Shorty is waiting for you at the Austin Animal Center. This week, the Austin, TX, City Council voted unanimously on a resolution in favor of a 95% minimum placement rate. The Austin, TX, City Council voted unanimously on a resolution to increase its minimum 90% placement rate in favor of a 95% minimum in its city shelter. While I would have liked to see a higher threshold — consistent with the success of the most…
The shelter in Pueblo, CO, is in turmoil after 14 dogs died and the state took over operations. Adding insult to injury, anti-No Kill zealots are trying to exploit it to repeal a new law that mandates a 90% placement rate. The head of the Denver Dumb Friends League (DDFL), an organization that has long fought progressive sheltering policies and operates in a city that still kills dogs because of the way they look —…
Shelter Reform Advocate Uncovers Proof that the Number of “Treatable” Animals Reported Killed was Altered. Animal Care Centers of New York City (ACC), the City’s pound, is no stranger to scandal. The Department has been plagued by one scandal after another — including a long, ignoble history of neglect, abuse, and killing — since its inception, including its most recent ones which include ramming through a 34-year contract to maintain the status quo until 2052…
The Philadelphia pound intended to kill this dog back in July 2017 after provoking her in a “temperament test.” She would have been killed, too, had the video not gone viral and a rescue group not intervened. A new study finds that there is not a single temperament test used to evaluate shelter dogs that is reliable in predicting behavior. The study authors are calling for a moratorium on their use by pounds to determine…
The Henderson, NV, animal shelter reported that it achieved a record high placement rate in 2018. Congratulations to the good people of Henderson. That’s worth celebrating because it means more animals are going out the front door in the loving arms of adopters, rather than out the back door in garbage bags. It also reported, however, that it “qualifies as a ‘no-kill’ shelter for 2018 after it achieved a 91.5 percent save rate.” Unfortunately, to…
A new study looked at cat impound and killing rates in six city pounds before and after the implementation of a program to sterilize and release community cats. The cities involved were Albuquerque, Baltimore, Columbus (GA), Philadelphia, San Antonio, and Tucson. Once again, the study adds to a growing body of literature that Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) works. In all: A median decline of 83% in cat killing occurred at the six shelters compared to baseline. The…
On behalf of the No Kill Advocacy Center, I wrote Governor Gavin Newsom asking him to help dogs, cats, and other animal companions by abolishing killing in California’s animal shelters. I told him that California kills more animals than any other U.S. state and we don’t have to. It’s uncivilized, it wastes taxpayer dollars, provides no public safety benefit or value, and it is absolute, irreversible, and irreparable. Moreover, everyone on death row in our…
The ASPCA is lobbying for animals to die. The ink is not yet dry on New York State shelter reform legislation, the bill doesn’t even have a number yet, and Matt Bershadker, the ASPCA’s CEO, is already spending donor funds to kill it, saying it isn’t needed because the New York City pound is a model of compassionate sheltering. Not only does this ignore the care of animals in other shelters throughout the state, but…
The Hon. Ginger Nelson, Mayor, And Members of the City Council Amarillo City Hall 601 S. Buchanan Amarillo, TX 79101 Dear Mayor and Members of the City Council: The No Kill Advocacy Center is the nation’s premier national organization working to end the systematic killing of animals in U.S. shelters. We have assisted communities across the nation achieve placement rates greater than 90% and as high as 99%, with hundreds of cities and towns…
Ultimately, the culture was terrifying and desensitizing-Š—-Šand I gradually felt that my view of death, of taking animals’ lives, was being warped, my emotions being stripped away. Joining the ranks of former PETA fieldworker Heather Harper-Troje, another employee has come forward by name to tell about her experiences at PETA killing animals and the stifling, cult-like atmosphere that pervades the organization; a culture she described as “terrifying and desensitizing.” Laura Lee Cascada, a PETA employee,…