Month: January 2014

No Kill Shelters – Much More Than Not Killing

Posted by

0

No Kill Is Very Possible

No kill shelters are often misunderstood by the general public. I initially believed no kill shelters were sanctuaries where animals rarely were adopted and lived out their natural lives. Thoughts of biting dogs and bizarre people who worked with them filled my mind. As I became more familiar with animal welfare, I believed all no kill shelters were highly selective in the animals they took in. After all, these shelters must be limited admission to not kill since pet overpopulation is gospel in animal welfare circles. Additionally, many of the self-proclaimed local no-kill shelters fit that stereotype taking in mostly easy to adopt animals.

My world turned on its head when I learned high volume open admission shelters across the country became no-kill. Additionally, data from pet industry and other studies suggest far more homes exist than the number of adoptable pets killed in shelters each year. In fact, pet industry studies suggest only 1/3 of people obtaining pets are adopting and provides much room for shelters to increase market share. In New Jersey, we would have to obtain an even smaller share of the market to end shelter killing due to our shelters taking in much fewer animals per capita than the nation as a whole. Thus, more than enough homes exist for us to save all the dogs and cats killed in shelters each year.

Another myth about no kill shelters is that euthanasia is not done. The term no kill means literally “not killing” and returns euthanasia to its original meaning of “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals (as persons or domestic animals) in a relatively painless way for reasons of mercy.” Thus, hopeless suffering sick animals and dogs posing a serious threat to humans (who would suffer living in a kennel their entire life) would be euthanized.

The number of animals meeting “euthanasia” criteria will decrease over time. Advances in medical and behavioral science fields are increasing the number of animals saved each year in shelters. Additionally, sanctuaries and hospice care are gaining momentum for life saving alternatives for vicious dogs and terminally ill, but not suffering animals.

Saving 90% of all animals is generally considered the criteria where shelters are euthanizing rather than killing animals. Nathan Winograd developed this mark based off of the best performing shelters at the time, and extrapolating dog bite rate data and infectious disease rates in cats. Subsequently, Nathan Winograd and others suggested a higher rate, such as 95% or more, may be more consistent with no kill now based on advances in the field over the last decade. Personally, I believe a save rate of 95% would be more consistent with no kill for New Jersey’s open admission shelters since stray puppies who are at high risk of disease rarely come in. However, 90% remains the standard most recognize for an open admission shelter to qualify as no kill.

Key No Kill Programs

No Kill open admission shelters operate on a fairly simple principle. Think of a bucket, where animals you impound is water coming in and water coming out through a hole are the positive outcomes of your animals. To save all the animals you can:

1) Reduce the flow of water coming into the bucket

2) Increase the flow of water coming out of the bucket

The various programs below, widely known as the “No Kill Equation”, operate on these two principles. Various organization emphasize some more than others, but the key is to ensure your positive outcomes equal the number of animals you take in.

Volunteers
Volunteers are a key element to any successful shelter. Volunteers can fill all aspects of shelter operations from animal socialization and enrichment, kennel cleaning, marketing, adoption counseling, public relations, fundraising, etc. Given the financial realities of most animal shelters, substantive volunteer programs are essential to a successful no-kill shelter. Do not be fooled by token volunteer programs done for public relations reasons only.
TNR

Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programs help feral cats who cannot be adopted into a home for behavioral reasons. Feral cats are released into a colony with a human caretaker who provides food and veterinary treatment. Barn cat programs are similar to TNR except they are on a much smaller scale with one to a few cats going to one location.

Foster Care
Fostering at risk animals, such as neonatal kittens, puppies, and behaviorally stressed adult animals gets vulnerable animals out of the shelter. This program is run through the shelter with volunteers fostering animals temporarily until the animals can be adopted. Some very large shelters in our area do not have this program which unnecessarily results in the loss of lives. Additionally, foster care can also involve transferring animals to independent rescues who adopt the animals out.

Comprehensive Adoptions
Comprehensive adoption programs include innovative marketing, special incentives, great customer service, and frequent off-site adoption events.

Medical and Behavior Rehabilitation and Prevention
Shelters must have modern vaccination, handling, cleaning, socialization and care policies to prevent illness.  Additionally, state of the art rehabilitative efforts are required for animals needing medical or behavioral treatment.

