Agenda - 09-19-2006-7b - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies 46 to address common goals and further aggravate the media's penchant far dividing people up into neatly symbolic-and supposedly opposing-sides. The dichotomy has become so ingrained in the public mindset that directors of full-service agencies report a kind of inverse effect: callers or visitors who are convinced that any shelter of high quality is inherently "no kill." At the Potter League for Animals in Newport, Rhode Island, people think the organization is "no kill" simply because it's "clean" or it's 'not the pound," says Executive Director Christie Smith. In the suburbs of Philadelphia, the Bucks County SPCA shares a similar "dubious distinction," says Executive Director Anne Irwin. "Sometimes we have to explain to people who call-because they have heard good things about us-that we are not a `no kill' shelter, but that animals do have a reasonably good chance of finding a home here," she says. One shelter director in the western part of the country reports the opposite phenomenon: Visitors to her full-service facility compliment its friendliness and cleanliness while in the same breath criticizing the "no kill" organization in the neighboring town as a "dump" that harbors "mean" and "sick" animals, The compliments are welcome but somewhat backhanded when visitors follow up by asking, usually innocently and with no inkling as to how hurtful their words are, "But you kill them in here, dontcha?" The public confusion-and the fact that someone in the community must pertorm the job of euthanasia to minimize suffering-is the reason Matt Wahrhaftig stays away from "no kill" terminology at his organization in Kettering, Ohio. With its extensive foster network and training and placement programs, the Society for the Improvement of Conditions for Stray Animals (SICSA) finds homes for about 1,500 animals a year and rarely euthanizes. But Wahrhaftig, the director of operations, freely admits that in limiting the grotap's intake of animals, SICSA has a "luxury" that other facilities do not; many of the animals his group is unequipped to care far-aggressive strays, for instance-end up at the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. "I don't feel comfortable campaigning above the other two organizations because we area 'no-kill' shelter [and saying], `We should get all your money,' "says Wahrhaftig. "I think [people] definitely need to view each organization as to what they can contribute to the community ... and more on who they are than on what their name is." Nor does Wahrhaftig want to disappoint those who take the term "no kill" at face value, thinking it means no euthanasia whatsoever. "No kill" is so appealing to the public often for the very reason that people take it literally and assume that all animals can and should live regardless of their circumstances-when in truth, as Kirkpatrick points out, responsible "no kill" facilities do euthanize animals who are suffering or aggressive. "I don't like the deception," says Wahrhaftig. "People come to us and they don't realize that we euthanize, and then we end up with a lot of people getting a lot of