Articles

No Kill Know How: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation

In America today, dogs and cats are more than just our best friends, they are family. Yet the agencies we fund to care for the neediest of these animals are instead killing two million of them every year. And the reason historically given to explain this killing is the very thing that allows it to continue.

Introducing the first of many videos as part of a newly launched initiative of the No Kill Advocacy Center (my organization): our “No Kill Know How” series. In this episode, we tackle the myth of pet overpopulation, the core excuse used to kill animals in U.S. pounds. Overcoming this excuse is ground zero in the fight for a No Kill nation.

NOTE: This video is “Animal Lover Safe” and does not contain graphic images.

Watch the video by clicking here.

Learn more by clicking here.

Why videos?

The founding mission of the No Kill Advocacy Center is to empower Americans across the nation to end the killing of animals in their local shelters. In fact, most of the lifesaving improvement in shelters across the country — which has been called “the single biggest success of the modern animal protection movement” — is because of our work.

As I explain in the video linked to above, I am the first person to transform a full-service kill-oriented animal control facility into a No Kill shelter for all species of shelter animals — including dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, birds, horses, and even the occasional chicken, pig, and cow — thereby disproving more than half a century of sheltering dogma that portrayed killing as necessary and such an achievement impossible.

I was also the first to declare that every other shelter in the nation could and should follow our lead by implementing the new model of animal sheltering I founded the No Kill Advocacy Center to champion: the No Kill Equation. Since that founding, more than 500 communities across the nation have achieved placement rates of over 90% and as high as 99%, saving millions of animals who would have otherwise been killed.

How does the No Kill Advocacy Center promote the embrace of the No Kill Equation? By providing direct assistance to shelter directors and shelter reformers, legal and legislative intervention, and through our No Kill Advocate’s Toolkit, our catalog of 24 popular step-by-step guides on building No Kill communities. These guides are downloaded and viewed tens of thousands of times, and have helped shelter directors, government officials, advocates, and legislators throughout the nation achieve success in their local communities. But we believe we can make this information even more accessible, and therefore, even more powerful and influential.

The No Kill Advocacy Center has embarked on an ambitious effort to create a series of informational videos based on each guide, augmented by video tutorials on the No Kill philosophy. Doing so will not only allow us to reach more people, but also a new generation of animal lovers through the means they find most convenient and informative. A recent study on the ways in which millennials consume information found that, “When a video is available along with an article or blog post and the information is identical, nearly four times as many millennials said they would prefer to watch the video rather than read the article.” Moreover, nearly half say they watch videos to help them learn how to do something. When millennials and younger generations turn to YouTube to find content about how they can save the lives of companion animals, we want them to find our videos waiting to empower them, and you can help.

Please consider donating to help us pay for the production costs of these videos. Unlike donations to large “animal protection” groups which are parked in coffers and endowments already overflowing with millions of unused dollars, every penny donated to the No Kill Advocacy Center makes a difference. We promise to put every dollar donated to the No Kill Advocacy Center to immediate work.

Together, not only will we save lives; but we will create a future where every animal will be respected and cherished, and where every individual life will be protected and revered.

Donate by clicking here.

————-

Have a comment? Join the discussion by  clicking here.