Pet Retention
Pet retention is a key and overlooked program. While not as exciting as getting an animal adopted, keeping animals in their home has the same effect. Counseling pet owners surrendering their pets, having a hotline for troubled pet owners to call, and actively supporting good pet owners needing help are all elements of a succesful pet retention program.

Public Relations and Community Involvement
Working with the community and being viewed as a partner rather than an adversary is key. The community’s positive view of a shelter will increase donations, adoptions, and other shelter efforts.

Proactive Redemptions
Reuniting lost pets with their owners is generally the quickest way to get animals out of a shelter alive. Unfortunately, many shelters do not actively try and reunite strays with their owners. Shelters actively searching for owners can significantly increase save rates.

Low Cost, High Volume Spay & Neuter
No-cost and low-cost, high-volume spay/neuter programs decrease the number of animals bred. Often cost is a major barrier for people who want to spay/neuter their animals. The key is to make this service affordable to people who need it,  which are usually economically disadvantaged individuals. Do not be fooled by labels such as “low-cost” when such services are not affordable to the people who need them most.

Compassionate, Hard-Working Shelter Director                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Leadership is the most important part of all these programs. With a terrible leader, the programs above cannot be accomplished. The leader must be passionate, hard-working, and believe in the cause.

The State of the State of New Jersey’s Animal Shelters

Posted by

3

New Jersey’s animal shelters are largely failing the animals under their care. While New Jersey’s kill/euthanasia rates decreased modestly in recent years, many animals are still losing their lives in the state’s animal shelters.

High Kill Rates Despite Few Animals Brought into New Jersey’s Animal Shelters

New Jersey animal shelters take in far fewer animals than many shelters across the country. Based on the New Jersey Department of Heath’s 2012 Animal Intake and Disposition report, New Jersey shelters impounded approximately 10 animals per 1000 people. The Humane Society of the United States says the average community in the country takes in 30 animals per 1000 people. Additionally, New Jersey’s intake numbers are certainly lower since the Animal Intake and Disposition Report double counts animals impounded from one New Jersey animal shelter and transferred to another New Jersey animal shelter. For instance, the per capita intake rate of several large northern New Jersey animal control shelters is only 5-8 dogs and cats per 1000 people.

Thanks to New Jersey’s long time low-cost spay-neuter program and relatively cold climate (i.e reduces length of breeding season) New Jersey’s shelters take in few animals. While many spay/neuter advocates point to New Hampshire’s subsidized spay/neuter program as the solution to shelter killing, New Jersey started its program 10 years before New Hampshire. Despite this program’s existence for 30 years, 15% of all dogs and nearly half of all cats are killed in New Jersey’s animal shelters. In reality, the death rate of New Jersey shelter dogs and cats is higher due to:

1) Double counting of some transferred animals from one New Jersey animal shelter to another

2) Large numbers of highly adoptable transported dogs from out-of-state masking the local animal kill rate

3) Number of animals dying in shelters are not counted in above figures

In fact, kill rates at some New Jersey animal shelters are eye-opening. For example, the state’s largest animal shelter, Associated Humane Societies, reported 2,628 cats killed, died, or went missing in their 2012 Shelter/Pound Annual Reports submitted to the New Jersey Department of Health.  To put it another way, 69% of all the cats who had an outcome at Associated Humane Societies 3 animal shelters lost their lives or cannot be accounted for in 2012. At Ron’s Animal Shelter in Salem County, 73% of all dogs and 87% of all cats who had an outcome were killed in 2012. At the Paterson and Trenton Animal Shelters, 38% and 54% of dogs who had outcomes in 2012 were killed, respectively. Thus, many animals simply have little chance after entering many of the state’s animal shelters.

By comparison, over 200 communities across the country are saving 90% or more of the animals impounded into their shelters. For example, cities, such as Reno, Nevada with a per capita intake rate of 38 dogs and cats per 1000 people saved 94% of their animals in 2012.  The Austin, Texas region’s coalition of shelters and rescues, with a human population of 1,024,000 saves approximately 92% of its animals despite taking in roughly three and half times as many animals per capita as New Jersey’s animal shelters. These shelters are implementing widely known and proven policies to achieve this success. Why are so many New Jersey shelters failing to do so?

