sahayes

Sheltering folks are probably the number one group of people that don't want to have to put animals down. Rational thought should take anyone to that assumption. I agree new ideas are needed to keep the wheels of innovation in motion. But, I also disagree… Read More

Sheltering folks are probably the number one group of people that don't want to have to put animals down. Rational thought should take anyone to that assumption. I agree new ideas are needed to keep the wheels of innovation in motion. But, I also disagree with Winograd's finger-pointing and frankly, arrogance in condemning shelters and all the hard work that they do.

No good plan will ever be hatched with this approach and is something some animal advocates have unfortunately held the movement back with. Passion for the issues is good and necessary, but professionalism, collaboration and the ability to listen to others is a better path to change.

It is an issue of population control, responsible pet ownership, etc. Our shelter has many of the components that Nathan is an advocate for. Being an open-admittance shelter, the sheer volume of intake and size of our community makes it impossible to go 100% no-kill.

It's a truly a global issue. Our shelter is affected by the counties around us that unfortunately have no or very poor animal control/shelter/humane society.

Keep in mind that a shelter can go no-kill and close its doors to new animals. But, the flow of animals will not stop and they need to go somewhere. This will most likely lead them to an open-admittance shelter that is forced to be the bad guy or a worse fate if no other shelter is available.

We need to address this issue from the top down as some shelters have very little to no support from their communities. Many hard-working sheltering folks in these types of communities don’t have the funds, tools or support to move to the next level. I would bet the bank that they wish everyday that they had the necessary tools to improve.

Let’s leave the personal ego and propaganda at the door and get real. Yes, we all need to think about what we can do to elevate the status of animals in our society, including population control, better animal protection laws across the board and helping shelters deal with the crisis in a strategic, collaborative, positive manner.

Divisiveness in not the answer and simply saying we are “no-kill” isn’t either.
Read Less