Straight Outta No-Kill

It is an AMAZING feat to turn a county from "Kill" to "No-Kill"... Ventura County Animal Services committed to the movement in the summer of 2012 and achieved No-Kill status in January of 2014.  

TLC just invested our precious, few financial resources to create this 4'x6' poster we are now hanging on the side of the rescue rig each adoption Saturday...But as amazing as that is?  It is MANY MORE TIMES harder to sustain No-Kill once the goal of saving at least 90% or more of the healthy, adoptable animals is achieved.

Why is this?  Now, I am not an authority on No-Kill, and I can speak for ONLY TLC... NOT the county or the other rescues, or even the general public... 

But as someone in the trenches, fighting for this every day of my life, I have some observations that I would like to bring to the forefront of your consciousness... Some of these ideas you might not even have thought about yet, but I hope by mentioning them, you consider them and join the movement, or at least take the time to spread the word.

In 1975, our KILL rate was 75%... So basically, for every 10 dogs that went into the shelter, only two made it out alive... Pretty grim numbers, huh?

Fast forward 40 years and in 2015, the stats were reversed... For every 10 dogs that went through the shelter's doors, at least eight made it out alive... The challenge (in my mind) would have always been which one of the two had to die... And I never envied the shelter officers for the very hard decisions they had to make each and every day!  Which of the two dogs in the ten would you have chosen to die?

The concept of No-Kill is that no healthy, adoptable animal must die... You will ALWAYS have some animals that die, even in the best of circumstances... Owners will bring terminally-ill dogs to a shelter, unable to afford the high cost of euthanasia charged by vet offices... Animals will arrive as strays, too hurt to keep alive with any quality of humane life... Aggressive dogs that are a threat to the overall safety of our community... But your goal is to achieve at least a 90% save rate... 

So now that Ventura County has gotten there, why are we having such a hard time and immense struggle to maintain this?... Again, my thoughts and opinions based only upon my interaction with the general public and the comments they have made... 

• "Well, now that Ventura County is No-Kill, we need to start saving other animals in high kill counties surrounding us"... (huh?  Other counties need to commit to No-Kill and work as hard as we have - we cannot 'import' their problems or failure to commit into our community and eventually start killing our animals again!)
• "It is still a pound and I don't trust them..." (never mind that our politicians, tax payers and the general public have committed HUGE amounts of dollars and energy turning this around!)
• "The shelter only has Chihuahuas and Pit Bulls - I don't want to adopt either of those kinds of dogs"  (So because of their breed, you sentence them to die?  It is NOT the breed, but the owner on the other end of the leash that determines the kind of canine hooked to the leash!)
• "I only want a purebred (fill in the adjective) dog and the shelter never has those kinds."  (An average of 35-40% of the dogs showing up in America's shelters are actually purebreds without papers... The majority of dogs come into shelters through NO fault of their own, but because of lifestyle changes in the owner's lives... they are not 'damaged' but more victims of the circumstances in the owner's lives - losing their home, job, relationship, etc.)

I can go on with the list, but these are the majority of comments I hear... 

Allow me - indulge me here - to share that people selecting a dog to save based upon their breed is actually profiling... And we don't like that as a society when it pertains to humans... It is no different than saying that 'all fat people are lazy' or 'all ________ (fill in country of origin) are ________ (fill in adjective)'... 

You cannot paint any breed of dog with a broad paint brush like this, and sentence them to die based upon their breed, no more than you can discount overweight folks as 'lazy'....

As you can see from this photo, Momma (DNA confirmed as a "Pitty") does not fit the profile of being aggressive or vicious... I have numerous photos that I can post that show it is NOT the breed, but the owner (me) on the other end of the leash that has determined what kind of canine citizen she is... 

Yes, our shelter has a lot of Pit Bulls and Chihuahua mixes... At any given time, our rescue center could have 60+ small breeds, and it was ALWAYS the Terrier, Poodle, 'fluffy scruffy' mixes that were the 'yappy' small dogs everyone hates... Not the Chihuahua mixes that would be causing the ruckus when a new person same in to see them... 

Do you kill a dog because the previous owner did not train them properly?... Do you kill a dog because of their breed and the probable incorrect reputation that breed might have?... Or do you kill a dog because of their age?... (I'd be in trouble then because I am overweight and an old lady... I am glad this kind of mindset has not flowed over to the human species... yet...)

