December 4, 2008Comments are closed.adoptions, advocacy, attitude, No Kill
Phoning around to rescues today I’ve been privy to some absolutely fantastic tales of success and very, very good news.
For example;
– A rescue that has had such a successful two months, that their local pounds are empty for the first time ever.
We have to kill pets. We can’t adopt them all.
– A group director that has been so inspired by new, positive sheltering techniques from the US, that it’s rekindled her passion for rescue and connected their group with adopters and the public in a new and profound way.
We have years of experience and know everything. We don’t need to visit other countries.
– A rescue group so capable, that they’ve expanded beyond their own backyard and are now profiling and temperament testing dogs in pounds all over, helping improve death row pet adoptions.
We’re under resourced. We can’t help you.
– A group who’s first effort at a fundraising event inspired their community so profoundly, that they needed a much, much, much bigger venue.
This economy means no one will support us.
And many, many other examples of how when inspired, creative and dedicated, and with the community engaged, that there is absolutely nothing a group can’t achieve.
If you’re struggling and whining and hate your public – then know that there are groups having huge success and are not struggling, whining. And they love their public
And that they are the future and you’re not.
So much energy in rescue is spent sniping and criticising and defending the status quo that could be used to come up with ways to improve our rescues. So much time is spent tearing down the efforts of others, that could be used to celebrate and promote our successes.
I myself am guilty – we all have been at some stage. But today is a new day and I’m going to make an effort to associate with the groups that totally ‘get it’. And rather try and change the sniping and venomous – we’re just going to leave them in our dust.
For restoring my faith; to all of you – thankyou.
So how do we go about changing the pounds views of liability? In WA this is huge problem trying to convince Head Rangers to release dogs to rescue or even rehome to the public.
Posting dogs pics up on petrescue of dogs from a certain WA pound came with copyright issues and the pound admin staff not being able to cope with the calls.. (The dogs couldnt be released without being sterilised or confirmation that they were booked in to be done). Although most at that particular councils ranger services couldnt see the problem including the IT department, one or two did and I can no longer do it even though it brought about reduced number of dogs being pts for a few weeks…. you would think the council would be greatful for less expenditure costs as I know it isnt cheap to euthanise a dog, but I wonder if they even know that I have been told I can no longer do this or what thier views are as a whole? I know for one I am hesitant to question them for fear of not being able to rescue from there anymore, like another well known group has been banned… it is always such a big balancing act in WA. On a positive note another rescue group I communicate with regulary will now rescue from this particular pound also when they can and we have been working together to help a few dogs of late.
Plenty of people are willing to adopt direct from the pound in my experience but convincing the Councils and Head Rangers in another thing.
One pound in suburban Perth will no longer rehome to the public at all and only one rescue is able to rescue from there, who only takes in small dogs, majority of which are not small dogs.
If dogs can be adopted direct from the pound that will make room for the most needy ones to come to rescue and save local councils money at the same time but how do we change the views of people in charge, that have doing this for many years with regards to both rescue and the public?.
Rather than being about individual rescues convincing individual pounds to release to rescues or sell to the public, the capacity to change council policies is rooted in the whole community rejecting the idea that pets have to die in the shelter system.
As a society we are demanding more transparency – all non-profits and commercial businesses are being scrutinised like never before. This means councils are being pressured by the public to perform and the major criteria to performing well in animal management is actually saving the lives of the pets that you are encharged to care for.
The change from the outdated perception that a pet killed is a necessary evil, to a new awareness that it’s a failure on the part of the system to save that animal, is simply a natural evolution in an industry that for a long time hasn’t been answerable, with high kill rates being hidden or excused away. Now there’s a growing culture of these department being audited and held accountable by their public.
We in the industry can’t do it alone. We can neither improve the system or save the pets without the support of our communities. And building awareness that pets being killed is completely avoidable is a huge part of that.
So what do we do to make the public aware?
Write in letters to our local newspapers?
I dont think that would go down too well with Ranger Services.
Dealing with pounds is a very “tread carefully” situation no matter how long you have been working with them.
Any sort of questioning them could find you no longer being allowed to rescue from there, even if it is in the form of making the public more aware of what goes on.
I dont think its about individual rescues either, but even try finding rescue groups that are actually willing to work together to change things and make the public more aware and you wont get very far.
I believe there’s a giant difference between difficult and impossible. And so much of the language we use as rescuers is about re-enforcing how impossible things are, when they’re not; they’re simply difficult.
There are absolutely groups having success using No Kill models (the examples of these were in the OP), and who have changed their dialogue from ‘it can’t be done and it’s hopeless’ to ‘how can we make this work?’.
They’ve engaged their local pounds in a constructive and non confrontational way. They’ve taken their stories to the public and inspired them (this isn’t about ‘blowing the whistle’ so much as making people aware that there’s a fixable problem going on in their communities). They’ve spent time finding solutions to problems, not problems with solutions.
As a commuity we can absolutely take any council to No Kill, no matter who’s running it or what their agenda is. But the very first step has to be believing it’s possible to do so.
I think its possible, very possible. I just want to know how to go about doing it, as it isnt happening in WA yet as far as I am aware.
There are two recent threads on DOL that I find interesting. From discussion with other rescuers in other states aswell as reading their posts you will often hear terms like “not everything with a heart beat should be saved”.
One thing in WA I find positive is the fact that so many groups and individuals involved in rescue are willing to take on dogs that have health problems that are treatable and behavioural problems.