The Lost Dog Home could go No Kill tomorrow

The Lost Dogs Home Managing Director, Graeme Smith has today claimed he’s aiming for…

… a zero euthanasia rate, with as many animals claimed and re-housed as possible

So if he’s truly interested in techniques that work to save the lives of pets and isn’t just paying lip service to the language of No Kill, what would he need to do to make ‘his’ dream a reality?

There are easily enough compassionate pet lovers in Victoria to solve the homeless pet problem should the Lost Dogs Home implement No Kill programs. Unfortunately however, even though The Lost Dogs Home are using the new No Kill language, they’re still very much stuck in a ‘kill’ mindset. When you examine the rest of the attitudes featured in the article, the hurdles that they need to overcome are glaringly obvious.

Hurdle to No Kill Number 1. – The Lost Dogs Home must take responsibility for its adoptions

… we need more support and we’ve got to convince the public to get a cat or dog from here

Having people adopt isn’t a given; especially when other sources of pets offer a more welcoming atmosphere, a better location and more convenient opening hours.

The promotion of adoptable animals using the internet, the media and local community resources to get the word out about rescue pet adoption is vital. Pet owners and the pets themselves should be painted in a positive light and the Who’s for Cat program should be scrapped as it detracts from the positives of cats in the community. And
adoption adverts like this:

I am an older dog looking for a new home. I will make a great pet for the right person however I may soon require veterinary treatment for diseases of old age such as arthritis and heart disease. I have had some grass seeds removed from my fluffy feet and have some meds to take home. My coat will need regular grooming and my new owner will need to check for stray grass seeds at this time of the year. I also am showing mild evidence of Hip Dysplasia. This isn’t canusing (sic) me any problems at the moment, but may require Veterinary attention in the future. Weight loss, swimming and joint supplements in my diet would help prevent my condition from progressing.

Where not a single nice thing is said about the pet have to go.

Special adoption events like these Twighlight adoption evenings, and off-site adoptions are vital to improving their adoption rates.

Also, they need to start opening when people can actually visit the shelter.

The Lost Dogs Home is open Monday to Friday: 10.00am to 4.45pm. The average person works 8am- 5pm, so would be unable to visit weekdays, without taking time off work. The weekend hours (Saturday and Sunday: 9.00am to 12.30pm) give the average adopter exactly 3.5hrs on a Saturday and 3.5hrs on a Sunday to visit the North Melbourne shelter. 7hrs per week for adoptions is hardly customer focused.

The new No Kill Lost Dogs Home’s media will focus on adoption and the positives of pet ownership. They will be open until 6 or 7pm weeknights for adoptions and animal reclaims. They will also look to extend their weekends into full trading days; 9am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday. They will also be open on public holidays, especially over the xmas holiday period.

Hurdle to No Kill Number 2. – The Lost Dogs Home must increase its capacity

“We are in between a rock and a hard place,” Dr Smith said. “We’ve been given the job because the councils don’t want the job.”

It’s a wonderful opportunity that The Lost Dogs Home has been given. By being allowed to impound the lost and stray animals of Victoria, they have been handed an enormous capacity to harness community compassion, including a donor base of pet-lovers worth between $4 and $5 million dollars annually. They are easily one of the richest shelters in Victoria and all because local councils have entrusted animals into their care.

That said, there is no obligation for them to take on more animals than they can reasonably care for. Every private organisation has the right to decide what kind of role it plays in the community and choosing to continue to promote lethal forms of animal control is completely up to the management of the shelter.

If they don’t want to hand off some of their animal control contracts to other shelters with capacity (a completely viable option), then they must increase their own capacity. Internal programs such as foster care networks, volunteer programs and rescue group outreach, allow treatable pets to receive the care they need.

Foster care networks allow pregnant mums and bubs time away from the shelter to grow, dogs with treatable behavioural issues can be given a home environment to practice becoming better pets, and capacity to care for sick animals gives them time to get well.

Rescue group outreach involves connecting with the other rescue groups in the community to expand capacity, connect with more adopters and guarantee more pets homes.

A volunteer program will allow dogs to be given in-shelter behavioural training including daily walks, relaxation training, basic obedience and other drills which improve confidence.

The new No Kill Lost Dogs Home will recognise that working with the community allows them to expand their capacity to treat pets. They will run an extensive foster care program to give treatable animals a chance to get well. They will welcome volunteers to assist with animal care, rescue groups to take overflow animals and invest heavily in veterinary and behavioural rehabilitation.

Hurdle to No Kill Number 3. – The Lost Dogs Home must take charge in changing the Victorian legislation

Under the Domestic Animals Act, stray animals that were sick, deformed, aggressive, pregnant, anti-social or had known vices such as excessive barking could not be adopted, he said.