We as a community and society need to speak up and out, every day, against those who are not supporting No-Kill in this county... There is absolutely no reason someone would need to buy a dog or puppy off of the Internet, from a back-yard breeder or even at a pet store when we have dogs waiting patiently at our shelters to be adopted... There are numerous dogs on Craigslist every day, placed there by owners that need to surrender them, and if no help is given, the dog will end up in our shelter system... 

If you have a friend or relative that has a dog who is not spayed or neutered, ask them why they are shortening the dog's life by not doing this... Intact dogs (both female and male) have a MUCH higher rate of cancer and by not spaying and neutering, the owner is actually lowering the number of years of life with that dog... Unless you are showing a purebred dog in dog shows, there is no other reason to keep a dog intact... 

An issue not spoken about is an issue that gets forgotten... All of us need to contact our politicians and make sure that we are heard... We do NOT want to lose No-Kill in Ventura County... We do not want to go back to killing our animals in the shelter system... We want to leave the legacy of No-Kill to the next generation to carry it on and even less animals have to die... 

If we, as a county, could turn this huge 'cruise ship' around in 40 years to go from killing 8 out of 10 dogs to saving 8 out of 10 dogs, we cannot let this fail... It is VERY easy to turn a 'speed boat' around on a dime, but extremely hard to turn a 'cruise ship'... The concept, system and physicality of No-Kill is very much a 'cruise ship'... It is huge, took a LOT of hard work and sweat equity (let alone too many animals dying before it took root) to lose in one generation... 

Help me by getting word out... Talk to your politicians TODAY... They do listen if they are contacted... Tag your support with #nokillvc to show you are support of this movement... Post your favorite photo of your furbaby on your Facebook page with that hash tag... Start a conversation next time there is a pregnant pause and ask who has rescued their pet... You will be amazed at the good you can do, if you just try... 

Paws crossed for No-Kill in our county and my lifetime,
Linda
Director, TLC

Hot dog in car....

Yet again... This time I am publishing the license plate... 

I am sitting inside my vehicle waiting for my husband in a parking lot (First and Easy Street) and I happen to look over at the car parked aside of us... It is 11:19AM this morning and it is 72 degrees here in Simi Valley according to the Weather Channel... Beautiful blue Pit who has its water bowl (collapsible) tied to its color with a clip... Dog is panting... 

Owner of the silver BMW two door coupe comes back to his car at 11:38AM and I'm thinking, "Great!  He's not leaving that poor dog in that hot car any longer"... Instead, he turns the car on, the A/C on and rolls down the windows about 6"... Gets a duffle bag out of the back seat of his car and goes back into the laundromat!

I continue to watch the dog, whose tongue is now hanging out the side of its mouth and dripping saliva... The dog is REALLY panting heavily now... 

I get out of my vehicle and I walk into the laundromat.... I politely tell the man his car is too hot for that dog to be left inside... He tells me to "Mind your own damned business and get the f*ck out of my face"...

I (now insulted) reply that it does not take but 10 minutes for the temperatures inside a hot car to rise, making it unsafe for the dog's health... His next response was worse than the first one, and I in turn reply that it is that legally OK in the State of California  for me to get that dog out of a hot car --- even if I have to break the glass --- after notifying law enforcement... 

He tells me that if I touch his car, he's going to break my hands and my face... 

I headed back to my vehicle to grab my cell phone and call the police... By this point, the dog's chest is palpating in and out like a squeeze box... This is HEAVY breathing... And I have been watching this dog for 24 minutes already... The dog has gone from being too hot and panting to full out drooling and the chest is caving in and out, panting!

I have my cell phone and dialing for the police when this guy comes out of the laundromat, screaming at me (and I admit, I am now just as loud as him) about what he plans on doing to me and my various body parts...

"This is a service dog" he tells me... If it is a service dog, the dog is allowed to go into the laundromat and the dog is wearing absolutely no indication it is a service dog... Why was it left in a hot car with the windows rolled up to begin with?

The guy gets in his car, pulls it over to the laundromat and starts loading up his laundry, hollering that I am a 'psycho broad'... By this point, my husband arrives and is watching and listening, looking at the dog... Owner loads up and takes off... 

So, to "Mr Dog Owner Who Does Not Care About His Dog"... read what the AVMA says about how rapidly the temperature inside a car climbs 

https://www.avma.org/public/PetCare/Pages/pets-in-vehicles.aspx

If you can't bring your 'service dog' inside a laundromat to wash your dirty clothes, maybe the dog should be left at home instead of being left to bake inside of your car.