Now xmas is over and the pressies are done with, I can tell you that the items I was wrapping earlier in the month were 400 copies of Redemption by Nathan Winograd.
This is a huge donation on behalf of Nathan to the rescuers of Australia. One I think shows quite clearly that he’s not in it for $$, but that’s it’s simply his life’s mission to see pets survive the shelter system.
The book blows apart the commonly held belief that pet owners are to blame for the killing of millions of adoptable animals each year. This conventional wisdom says, that if people cared more, they wouldn’t give pets up so easily and would desex them and be responsible, and that it is these irresponsible owner that cause all the problems… and that, that’s why so many pets are killed in shelters.
That’s exactly what I believed too and yet, after reading ‘Redemption’ … now I don’t.
Instead, Redemption puts the blame firmly back in the hands of under-peforming ‘shelter’ executives who, while failing to implement programs that would save the lives of animals, still proclaim themselves as experts and defend killing as “unavoidable” and No Kill as “unattainable”. Despite taking in millions of dollars every year, having the full support of a pet loving community and overwhelming evidence to the contrary, they repeat a now all-too-familiar cliche’ – “too many animals and not enough homes”. Killing animals, Winograd argues, has become systematic and unquestioned and defeatism, entrenched.
But his vision isn’t just theoretical. From Pet Connection blog;
In questioning the killing, he lays out the path to a different outcome.
The road to a “no-kill nation,†says Winograd, begins with shelters that no longer view killing adoptable pets as acceptable work for nonprofits formed to advance the humane treatment of animals. Shelters must enlist the pet lovers in the community as partners — not as enemies who must be punished with ever-harsher pet limit and neutering laws. Working harder to make a bad system work won’t fix it, he argues.
“Redemption†advances strategies that have worked in progressive shelters and offers point-by-point answers to those who have every excuse for why such plans won’t travel. City shelter? Done it. Rural shelter? Done it. Management of feral cats? Been there, done that, too.
Can a shelter go from a one-way door to the euthanasia room to 90 percent adoption rates? The answer is “yes†for any community willing to try, says Winograd, and the only thing stopping change is unquestioning acceptance of the way things have always been.
Vickie, JB and I have discussed the book for hours, it’s implications and the exciting and proven alternatives to killing it offers. We had always felt the key was engaging the community. We had always felt we should be marketing ourselves better. We had always felt that the people who love pets should be able to access shelters as a resource and as a support. And we had always felt that the next generation isn’t going to respond to hollow threats from finger wagging ‘compulsory desexing’ advocates; instead they need to be inspired by the promise of a better future.
That is really what this book is about – the promise that there is indeed a better way. The historically appalling kill statistics aren’t set in stone and that if we choose to examine the rescue industry warts and all and start using the language of success rather than a language of punishment and failure, we can inspire our community to help us.
There is success in our future and the blueprint is this book. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
The books arrive!
The production line - I put my mum to work!
Lookie how many we done! 400 to be exact :)
Redemption is a wonderful well researched and well written book that can help awaken people to the fact that we do not have to keep killing most of the animals that end up in the animal shelters. That we can do things differently and make saving pets instead of killing them a priority.
Thank you for blogging about NO-Kill and this important book!