The Lost Dogs Home operates under the Domestic Animals Act, and is a member of the Domestic Animal Management Implementation Committee (DAMIC);

This committee was formed in 2002 to advise the Department of Primary Industries on matters related to the management of domestic animals in Victoria. Its purpose will be to advise on policy, programs, municipal council partnership, review the Domestic (Feral and Nuisance) Animals Act enforcement, co-ordination with other relevant committees and any matter the Minister refers to it.

They have had a hand in the legislation as it stands, now they must have a hand in now moving it in a lifesaving direction.

First, they must lobby the board which they already sit on, to have any of the legislation that causes treatable pets to die unnecessarily removed. This includes restrictions on broad use of community foster care networks, the transfer of treatable pets to rescue groups with capacity for further care and the removal of adoption deadlines like the ’28 days then euthanase’ rule.

A large scale community based campaign, asking Lost Dog Home supporters to join them in advocating for change, would have huge support should it mean more friendly, treatable animals would be given the chance to get well and find homes.

Hurdle to No Kill Number 4. – The Lost Dogs Home must reduce its intakes

“We don’t have any control over the type of animals that come in”

One of the greatest realisations of a No Kill Director, is the recognition that each life is valuable and that it is no longer acceptable to kill one simply to make space for another.

Along with increasing capacity, there are programs which reduce intakes and therefore reduces the number of pets needing to be processed.

– Counseling sessions for surrendering owners; If you ask people to help solve the problem, and give them the resources and support to do so, most will. Surrendering owners should be interviewed as to why they want to surrender the pet and counseling offered whatever problems they might be having. If they are unable to afford vet care, programs to support low-income earners to owners to keep their pets should be offered. These kinds of programs have been shown to reduce surrenders by 40%.

– Feral cats; programs which call on the community to round up and impound stray cats, require thousands of unadoptable animals to be processed that could have been desexed and left to live out their lives. Rather than ask people to impound cats, they should be offered free desexing vouchers and asked to redeem it at their local vet, with the understanding that many nuisance behaviours reduce once an animal is desexed. They must immediately halt the impounding of unowned cats without identification or microchip and ask that people instead allow them to desex strays and return them to where they were found.

– Fines for stray animals; one of the biggest reasons people didn’t collect their animals in 2008/09, was families under financial strain being unable to afford the fines they incurred. This meant animals who had families, were ending up on death row, not because they weren’t wanted, but because their families were too poor to save them.

The new No Kill Lost Dogs Home will work with owners to help them keep their pets, including access to free behavioural support and veterinary care if required. Stray cats complainants should be given access to outreach desexing programs, not encouraged to trap cats and local councils should be lobbied to waive the fines of owners who aren’t repeat offenders.

Hurdle to No Kill Number 5. – The Lost Dogs Home must stop blaming its public

“Dogs are not as well socialised in the west as they are in the east”

Rather than look to their public as ‘the problem’, No Kill shelter directors see that they are the solution. No shelter ever got to No Kill by blaming and acting as adversaries to their communities.

No Kill directors also recognise that by offering support networks for the most vulnerable pet owners in the community, they reduce intakes and save the lives of pets. The Lost Dogs Home, like most shelters serve both very rich suburbs right through to the poorest. But rather than blame sections of the community for what they’re not doing ‘right’, they need to start working to help them. Are the pets unsocialised? How could they get them to attend training? Is there a culture of young people and ‘tough’ dogs? How could they get them access good pet care information? If people are having pet problems, how could they encourage them to call first for help and advice, rather than just to surrender?

If the dogs entering the shelter aren’t socialised, intensive programs to help rehabilitate them for common and treatable behavioural problems are made even more vital. Veterinary behaviouralists, and behavioural trainers should make up a large section of the Lost Dogs Home employee workforce and a behaviour phone helpline developed to help owners before the animal ends up in the shelter.

The new No Kill Lost Dogs Home will stop blaming owners for Victoria’s pet problems and start engaging them in solutions. Behaviour advice and training should be free and easily accessible for the public and intensive rehabilitative programs made available to all treatable impounded animals.

But the biggest hurdle to No Kill at The Lost Dogs Home?

While it would be lovely to think of The Lost Dogs Home going No Kill, or ‘getting to a zero euthanasia rate’, unfortunately it is impossible for them to get there, doing the same thing they’ve always done and that’s got them to where they are now – you cannot kill your way to No Kill.

Celebrating a 1% reduction this year, or a 2% in three years only cements the idea that what they did a decade ago (rehomed some pets and killed the rest) is still appropriate today. In the face of alternatives and pressure from the community to eliminate the killing of healthy, treatable pets; to continue to defend a model that blames pet owners and treats pets like garbage to be ‘disposed of’ is obscene when so much wealth has been donated to save these animals.

The truth is out. The Lost Dogs Home could go No Kill tomorrow; the fact they don’t and won’t is not the fault of the public, but the failure-centric culture of the organisation itself.