06/05/2023
Important to be reminded by the No Kill advocacy group that the problem with animal shelters not having "room" being a bad pet owners problem is not true but is a problem with the bad shelter management itself! See the typical shelter caused problems as outlined by Nathan Winograd!
HTTPS://www.facebook.com/100064750654456/posts/641391968029153/?mibextid=gkx3sN
Honorable Assemblymembers,
The No Kill Advocacy Center is the nation’s leading organization working to end the systematic killing of animals in shelters. We help animal shelters increase placement rates, write animal protection legislation, and consult with government and private shelters worldwide. We also have extensive experience litigating against municipal shelters regarding their failure to comply with California’s Animal Shelter Law, known as the Hayden Act. In fact, I worked closely with Senator Tom Hayden and Assembly Member Tom McClintock, the Senate and Assembly sponsors, to pass the original legislation. We are writing in opposition to ACR 86.
ACR 86 is based on a fundamental mistruth: that the public is responsible for the crisis in California shelters. ACR 86 (falsely) claims, without evidence, that:
- People are surrendering their pandemic-related adoptions in large numbers;
- People are not adopting animals in sufficient numbers; and,
- People are failing to sterilize their pets.
Combined with the false claim that shelters are underfunded, ACR 86 concludes that shelters have no choice but to kill animals or turn them away, leaving them on the street to suffer. ACR 86 then proposes that the state and localities force people into “compliance” by punitive measures, which will disproportionately impact the pets of families experiencing poverty.
The facts do not bear out this view, as intakes are still well below pre-pandemic levels. Specifically, shelters took in 17% fewer dogs in 2022 than in 2019 but killed 2.3% more than the prior year. And while the killing of cats fell, more of them are being turned away and left on the street, including kittens.
Why is this happening?
Pandemic-related closures have been made permanent, including restricting hours and turning away potential adopters who visit the shelter without an appointment. Many shelters are also refusing to re-launch the programs and services they scuttled during the pandemic, including, among others, foster care, marketing and promotion, and robust adoption campaigns. These programs resulted in 95% - 99% placement rates, even with higher pre-pandemic intake rates.
In Orange County, the killing of adult dogs has more than doubled over pre-pandemic levels, although intakes declined by nearly 30%. And it is not lack of funding that is to blame. The shelter voluntarily refuses to fully open to the public despite taxpayers paying for a new $35,000,000 pet adoption center. Potential adopters are being turned away while staff kills the dogs they would adopt.
Dogs are not the only ones to suffer: the pound refuses to accept stray cats and kittens. Instead, people who find lost and abandoned cats are told to leave animals on the street, under the claim that “they will find their way home.” But sometimes, cats do not have a home to go back to. For example, when a pregnant cat showed up in the Orange County yard of a Good Samaritan, the woman did what she thought was responsible: allow the kittens to nurse and then wean before taking them all — mama and kittens — to the shelter.
Shelter staff told her to abandon the feline family where she found them. The woman explained that “Shadow” might not have a home. She did not have a collar and tag and was also pregnant when she was found. At any rate, the kittens certainly had no home to go to because they were not yet born and would not know where to go even if they did. Orange County shelter staff still turned them away.
This is not unique to Orange County. On May 13, the Palmdale Animal Care Center, part of the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control, had no cats available for adoption. All of the cages were empty. And yet it continued both turning away most cats and killing many of the ones it did allow.
Across California, other shelters are likewise taking in fewer animals but killing more, and doing so despite taxpayers paying them $400,000,000 yearly to do the job humanely. This largesse is in addition to the philanthropic dollars at their disposal. Giving to animal-related causes is the fastest-growing segment in American philanthropy, making animal-related charities like the ASPCA, Humane Society, and Best Friends some of the wealthiest charities in the world. Indeed, these three groups alone take in nearly $1 billion a year in annual revenues and control over $1.2 billion in assets. But instead of using it to help shelter animals, they spend it on salaries and fundraising, keep it in offshore accounts, or buy for-profit businesses that enrich founders and executives. The ASPCA spends only 2% on sheltered animals, while HSUS spends only 1%. And what little they do spend is often used to defend an unethical status quo: like opposing AB 595, now AB 491 (Bowie’s Law).
Bowie’s Law requires California shelters to notify rescuers before killing an animal, sparing the animal’s life and shifting the cost of care from taxpayers to private philanthropy. And given that such notifications are possible through shelter software already used by these facilities or available for free, complying would require nothing more than a stroke on a keyboard: one click to notify rescuers that a life needs saving.
Bowie’s Law was named after a shy 15-week-old puppy killed by Los Angeles County despite a rescue group willing to accept him (along with 20 other dogs that day rescuers were not told about). Bowie’s Law was written to make sure this doesn’t happen again.
Assemblymembers, we need real solutions like Bowie’s Law, not empty resolutions like ACR 86. Worse, ACR 86 would give shelters the political cover they need to continue killing and leaving animals on the street when it is within their power to do otherwise. That would not only be disappointing, it would cost animals their lives.
We request that you vote No.
Very truly yours,
Nathan J. Winograd
Executive Director
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Photo: On May 13, the Palmdale Animal Care Center, part of the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care & Control, had no cats available for adoption. All of the cages were empty. And yet it continued both turning away most cats and killing many of the ones it did allow.
