Marius Lupascu

The No-Kill Shelter Movement

The Humane Society of Utah is a part of an initiative led by Best Friends Animal Society,
called No-Kill Utah that brings together individuals, city shelters, and an entire coalition of
animal welfare organizations to end the killing of dogs and cats in shelters throughout the
entire state of Utah by the year 2019. The plan is straightforward, provide spay/neuter services
where they are needed most so that fewer animals go into the shelters, and increase
adoptions so that more animals are placed into new homes. Its believed that together, we can
bring the number of pets killed in Utah shelters to zero according to the No-Kill Utah coalition.
(NKUT)
Imagine having a death sentence over your head, and hoping against hope for an
unlikely reprieve. It sounds cruel and unusual, but its reality for millions of animals living in pet
shelters according to Jennifer Lucich, a writer for The Environmental Magazine. Their fate rests
on their adoptability and the ability of a shelter to accommodate them. About five million cats
and dogs are killed every year in the U.S. because there is not enough room to house them in
adoption centers, and not enough people adopting. The no-kill shelter movement, which
saves the lives of healthy and treatable dogs and cats, is an attempt to derail that grim cycle.
According to Maddies Fund, a nonprofit rescue foundation that offers financial support for nokill shelters, "An adoption guarantee gives a community confidence that an animal shelter is
truly a shelter, that is, a respite on the way to a new loving home. When this happens, the
community becomes an active partner in saving lives."
The goal is to end the popular notion of shelters as a last resortand likely terminal
pointfor unwanted pets. When people can be confident that animals sent to the shelter will
not be euthanized, They wont abandon them on the street or leave them tied up in the
backyard, says Maddies Fund. And these healthy animals can then be placed, which then
reduces shelter deaths and euthanasia costs. (Lucich)
There are 5000 traditional shelters in the U.S., and only 250 are no-kill, so it remains a
small movement. But the no-kill movement is growing and shelters are popping up all over the
country. Jim Mason is a managing director of Two Mauds Foundation, which gives grants to

grassroots animal-protection organizations. He says that no-kill shelters can be successful

because the people organizing them are knowledgeable, dedicated and motivated.
Mason adds that transitioning to no-kill should be the goal for all shelters. This goal
has become a greater possibility because of Maddies Fund which has already given $33
million to the cause since 1999. The cities are working toward the no-kill goal through
innovative programs designed to increase the adoption of homeless pets and the number of
animals that are spayed or neutered. They key to building the no-kill movements success is to
challenge the status-quo, come up with new ideas, test results, capitalize on ideas and reject
disappointments, says Rich Avanzino, Maddies Fund President. Before going to work at
Maddies Fund, Avanzino was president of the San Francisco Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals and a leader in the citys transition to the countrys first no-kill policy in 1989.
He created a model pet shelter, which was inspirational in changing attitudes toward the care
and housing of homeless animals. The model shelter offers well-kept spacious living conditions
with an abundance of toys, playful volunteers and social interaction among the animals.
Despite the positive changes sparked by the no-kill movement, no-kill shelters are often
criticized for rejecting animals that managers dont think are adoptable. Mason says that in an
ideal world all needy pets would be accepted, but selectivity is necessary to ensure that all the
animals are eventually adopted. Even some animals already in no-kill shelters have difficulty
finding a home. Avanzino says the hardest obstacle to achieving a nationwide no-kill network is
the organizations that refuse to work together in achieving the common goal. He suggests that
shelters around the country should join together and stop the bash-and-trash in order to focus
on how to do a better job. But the no-kill movement is growing, albeit more slowly than its
impatient supporters would like to see. If the focus is kept on saving lives, miracles can
happen, Avanzino says. (Lucich). Looking at the other side of the fence, opponents to no-kill
shelters say the major hurdle is and always has been money. The Humane Society in
Lynchburg, VA has adopted a no-kill policy in 2010 and was asking the city to more than triple
its animal control subsidy to $396,000 by this year. In Austin, TX the animal control budget had
to be increased by about $2 million over three years. These are hard changes for councilmen
to approve when there isnt that much money to spread around says City Councilman Hunsdon
Cary of Lynchburg, VA. (Chalmers)
In conclusion I would like to reiterate what the No-Kill philosophy stands for. In the
words of Sylvana Wenderhold, author of No-Kill Shelters in the Animals Today magazine, it
generally means saving both adoptable (Healthy) and treatable dogs and cats, with euthanasia
reserved only for animals that cannot be rehabilitated because of illness or extreme
temperament. No-kill programs require comprehensive desexing and public education
programs combined with strategies to prevent animals from coming to the shelter in the first
place. These strategies consist of thorough adoption programs and a strong partnership with
local animal control agencies that includes a contract to take all adoptable animals from the
council facilities for adoption. (Wenderhold)

Works Cited

Chalmers, Mike Costly no kill shelters leave officials with tough choices 3/7/2012. USA
Today, Web
Lucich, Jennifer "Thou shalt Not Kill" May/Jun2005. E: The Environmental Magazine, Vol. 16
Issue 3, p14-16
NKUT What is NKUT? nkut.org, Web
Wenderhold, Sylvana "No-kill Shelters" 2004. Animals Today, Vol. 12 Issue 1, p22-23