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

2 more reasons...

No, make that three more reasons to spay or neuter your pet... Their mom (Lady Love) almost lost her life bearing these two little munchkins on Saturday (2/13/16)... 

A teeny tiny little black doll baby of a Chihuahua, Lady Love should have NEVER gotten pregnant in the first place... And whatever male she bred with was much larger than she was... In turn, she carried and then tried to give birth to puppies that were much too large for her... 

Dumped in a shelter because she was pregnant, Lady Love MUST have been someone's loved and treasured pet at one time in her life... She's 'maybe' 4 pounds when not carrying pups, and just as friendly and cute as can be... 

Not one person comes into my nursery and does not comment on her beautiful appearance and personality... She has such a winning smile and is always SO glad to see you... Friendly as can be, Lady Love is a jewel and her owner should have spayed her so she would not have had to go through this... 

She began the birthing process EARLY in the morning on Saturday and struggled, struggled... FINALLY the first pup was born, and with due diligence, she immediately broke the sack, breathed life into her and cleaned her up... When the second pup began its way down the birth canal, Lady Love struggled once again... I could clearly see that this pup was far too big for her to birthing... 

I did everything I could in my 'experience rescuer tool box' and was seconds away from rushing her to the ER for an emergency C-section (a $1200 - $1800 procedure even for a rescue)... Lodged in between, I was not sure the pup and Lady Love would have survived the 12-minute race to the facility, so I did my very best... Once born between the two of us, Lady Love did her part with the placenta and I did mouth-to-mouth without success... A little boy, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge with supreme effort by all of us to no avail... 

The third and final pup was no different... A female myself who has given birth, I was cringing inwardly as I watched Lady Love strain to give birth to this pup... 

And I pushed aside the anger I felt towards the owner for not taking better care of this lovely female Chihuahua...  Not the time nor place - the puppies' lives were at stake along with their mom's life...   The anger could come later, so here it is...  Black dogs are the last to be adopted and the first to be killed in our shelters - it is our mindset about what colors are good and which are 'evil'... If you want to know more about this phenomenon, Google "Black Dog Syndrome"... We deal with it every day in rescue and at TLC offer a discount every Friday on the adoption donation in the hopes the black dogs find furever homes faster... 

And then... 

We kill an estimated 8 million pets in this country each year because we have an epidemic of unwanted homeless pets... Simply going and spay/neutering your pet will stop countless unwanted litters that have high mortality rates and moms that suffer unwanted pregnancies and deliveries... In my 36+ years of rescue work, I have bottle-fed countless litters whose mom has died, trying to give birth... Orphans without a mom, sometimes we save a majority of them - sometimes we lose the entire litter through nights and nights of 3-hour, round the clock feedings... 

I have taken on moms with prolapsed uterus issues, giving birth in fields where the pups and mom's uterus is loaded with grass clippings and fleas... We have taken in moms and dads plus the litter when the two pets were not spayed & neutered and the inevitable occurred... An unwanted pregnancy and an unwillingness to raise the puppies... 

If you cannot do the 'right thing' in regards to your pets, you really should not have them at all... And the 'right thing' is to spay or neuter your pets unless they are show dogs and have legitimate waivers to remain intact... I doubt few reading this blog post have a $6,000+ show dog but many do have pets that are still intact... 

There are SO many low cost spay and neuter options available to all of us... And if you allow your pet to remain intact, you GREATLY increase their chance of testicular or ovarian cancer, cutting short their life... Because you could not afford the $60 to do the 'right thing'?

Are you aware that conservative estimates now state that for every 10 puppies born in this country, only 1 will live out its normal, healthy life into old age?... The other nine will die early because of illness, neglect, car accidents, lack of yearly veterinary care, etc... What gives us the right to kill like this - intentionally or accidentally?

Before you believe you are not part of the problem because you do not have a pet, please allow me to share this fact with you... If you are a taxpayer in California, 8% of what you pay in taxes goes to the care, feeding, housing and eventually killing or adoption of unwanted homeless pets... Whether or not you own a pet... And until we as voters and taxpayers say, "Enough is enough" (whether you are talking to your legislators or to your neighbor who just HAD to buy that puppymill puppy that is still intact and will produce more unwanted offspring), we are ALL a part of the problem... 

Unwanted homeless pets and their offspring is everyone's problem and until we are ALL a part of solution, it is not going to go away, folks... Whether you have an intact male who is not neutered, or a female who is not spayed... Whether you do not own a pet but are not speaking out to those pet owners who leave their pets intact... 

