|
Orange County Animal Services
<br />Sheltering Practices and Philosophies t9
<br />American city, the pound work of the town had been placed in the hands of the
<br />local SPCA or humane society,
<br />The Status Quo
<br />Unfortunately, the end goal of saving lives was never allowed to fully play itself
<br />out, By the middle of the 20th Century, most mainstream humane societies and
<br />SPGAs were doing little more than killing dogs and cats. A Boston shelter put it
<br />bluntly: "We keep all dogs we receive, unless very sick or vicious, five days; then
<br />those unclaimed are humanely put to death except a limited number of desirable
<br />ones for which we can find good homes, We keep from twenty to thirty of the
<br />best of the cats and kittens to place in homes and the rest are put to death.., We
<br />do not keep a large number of animals alive." From New York to California, killing
<br />became the centerpiece of shelter strategy, How did this happen?
<br />According to one national group, people "who do not spay and neuter are the
<br />greatest single cause of the companion animal tragedy,., Each day an estimated
<br />70,000 puppies and kittens are born (25.5 million a year).. Six to ten million, we
<br />classify as 'surplus' and kill,., The problem is simple: we have too many dogs
<br />and cats. Too many for the too few homes available." But is this true?
<br />From the shelter director's perspective, the logic appears inescapable. There are
<br />only so many cages, limited numbers of kennels, few adoptions, and day after
<br />day, the wave of animals keep coming through the door: kittens that were
<br />unplanned, a dog that has become a burden, the stray cat nobody wants,
<br />Qne shelter director explained it like this: "You build a shelter with 200 cages.
<br />Today, you get 50 homeless animals and you place 10, The other 40 go into
<br />cages, Tomorrow, you get 50, but only 15 total go home. When the fictional
<br />shelter is full [people] suggest building more cages, which we do, but then those
<br />cages are quickly filled,,, The inflow of unwanted animals is an ongoing
<br />phenomenon," What do you do with the rest?
<br />In just one American city, of 25,000 cats who come in through the doors every
<br />year, 21,000 will be put to death. Qver 80% will die, most never even offered for
<br />adoption. Multiply that by every city, every county in the United States and the
<br />picture is bleak, But the irony is that much of this suffering is conducted under the
<br />watchful eye of self-described "animal lovers" who feel they are doing the right
<br />thing. In fact, it is often these "animal lovers" who administer the "cocktail" to
<br />disorient the animal, who bring the dog or cat into the "euthanasia" room, hold
<br />him down while he struggles to make sense of what is happening, and then
<br />administer the fatal dose.. Day in and day out, until the numbers simply become
<br />staggering.
<br />And so the years came and went since the founding of our movement, and with it
<br />came the solidification of the belief that there was simply no other way. That the
<br />best we could do for homeless animals was to give them a "humane" death, That
<br />
|