The family and I went to Reno over the September 11 Memorial. The Balloon Races were a grand excuse to see friends old and new. I was pleased to be offered a ride in one of the traditional style balloons, and a quick up and down for each of our group was generous. The pilot is an animal loving retired military from Arizona and he wanted to meet the Oreo gang. He follows her from Arizona, Maricopa to be exact. They have had their trouble with No Kill too. It was a blessed but bittersweet morning.
We met up with KC Sharon from Kent Shelter, Greta and myself represented Northern California. Two outstanding shelter directers had ridden up together from New Mexico to get a real look at No Kill while enjoying the balloon races. Our buddy from Houston showed up; and he is going to write a piece utilizing what he saw, which was not pretty. Two female readers of Oreo showed up from Tacoma-Pierce and they were a wealth of information. Both volunteers there during the failed No Kill attempt.. Nobody felt a stranger as we have all shared on Oreo or here and our common love of animals put everyone at ease.
We made time to drop by the "groundbreaking" for the solar panels. No attendance to speak of, then we broke ranks and moseyed through the building. .
The pall fell over us as we walked into the Great Adopt Your Own Medalist promotion. There were wooden boxes of rats, very stressed out, who were "performing in the olympics to get a forever home." It looked as if they had begged every volunteer to show up, and not as many as they had hoped came. The Houston reporter said it best. An air of desperation mixed with frustration and anger. In the middle of the "fun events" long lines of people waited to surrender their pets, many were turned away and shown hours on the door. I could only ponder the fate of the animals in the hands of people who did not want them.
In Washoe County there is only one other stick built shelter and that is the SPCA which does not take from the public, rescues do not take from the public, so the animals end up at the pound.
None of that is apparent to the pound director who is off selling No Kill in Australia, the dogs are not killed for time and space. That would not look good on their stats. These animals are euthanized because " no interest shown" that shifts the blame to the rescues who " didn't take them" Not WCRAS fault, they're a No Kill Animal Control according to Schneider, but when these lazy rescues don't step up, whats a man to do ?
According to press releases there are 900 fosters in Reno, loving NHS and lining up to help, yet they plea for more/ Go to petfinder.com Type in 89502 for your zip, there are not that many listed for the whole place.
Did go to Carson before leaving and met a couple of current pups on parole guys, nice dogs, but I think people should meet them at adoption events, not on prison grounds.
All in all about 25 of us stayed at Harrah's and got to finally meet and exchange thoughts and views, face to face. The median line of thought was we can and must do better. If we cannot provide quality of life for these animals we need to get out of the business. The Nevada Humane Society is a shameful, crowded, dirty prison. Washoe County, provide a place for decent people who can't keep their pets to surrender them.
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4 comments:
It sounds like a great learning experience. I follow from Shreeveport La. Not trying to sound left out here, but how do you get on your lists ? I couldn't have afforded a trip right now; I would like to get more involved in the discussion. Our current director is very good, but we loved Matt Pepper who left to go to Memphis too. Now that he is in New Mexico we look for good things to happen there.
I came on board about a year ago from Oreo's but have not commented. I also used to follow a blog in Seattle that closed after controversy. The appearance from our part of the world is where the no kill equation hits becomes a disaster zone. This post made me realize that by observing only, I was not helping the problem. I did start commenting in Memphis when they were attacking Matt Pepper. I volunteered for him here and loved him to pieces. My goal is to get other volunteers to step forward. All of us read and talk to each other, we need to talk to the world. I have never seen a hot air balloon, but the shelter part of the meet up sounds like a bummer.
The Air Race Tragedy has taken over our valley, spouse and I were there. Thank God we were a great distance from the crash.
I'm glad you guys came up for the balloon races and not this. The skies are full of planes flying home; the race of course is closed.
Coming home we were of course in shock, and finally to break the stunned silence one of the other SPCA volunteers said to Spouse, I wonder if Bonney will have a great Air Race Crash Promotion Event. You know she is not above it. Anyway gallows humor.
Spouse has noticed the new readers joining us and of course she would write them updates if they send addresses to Oreo.
Spouse here on Shel's sign in. In no way did the volunteer mean to disrespect the tragedy, she was just being opportunistic with her gut feeling. Many people may not know NHS had planned on walking dogs around the area. Never stop trying to jerk someones chain in a weak moment. you could really mask kennel stress at the air race
Spouse ( to funny I left out the "p" spelling souse, glad I caught that one )
I'm sure the entire country has heard of our misfortune, if we drop our of site for a spell, you will know we lost a close friend. Currently there is no list of casualties, and that may take some time. Waiting to hear back from some fellow Chaplains in the area to see if I can be useful.
In Christ's Love
The Chap
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