We cannot sustain No-Kill here in Ventura County and across the State of California unless we all get behind the efforts to stop unwanted homeless pets from entering our shelter and rescue systems...  Please think of Lady Love and the struggle she had to bring these puppies into the world... 

The need for accurate reporting at local shelters...

Why Transparency?
by Maddie's Fund President, Rich Avaizino

"Many shelters say they don’t want to publish their statistics because the organization will look bad. If an agency fears looking bad, something is going on -- perhaps it’s not getting enough funding to do the job well, or it’s not properly supported by other animal welfare groups or the community. But if the organization isn’t getting the resources or backing it needs and large numbers of dogs and cats are dying as a result, shouldn’t the public know that? Don’t we owe it to the animals to tell the community what’s taking place in the shelter system, especially in public animal control facilities?  Not only does the public have the right to know, but once the information is exposed, there is greater opportunity for solutions to be found to reduce the killing. If the community doesn’t know what’s happening, it can’t help."

Read the rest of his editorial HERE and ask yourself if you really know what is going on in the local shelters in regards to euthanasia, numbers of animals being saved, etc.

NEWS: Animal control plan has benefits, study says

Animal control plan has benefits, study says

San Joaquin County considers partnership with Stockton

Dogs await possible adoption at Stockton’s animal shelter. A new report says a more regional approach to animal control could save taxpayer dollars while boosting officer resources. Some question the study’s accuracy, however.CLIFFORD OTO/The Record

By Zachary K. Johnson

Record Staff Writer

December 16, 2011 12:00 AM

STOCKTON - All but one of the seven cities in San Joaquin County have balked at the idea of pooling resources to create a countywide system for animal control.

But a partnership between the city of Stockton and county government could still form the foundation for a more regional approach to animal control that could, from the outset, save taxpayer dollars while reducing the number of stray dogs and cats killed in the county, according to Stockton's Animal Protection League, an animal advocacy group commissioned by the county.

At its meeting this week, the county Board of Supervisors stopped short of voting to authorize staff to develop a joint powers authority with the city. But the board directed its consultant to meet with other animal advocates, to continue gathering information and to come back early in the new year.

"Please all get together and talk this over so we can come to a realistic and compassionate answer," board Chairman Larry Ruhstaller said.

Such a plan could put more animal control officers in the field, offer programs that will help push down the number of animals killed and allow the construction of a joint shelter to replace the outdated and inadequate shelter currently used by the agencies, said Tammie Murrell, director of the Animal Protection League and a former Stockton deputy police chief. "That, we believe, will not only improve services ... but improve euthanasia rates ... and improve the care of the animals," she said.

About $7.6 million would be needed to build a new shelter. Before a shelter is built, however, Murrell said the merging of the two agencies would bring other benefits, including ways to cut down euthanasia through an adoption and foster program, spaying and neutering services, humane education and use of volunteers.

Because of the economy of scale, an in-house veterinarian and a licensing unit to bring in revenue, Murrell said the plan could shave about $430,000 from city and county operating costs that were a little more than $2 million in the 2009-10 fiscal year.

The plan allows for other cities to opt in at some future point. Since August, Lodi, Manteca and Escalon have shown interest in one or two components of a combined plan, but the other cities have shown no interest, according to the county.

Stockton's animal control and animal shelter are part of the Police Department. County government contracts with the city for the shelter. The county's animal control covers unincorporated land - from urban areas near Stockton to the county's rural reaches. Until this year, county animal control was part of the Agricultural Commissioner's Office. Now it is part of the Sheriff's Office.

The league's study doesn't include improvements made since the shift to the Sheriff's Office, said Ann Mooney, field representative for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, which represents county animal control officers. Mooney urged the board to not jump into discussions with the city without accurate and up-to-date information.

The study also drew fire from Eileen McFall, who said the study used systems with sky-high euthanasia rates as models. There are so-called "no-kill" models of shelters that save most of the animals they take in, said McFall, an animal advocate and professor at University of the Pacific.  "We could certainly be doing a lot better."

Contact reporter Zachary K. Johnson at (209) 546-8258 or zjohnson@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at recordnet.com/johnsonblog.

Yet another reason why Ventura County should be no kill....

Agree with us? 
Send an open letter to the
Ventura County Board of Supervisors
HERE.

First step for NO-KILL in Ventura County

These are the times I am so very proud of the humane community... The first real step towards 'NO KILL' has occurred here in Ventura County with the opening of SPARC - Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center.

On November 18th, Santa Paula city council considered a partnership with a nonprofit organization (SPARC) to create the first no-kill facility in Ventura County (news article here from the Santa Paula Times).

And on December 9th, the following article appeared in the Santa Paula Times: