There is little doubt a small group of fringe elements have done all they could to disrupt service, and cause misery to helpless animals. As this year winds down the good Chaplain will not mourn the loss of a single one of them. I've met many good people on this accidental journey, and I've seen some real stinkers. My dear friend the Kraut, her blog is dying because the No Kill claims are dying, she anticipates soon she won't be needed at all. the last three "No Kill" shelters closed almost before they opened. The word is out to almost every state about the sham called No Kill. If your shelter is under attack, being called horrible names and your workers harrassed, take heart.
There is not one sucessful open admission shelter in this country, none; Greta has proven that many times over. When a shelter starts putting limitations on when and what they will take, they are no longer open admission. The biggest sinner that I know of is the Nevada Humane Society. According to them they have adopted out over 800 animals since November, how many have come back ? To my knowledge they don't keep records of returns. They no longer will even give you the animals age on the kennel card, they will not tell you of problems with the animal. I was up there last week and all the cards said were " senior" or " needs animal savvy owner" what does that mean ? Only by cleaning up our act are the shelters going to compete for good homes. It's up to us in the shelter world to work on solid placements, and stop marketing bad animals. Failure to govern our releasing policy is killing shelter animals in the long quarter. Raise the bar in the coming year on both what you release and who you release it to. That's what I'm working for in my shelter, stable animals in stable homes, thats how we shed the image of "shelter pets being crazy" . we quit placing them .
God Bless
Chap
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
11 comments:
Oh Chap, we had to put down the most beautiful GSD the day before Christmas. The dog was kennel crazy. this family had taken the dog from a shelter in California where the peculiar behavior was explained away as being abused. They had driven clear to Calfornia to " do the right thing" and adopt the pet of their dreams. Six month's later the separation anxiety was still overwhelming. Furniture destroyed neighbors ticked off from the constant barking, they had tried everything. The dog ends up in a shelter in Washington state. Their sense of loss is keen, they put a lot of effort,love and money into trying to make this dog work, the dog should never have been placed. Until we take those type of animals out of the adoption pool we are not going to have credibility. I hope your Christmas was wonderful.
Same to you Sharon, sorry about the dog, hope it didn't come from our neck of the woods. We do get some breeder rejects from time to time and they are almost always neurotic. Our kennel manager still puts them on the floor. They ususlly get returned pretty quick and then he does put them down, but he feels like they deserve one chance.
Happy New Year, I certainly hope you are correct, As I watch them trying to put down roots in the Sacramento valley I worry about your shelters there. We all know when Reno openly falls they have only west to go. Bonney Brown continues to put on a proper face, but the place is falling down about her ears. I would venture that most of her " adoptions" were ferals placed along the river up there. Little furry river ornaments for Christmas. I wish people understood that moving bodies out of the shelter is not the same as finding them homes. Spouse said she knows NHS counts the pulls from SPCA as adoptions. Velvet and I are taking a few days off, wandering up to Reno to pull a few handles. I'll drop in on Oreo, and perhaps when I get back over the pass I will call you from around Blue Camyon. That seems to be the first signal for my server.
Greta, Blue Canyon will work, but Auburn usually has a strong signal. We just need time to get the kitties put up in case we have them out for exercise. Anyway you could look at the dog Oreo sent the picture of with the tumor ?
we are staying alert in Sac, we know the pattern all to well.
Hope to see you,
Chap
Chap, you are absolutely correct regarding "marketing of bad animals". Adoption can't be sold to the masses when no-kill groups continually make statements that behavior testing is a bad thing. Those kind of statements alone make people reluctant to adopt, and it will only take one gruesome bite incident that gets national attention and it will impact shelters across the country.
Look at the ridiculous reaction to the Arizona cat Scruffy. The general public doesn't realize that shelters get asked for help with animal medical care on a daily basis by many people and would be bankrupt tomorrow if they handled every case like that. They just react to an emotional article that went national through AP. So consider the damaging effect just one incident of an aggressive dog being released by one of these no-kill shelters and killing a child could be for every shelter.