Shelters With Lots of Funding Not Leading the Way to Success

New Jersey has several well-funded animal welfare groups who are not doing what it takes to end the unnecessary loss of lives in the state. When a shelter receives millions of dollars in donations and animal control contract fees, this group needs to lead. Unfortunately, we see many organizations sticking with backwards policies or simply choosing to stay silent about the poorly performing shelters across the state. In some cases, these well-funded shelters actively fight life saving policies. These animal shelters need to ensure their animals make it out alive and strongly advocate for positive change.

Old School Pounds Still Thrive in New Jersey

In this day and age, folks would be shocked that old-school pounds still exist in New Jersey. In reality, many facilities only keep animals for the mandatory 7 day holding period for strays (and less for owner-surrenders). At the end of the hold period, these animals are usually either killed or if lucky pulled by a rescue. Adoptions are uncommon in these facilities since:

1) They do not post dogs online

2) Facilities often not open due to animal control officer out picking up animals or simply having limited hours

These truly are catch and kill old school pounds.

Shelters Never Giving Dogs a Chance

We noticed a disturbing trend where shelters never give dogs a chance to get adopted. Many times shelters deliberately misuse temperament tests to kill dogs. Other times shelters conveniently do not have enough behavioral evaluators/profile writers to get the dogs marketed online before the pets are killed. These shelters then highlight the chosen few who are helped. If nobody knows a dog exists, how can the someone complain if it is killed?  In reality, 10%, and more likely 5% or fewer dogs should have severe untreatable behavioral problems.

Limited Admission No-Kill Shelters and Rescues Turning Their Back on Local Animals

Many limited admission shelters bring in large numbers of dogs into New Jersey from other states.  In addition, many rescues who do not have a physical shelter and are not included in the statistics above are also bringing large numbers of animals from out-of-state. Anecdotally, many of these dogs seem to be medium to large-sized breeds who directly compete with the dogs being killed in New Jersey’s shelters. Apparently, the once plentiful supply of small breeds from southern shelters are no longer available and easy to adopt puppies from large breeds are being brought into the state.

How many dogs are being transported? Based on the Shelter/Pound Annual reports of 5 rescue oriented shelters out of 105 shelters statewide, 1,045 dogs were brought into New Jersey. In Connecticut, state officials determined 14,138 dogs were transported from primarily southern states which is nearly 4 animals per 1000 people. If these numbers are similar in New Jersey, 40% of our animals and probably close to half of the adoptable dogs would be transports. Thus, these transports are significantly competing with New Jersey’s local dogs and undoubtedly displacing many of our local dogs resulting in less New Jersey dogs making it out of shelters alive.

The logic many of these groups use does not hold up to scrutiny. Many rescuers will say “a life saved is a life saved no matter where it came from.” Unfortunately, the fallacy with this argument is that we are not killing because rescuers are not saving enough animals. Animals are dying because of the policies and choices made by people running shelters. If shelters facing far more difficult circumstances than New Jersey shelters are ending the killing,  then New Jersey shelters are not doing a good enough job. If rescuers help local shelters achieve no-kill status (saving 90% + of all animals), it puts enormous pressure on other local shelters to perform better. Donors and concerned citizens want their shelters to succeed and the money will flow to those shelters who make the grade. Eventually the poorly performing shelter directors will shape up or ship out. Imagine what the pressure on other state’s high kill shelters would be if New Jersey became a no-kill state? It can be done and we just need to come together to make that happen.

Trend Towards Reduced Funding for New Jersey Animal Control Shelters

In recent years many communities entered into arrangements to reduce animal control and sheltering costs. The 2010 property tax cap law, which limits municipality property tax increases to 2% each year, likely facilitated this phenomenon. Unfortunately, homeless animals are often at the bottom of municipal budget priorities and this trend is not positive for New Jersey’s homeless animals.

Animal Welfare Activists Need to Take on Poorly Performing Shelters

Unfortunately, many in the animal welfare world blame the public for shelter killing instead of the shelter leaders who are responsible for it. You will see things like “if only everyone spayed/neutered their pets” or “we just need a breeding ban” then we wouldn’t have any shelters killing savable animals. While these specific arguments can be addressed individually, the simple answer is communities with a far more irresponsible public have ended the killing. We can do it by simply following proven policies to get there. To get those policies in place, we need to inspire, persuade, and pressure those in charge to do so.