of a Humane Nation The nineteenth century was an era of sweeping social change, From abolitionism to women's rights, from the elimination of child labor to the closing of economic inequities, the pioneers of these movements laid down the bricks in a foundation to building a humane nation, And our own-the prevention of cruelty to animals- was no exception. The first SPCA was founded in 1866 in New York City, and spread from there very quickly, Within a short period of time, Canada and 25 states and territories across America had used the SPCA as a model for their awn, independent humane societies and the numbers continued to grow, In short order, virtually every major city in the United States had an SPCA or humane society, Early SPCAs and humane societies advocated for laws and practices to protect and enforce the rights of animals. Their platforms initially focused on the plight of working animals and those slaughtered for food. But given practices favored at the time, it did not take long for them to turn their sights toward fighting against cruelty by local dog catchers themselves. In the nineteenth century, all stray dogs not redeemed were killed in masse, The majority were shot, Some buried alive. Many more were drowned, with the largest dogs beat on the head with a club until they stayed underwater, Often, they were killed in what one newspaper called "the terrible iron crate," where struggling dogs were dropped in the river several times until all the dogs had drowned in front of a crowd of neighborhood children. Changing of the Guard In 1872, a Pennsylvania SPCA took it upon itself to put an end to these cruel methods of slaughter, as well as their public exhibition. By accepting the first pound contract in the United States, they took aver the work of taking in stray dogs and introduced a gas chamber to replace old, slow, more painful practices of killing stray animals, But the Women's Pennsylvania SPCA went two steps further. First, they set tap a humane education program promoting lifetime commitments and the importance of keeping pets in the home, And second, they offered homeless animals for adoption. Those three concepts-education, adoption, and humane "euthanasia"-were embraced on a national scale with the founding of the American Humane Association several years later and have been the mainstays of sheltering ever since. In a very short period of time, the guaranteed source of income provided by animal control contracts helped sway many SPCAs and humane societies to abandon their traditional platforms of advocacy, prosecution and direct action in favor of administering dog control for cities and counties. In virtually every