**Warning – videos in this post include footage of animals being killed by lethal injection**
It is a pervasive idea that shelters and pounds who kill pets, are doing so with a compassionate heart and after every other avenue has been exhausted. And it has been the doctrine of these same high kill pounds and shelters to continue to push this notion, afraid that should the truth be exposured – that they kill easily, lazily and unnecessarily – that the backlash would be detrimental to their empires.
However, the truth will no longer stay hidden.
GAWS encouraged the trapping, impoundment and killing of feral cats, claimed the majority of the pets entering the shelter were untreatably aggressive, and killed pets for being non-english speaking. In fact, so high on killing were they, that in 2009/10 they killed 852 dogs and rehomed just 487 (they also ‘misplaced’ 217 dogs), and killed 2,426 cats, rehoming just 546.
But even those claims to shame were nothing compared to the behind the scenes videos that leaked onto the internet last week, showing just how callously the unfortunate ‘death row’ animals were being treated before they were killed.
These videos are a window to what is taking place behind the doors of pounds and shelters across the country. Rather than the ‘good death’ so often defended by killing apologists, we’re given a glimpse into a world where killing is antagonistic and methodical. Not only is it accepted, it is promoted in favour of alternatives to killing. Even when those alternatives are literally beating down the door in the form of foster homes, rescue groups and pet lovers looking to adopt.
Watching these videos is difficult. Their release on the internet caused shockwaves through the animal loving community. However, rather than listen to the pleas of pet lovers to change their ways, the staff involved defended their actions.
While the idea of a ‘good death’ at the hands of compassionate staff is the cornerstone of kill-sheltering, these videos show just how far from the truth that story often is. Around Australia, pounds and shelters who claim to ‘care’ for pets, yet kill them with heartstick, shoot them with guns or send them to university teaching hospitals for ‘non-revival’ surgery. They do so in enormous numbers – hundreds per day – while the strategies exist that would eliminate shelter killing overnight, are simply ignored.
But as in the case of GAWS, the community is the key to change;
‘GAWS Exposed’ community rally
Those who champion life over a quick death in a ‘shelter’, are finding their voice. Rather than being an anomaly, they are becoming a powerful movement; taking their message to the streets, where they find extraordinary support in the pet loving public. They are compassionate animal advocates, who find themselves working in uncompassionate surroundings. Or they are tax paying citizens who believe their government dollars should not be funding the wholesale slaughter of pets, in the face of alternatives.
GAWS is the first in a long line of No Kill community protests to come. The times are changing for the shelter animals of Australia.
The killing must stop.
I’m sorry, but stop judging animal care workers who are just doing their very best for animals that no one else wants. Do you think we like putting down animals? It is the most hated part of the job, but, it is a necessary part of the job. Despite all your idealistic notions, not all animals can be rehabilitated and rehomed, not everyone has unlimited people who are willing to take in animals when the shelter no longer has a single spare cage left, not everywhere has the dozens of foster carers which would be required to save every infant animal dumped at our door. We do our very best, sorry if it’s not good enough, but abusing those of us who do our best every day to give the best possible to these animals is not the way to change things. You want a different, encourage desexing of animals to eliminate the hundreds of unwanted litters, make people aware of the responsibility involved in owning a pet, so that people don’t realise too late that they can’t handle it, make sure that microchipping laws are enforced, so that strays can be returned to their owners. Or just help at your local shelter. You want to make a difference to these animals right now, that’s how you do it. You want to make sure these animals are given the love and attention they need, then get in there and help them get it.
Dear ‘shelter worker’,
If you believe there aren’t enough people to adopt homeless animals, if you believe there will never be enough foster carers, if you believe the killing needs to continue until people are more ‘responsible’, if you believe you are doing ‘enough’ when killing healthy, friendly pets, if you believe there is nothing more that can be done then please… find another job.
You are absolutely the problem.
The truth is, the loudest critics of kill pounds and shelters are the ones most driven to see them succeed. But kill shelters don’t want to be helped. They don’t want to give up the notion that their community is to blame. They don’t want to stop playing the victim. They don’t want to try new things. They don’t want to work harder and more effectively. They don’t want to work collaboratively with the community.
They simply want the critics to shut up.
But we will not be silenced. As more and more cities around the world eliminate shelter killing, we will accept nothing less for our own community’s homeless pets. They are simply too precious to be discarded.
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The furphy that there aren’t enough homes for dogs at least, is just not true. On a macro level it’s been proved at any number of sites both in Australia and overseas that the homes are there if even a minimum effort is made to find them.
As a rescuer I know, to my heartbreak, that if I had more money, more carers and more time, we could save many more than we do now. Our re-homing rates are not limited by lack of good homes but by our own limitations.
