Articles Corruption

Is Long Beach, CA, Mayor Robert Garcia violating the constitutional rights of shelter reform advocates?

On behalf of the No Kill Advocacy Center, I’ve asked the Los Angeles County District Attorney to investigate. It appears that the Mayor of Long Beach, California, Robert Garcia, has been hiding Facebook comments critical of his handling of Long Beach Animal Care Services—an agency with low adoption and unacceptable levels of killing—from public view*, actions that would not only be morally reprehensible, but unconstitutional and therefore, illegal. Citizens not only have the First Amendment…

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Pets are Family Fair Housing Act

Announcing the “Pets are Family Fair Housing Act,” the latest FREE guide and model legislation from the No Kill Advocacy Center. For the vast majority of people, the bond they share with their animal companions is a familial one, born of love and mutual affection. And yet, many families are unable to find rental housing because of discrimination against their animal companions, breaking up families and, in some cases, even leading to homelessness. Those already…

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Contracting for No Kill

Too many shelters are not voluntarily implementing the No Kill Equation, the series of programs and services which have proven so successful at lifesaving in shelters which have implemented them. As a result, animals are being needlessly killed. And shelters which are supposed to reflect the values of animal loving Americans are instead undermining them. In response, the No Kill Advocacy Center has developed model legislation to help animal lovers and animal advocates achieve their…

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NPR’s Article on Stray Dogs is Two Centuries Too Late

An article on NPR says that there is “No ‘Easy Answer’ To Growing Number Of Stray Dogs In The U.S.” Citing Peter Zheutlin, an author of a book on dog rescue, we’re told that “the supply of stray dogs greatly outweighs the demand,” that the number of dogs has “cascaded out of control” including “more than 1 million stray dogs” in Houston alone, that “The no-kill movement has contributed to the population growth, as the…

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Pueblo Animal Protection Act

The Hon. Steve Nawrocki, President, And Members of the Pueblo City Council 1 City Hall Place Pueblo, CO 81003 Re: Pueblo Animal Protection Act Dear Members of the City Council, On behalf of the Pueblo and Colorado members of the No Kill Advocacy Center, I am writing in support of the Pueblo Animal Protection Act (PAPA) and urge its passage. PAPA is not only necessary, reasonable, and an effective means of saving lives, it is…

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Articles PETA

Ingrid Newkirk Responds… Sort Of

In response to my criticism of PETA for: Killing 9 out of 10 animals; Supporting the killing of all pit bulls in every shelter in America; Thanking a Mayor/City Council for killing healthy and friendly dogs because of the way they look; Rounding up and killing animals in the back of a van after promising to find them homes; Stealing Maya, a happy and healthy dog and killing her; Calling for the round up and…

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Articles Articles (Essential)

I Stand on the Side of Love

Photo taken by my son at a candlelight vigil in San Francisco in honor of the injured and dead of Charlottesville my family attended. We stand on the side of love. Yesterday, I was tagged on Twitter and Facebook with a photograph taken in Charlottesville, VA, of Debi Day of No Kill Nation wearing a gun and asked whether or not she was the President of my non-profit organization. She is not. I am the…

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The End of Temperament Testing

It’s time to throw out the fake hand, the doll, the food bowl takeaway, and the loud knock on the door. The debate as to whether temperament testing in a shelter is effective, flawed, needs modification, or should be discarded is over. In a recent feature, the New York Times highlights some of the challenges as “Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests.” They shouldn’t be struggling because they shouldn’t do them at all. Temperament testing in…

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A Sign of the Times

Phil is looking for a home at Chippewa County’s animal shelter. If Michigan is a sign of the times, it is good news for the No Kill movement. In 2007, Michigan shelters were killing close to 120,000 animals. In 2016, it was 29,591. As Michigan Pet Fund Alliance previously reported, out of 80 counties with shelters, over 50 now have live release rates of at least 90% and the majority of those are at or…

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Calculating an Animal Shelter’s Live Release Rate

Everyone is familiar with the old quip that there are three types of lies: lies, damn lies, and statistics. Statistical manipulation is very easy: It’s all about the assumptions and inputs one uses when crunching numbers. In order to honestly and accurately determine how well or how poorly a shelter is performing—the percentage of animals who are leaving out the front door in the loving arms of families, rather than out the back door in…

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