While I would like to believe we are near the end of this craziness, the fact that 3 states have pending legislation makes me reluctant. If we can make it through another year without another state going down the ridiculous road Delaware is, I will feel more confident that sound minds have prevailed.
I have wondered if Delaware could unring it's bell. CAPA,CAARA, any of the Hayden type bills are awful and there must be information sent to every state AG office on the unintended consequences of the passage. My stomach sank when that got passed back east. Together we can make a difference for our shelters and our non-furbearing citizens. Perhaps I should make a post on the topic. I also recomend Advice From Oreo blogspot she has been online longer than I and is also stuck with a group of loonies running the "partner" agencey. And to see the assessment done by Nathan Winograd on the Nevada Humane Society go to nokillsucksreally.blogspot.com/ There are copy pastes of portions of the document. It's not posted in it's entirety because of fair use laws. Trust the old Chap if Shel could have put the whole thing up he would have. It's as damnning as anything could be on Winograd's failed, flawed plan of action.
http://lessonsfromlayla.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/lessons-from-luke-why-the-no-kill-movement-hurts-dogs/ Funny, someone uses the name Jake on there :)
@ Jake CAPA is very bad news, and Winograd bragged all over his website when you guys signed up. Do you read Oreo, her community got sucked into partnering, then the partner went "No Kill" and it's been messed up since. I saw this on Winograd's Facebook and copy/pasted it. To good to keep to myself. Wino took it down fast, but I already had it. It says it well.
Kevin Sleuth
A correction, your list shows Washoe Ounty Regional Animal Services in Nevada. Mitch Scheider had been asked to retire and is no longer the director, and the facility is definately NOT NO KILL. The Nevada Humane Society does euthanize and has the bodies destroyed / removed by the WCRAS to the rendering place. We need to be credible so please correct this. Apparently Washoe County was never No Kill even though Mr Schneider spoke for you, he was never able to achieve it in Washoe County. I understand there is some consternation that NHS is sending it's carcasses to the rendering place. Apparently under Mr. Schnieders leadership maintenance issues lost priorty and the crematorium broke and he never had it fixed.
Since NHS had their carcasses cremated at WCRAS it has affected them and Bonney Brown is very unhappy. One former employee has taken pictures of the trucks and this could be embarassing.
Nathan Winograd
Kevin, this is not the place for misleading, overreaching, agenda driven statements to destroy the reputations of people who achieved a 91% save rate in a community with 7x the per capita intake rate of NYC. Good bye and good riddance.
16 hours ago · LikeUnlike
Well, Mitch is going to try to drive the county from NHS side. What a butt ! There was a little piece in the paper about him training animals from the shelter to be service dogs. Sorry Charley but pitbulls don't make the best service dogs, and if Mitch tries to come in taking the working dogs on a first grab basis for their
"business" we will have nothing but pitbulls. I know he is after the Germans the breeder brings in from Washoe Valley.
We are doing good if we can get any of these dogs regular homes, but service work, with Mitch ? Get him to show you his "bite sleeve" trick. Will the county every get a place for people to turn over animals they can't keep ?
Mitch is really gone? Does this mean that real animal lovers can come back to the shelter ? No offense to Shel. That piece from Winograds FB is an eyeful. The truth is agenda driven? Talk about the pot calling out the kettle. The SPCA is not going to give him any damn dogs, I guarantee that.
I am glad things finally seem to be turning in the right direction for the Reno area. It would be wonderful (and gleefully ironic) if WCRAS would do a little investigating on all those 'old shelter' rumors now that it is operating under the sheriff's department. Fingers and paws crossed.
We in Memphis are still under the baleful glare of Mr. W. He even commented on an article on the CA under one of his cute little aliases. And this week, those who wish to bid on the privatizing of MAS will meet at the shelter for a look-see at what they'd be dealing with. I honestly hope no one shows and if they do, that they run away as soon as they see their first snarling, growling pet in the back. Not much good can come from a contract where the city wants more services for less money.
OTOH, we got some great new volunteers this week.
Nice to see you Patience, you are on target for getting the "more for less" in front of people. And, Cole thanks for that copy/paste. It's being cross posted in many places and needs to be.
Post a Comment