Click on the below article link to obtain background information to this blog post:
Examiner article
Mike Schwager offered staggering
statistics, “Dogs are members of more than 43 million households in America,
and cats of more than 37.5 million. These feeling, intelligent, loyal creatures
give comfort to people of all kinds -- to the young, middle-aged and elderly,
to families with children, to couples without children, and to those living
alone. When they are brought into hospitals caring for children with grave
illnesses, or into nursing homes tending to the aged, they become healers who
bring smiles to faces. They defend homes as faithful watchers. They save lives,
whether on the battlefield, or as brave aides to firefighters.
The fact is, each year we kill 3
million healthy and treatable dogs and cats at our shelters. If we are agreed
that these animals are precious individuals who have a right to live, then we
can also agree that a fundamental paradigm shift must take place at all animal
shelters. The new underlying principle must be no-kill.”
His advice for shelters to transition
into a no-kill shelter:
• “Hire a director who embodies
humaneness towards animals in his or her philosophy -- someone committed to
no-kill. This is the linchpin element in a successful conversion, and in
the implementation of the other essential elements that must follow. The
director must support a culture of life.
• Hire staff people who are
likewise committed to humaneness, and the no-kill principle. This means a
review of the people on staff to determine who would support the new principle,
the weeding out of those who don't, and the recruitment of those who do.
• Make comprehensive adoption
programs central to the shelter strategy. Some examples:
• Ongoing and intensive public
relations/marketing programs. The new director should hire a director of
PR/Marketing equally committed to the no-kill principle. If budget precludes a
hire, enlist the support of a retired PR professional. This individual should
enlist a team of other volunteer PR pros. Consultation with chapter leader of
the local Public Relations Society of America can help pull a team together, as
well as outreach to the heads of local PR agencies.
• Outdoor or indoor adoption
events. Work with local Petsmarts, Petcos, pet supply stores, community
wellness centers, festivals and carnivals to set up booths presenting dogs and
cats from shelters, and literature about the shelters.
• Arrange ongoing creative
vehicles, and redesign a shelter's website to reflect new culture of life,
with a new name, e.g., Friends of Best Friends.
• Conduct an active search engine
optimization campaign for the website.
• Air public service spots on
television and radio, and complement those with animal photos on major
websites like Craigslist.
* Recruit animal/pet loving
celebrities and politicians who consent to appear on these PSAs
• Follow-up with speaking
appearances by shelter officials at PTAs, churches, synagogues, Kiwanis and
Rotary clubs, as well as in-studio appearances on radio/TV. Use those venues to
announce off-site adoption events, and incorporate effective signage allowing
traffic to shelters.
• Help to increase pet retention.
The shelter must be perceived by the community as a place to turn to for advice
and support on how pet owners can keep their animals at home. Advice can
include everything from discipline and house-breaking training programs to
neutering programs to food budget savings.
• Volunteers. An impassioned,
dedicated and large group of volunteers needs to be the lifeblood of the
shelter, often complementing too few-in-number paid staff. Recruit volunteers
at booths showcasing animals at festivals, carnivals and local pet
supermarkets. Heading the Volunteer Corps should be a humane, paid (or retired)
director of volunteers. Reports from other shelters indicate that more
enthusiastic volunteers will be recruited after it's known that a transition to
no-kill has occurred.
* Rescue groups currently
account for only a relatively small percentage of animals saved. They need to
be encouraged to pull as many animals as possible from a shelter -- and not get
discouraged from doing so. And that includes not only purebreds but the many
greater-in-number and wonderful mixed breeds as well. Rescuers free up cage and
kennel space, and reduce costs for feeding, cleaning -- and killing. They need
our support, not our discouragement.
• Feral cat TNR programs.
Trap, neuter and release programs have been effected by a number of communities
across the country to reduce death rates.
• Proactive redemptions. Often
overlooked are lost animal reclaims. Sadly, besides having pet owners fill out
a lost pet report, very little effort is made in this area. Becoming more
proactive has proven to have a significant impact on life-saving and allow
shelters to return a large percentage of lost animals to their families.
• It is essential that those who
oversee these shelters are not of an anti-life culture, where the fate of these
sensitive, unconditionally loving and vulnerable animals are an absolute
non-priority. Shift to staff, from top to bottom, of those who wish to find
loving homes for these wonderful animals, and who embody a culture of life.•
Read animal advocate Nathan Wingrad's book,
Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation.”
Mike talked about what others can do,
“Ultimately, the best way to ensure change is a massive campaign by voters who
are pet lovers, in a well organized and orchestrated way. It will take leadership.
And it will take funding from private citizens. Nathan Winograd can point the
way.
There are millions of Harrys who are
murdered each year at our county shelters. "Euthanize" is too bland a
word for what occurs. Dragging innocent, vulnerable dogs to the killing rooms,
screaming along the way -- knowing their fate -- where they are laid on cold
metal tables and injected with poison, all the while trembling with fright.
This is an atrocity -- and it must end.
When you visit an animal shelter,
walk up close to a dog or cat, and really look at it, appreciating it for its
life and being. You can see and feel that you have simply connected with life,
not only its life but your life. Then you can love it as you love yourself.”
Mike background and contact
information, he is a writer, editor-in-chief of www.Enrichment.com, host of The
Enrichment Hour on Sedona Talk Radio, publicist, TV interview trainer and last, but not least, animal advocate. E-mail him at moschwager@aol.com.
Leave your thoughts, both Mike & I are interested!
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