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Orange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies I. Notable Sheltering Statements A Common Cause Meets An Uncommon Solution By Nancy Lawson Reproduced from the May-June 2005 issue of Anima! Sheltering magazine. The Asilomar Accords have become known as the peace talks of the sheltering movement. Now it's time to put those talks into action. Healthy, Treatable, Untreatable, Rehabilitatable. For years we've asked members of the public to navigate the nuanced language of animal homelessness and sheltering, expecting them to understand overnight a vocabulary that's taken decades to evolve. But they're still confused, and it's no wonder, Even people within animal protection haven't been able to agree on the most basic terms, volleying back and forth about what they mean, how they should be applied, and where they should be publicized, The result is ail too predictable: story after story in the local and national media pitting one organization against another and highlighting wildly different euthanasia statistics-while failing to explore the economic and cultural complexities that drive those differences. But with the recent development of a document called the Asilomar Accords, all that could change, Born out of a meeting of the minds at a retreat in Pacific Grove, California, the Asilomar Accords represent what local and national animal welfare leaders hope is the beginning of a kinder era in which collaboration supersedes division and local organizations strengthen their presence by raising a collective voice for animals. "It really is saying that we're not going to use terminology that's hurtful of one another," says Martha Armstrong, senior vice president for Domestic Animal Programs at The HSUS. "The Asilomar Accords group decided that rather than argue over language that was divisive-like 'kill rate' or'euthanasia rate'-we're going to focus on the positive and talk about our `save rates.' " Representatives of all factions of animal sheltering, care, and control were in attendance at the Asilomar Conference Grounds last August, From the national level were leaders of The HSUS, the ASPCA, Maddie's Fund, American Humane, and the Society of Animal Welfare Administrators. Local representatives included directors of private humane societies and public animal control agencies in Colorado, Hawaii, Utah, Iowa, Arizona, Washington, California, and Indiana,