Compulsory desexing is going to have minimal effect on numbers because responsible people are already desexing their pets, and irresponsible people aren’t going to change their ways because of more legislation. And if we throw up our hands and say “oh, if only people were more responsible it would be all better” is just giving up.
Pounds and shelters can improve their rehoming rates significantly by doing very small things; such as listing their animals on websites, being open convenient hours, working with rescue groups and foster carers. Even quite minimal changes can make a big difference.
The pounds who are happy to work with rescue, even if they don’t do anything else can improve their kill rate without much more effort than some extra phone calls.
I don’t wish to demonise shelter workers, but sometimes a sharp wake up call is necessary to get people to realise that they are slaves to a fixed idea which has no real basis in fact. I know lots of pound workers and animal control officers who go the distance to try and get as many animals out alive as they possibly can. Instead of blaming people they roll up their sleeves and do the work necessary to save lives.
If a single ranger in an economically disadvantaged rural area can manage a 95% save rate through working with rescue, I can’t see why a much better resourced pound can’t do it when they have rescue groups banging at the door to help and an entire city of potential homes at their doorstep.
I spend all my spare time and money on helping unwanted animals, as do most rescue groups. We do it for nothing; we volunteer our time and resources because it’s a job worth doing. And if we had more time and money we could do much more.
But I think it’s time that pounds stepped up to the mark and did their part in recognising that the care of unwanted animals is their responsibility and that maybe it’s a bigger responsibility than simply blaming the public because they choose to kill.
If there aren’t enough foster carers or rescue groups able to help then maybe a way forward is to start actively recruiting help; instead of blaming the community start asking them to help. Put energy and commitment into making things better because in the end that will be to the benefit of shelter workers as well as the animals.
Nicely said Katrina
I’m sorry, but where did I say that we didn’t want the situation to change? Where did I say that we aren’t trying desparately to save as many animals as possible?
We do our very best to foster out as many animals as we can, I have fostered dozens myself, but that doesn’t change the fact that dozens more have and will come in that we cannot find people to care for. We DO call people to try and get an animal fostered. We DO have a website with all our available animals, we DO use the newspapers and the radio to make people aware of the animals that need homes.
We DO take help wherever we can get it, without the many donations from the public we would never be able to feed all the animals in our care, let alone rehome them.
We DO work with other shelters and pounds to try and save more animals, our shelter is the main one which takes in animals from other shelters in the area when they don’t have the resources for them! And when possible we then transfer animals onto other bigger shelters in other areas. Sometimes, however, it just isn’t an option, because the other shelters are also full, but at least we try.
And for those who believe that we at fault for not being open for people, we are open every single day of the year, for nearly the entire day.
I am not blaming the public for our current situation, we would never survive without them, however blaming those of us who are doing our best will not solve the problem either.
We are doing our best. No matter what you think of it, that is the honest truth. We do not WANT to euthanize animals, it is a horible part of our job. But when the alternative is to have two or more dogs to a cage or 6 cats to a cage, which is designed for one. And that IS the only other option when we can’t find people to foster or adopt these animals. Is that what you would rather? Yes euthanizing an animal is a horible thing to have to do, but at least then we can give the rest of the animals a chance at a decent life. You can hate me for that if you like, you can tell me that there is never a reason to euth. You aren’t the one who has to deal with these animals every day, to have to struggle to give them each the love and attention they need, when we are so overful and short staffed, with so little help despite our best efforts.
You try being the one who has to look those animals in the eye when they die and see how you feel. When you have cared for this animal for weeks, or even months, hoping to be able to give that animal a second chance in life, only to find that no one else is willing to give it that chance.
Being a shelter worker is a difficult job. If you want to make an honest difference in these animals lives, then get in there and help. Complaining about it on the internet achieves nothing. Get into your local shelter and HELP US. Then you can start making a difference
Do you know what absolutely fails to save the lives of pets? A moratorium on comparing the performance of difference pounds & shelters because the workers are ‘trying their best’.
The killing of healthy, treatable pets is unnecessary. We know that because of the dozens of whole communities, hundreds of shelters and rescue groups, who have used the No Kill Equation and stopped killing.
I have no way of knowing if your shelter could make improvements; do you have 50 foster carers or 500? How many off-site adoption locations are you using? Do you run free or discount adoption events? Are there after hours or ‘twilight’ times people can visit you? What lifesaving programs do you offer untame cats? Does a professional photographer take beautiful photos of your animals and does a skillful copywriter put together profiles that really pop? Have you eliminated unnecessary hurdles to adoption, making your adoption criteria straightforward & flexible? Have you identified ‘problem’ areas in your community to target with dog training & free pet desexing?
I suspect if you were to read the resources of the No Kill movement and dig a little deeper, there would be dozens of improvements your group could make, and should want to make, in contrast to simply defending the idea that pounds should be above criticism.
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