One of the things we need to decide as a community is just how much killing we’re willing to accept from our pounds and shelters. Because of the enormous diversity in how these organisations operate, we have shelters who choose to kill very few animals (either low kill, or No Kill shelters) and those who choose to kill many of the animals that are left unclaimed at their facilities.
What is vital to understand is that a shelter’s level of killing is a choice driven by a shelter’s management and supported by that organisation’s culture.
There are several ways this culture impacts kill rates;
– By taking on more pound contracts and animal intakes than a facility can reasonably process, a shelter will drive kill rates UP.
Examples include ‘mega-pound’ facilities which impound animals from dozens of local council and collect millions of dollars of revenue from pound tenders and contracts. The artificially inflated animal impound figures keep kill rates high, while the shelter kills then complains of pet ‘overpopulation’.
– By developing the programs of the No Kill equation a shelter can bring kill rates DOWN.
We see when pounds start to work with rescue and foster carers, promote their pets to the public and examine their customer experience, their kill rates immediately begin to plummet.
– By comprehensively driving to eliminate killing as a tool the shelter relies on for population control, a compassionate and proactive shelter manager can eliminate shelter killing.
Or what is referred to as ‘No Kill sheltering’, where animal euthanasia is only used in the true sense of the word – for suffering and untreatably ill pets with a poor prognosis for recovery.
In the last ten years, the number of dogs unclaimed at the RSPCA NSW shelters has fluctuated, most likely due to adding and losing various pound contracts in the state.
While the percentage of unclaimed dogs killed has remained constant – a mediocre 50+%.
Meaning in RSPCA NSW shelters, more than 1 in every 2 unclaimed dogs are killed. This is despite having a 2010/11 revenue of $50 million (NSW only).
Victorian dogs don’t fare much better with the Lost Dogs Home unclaimed dogs leveling off around 5,000 animals per year.
While the kill rate for unclaimed dogs has sat at more than 60% each year up until last year where they killed 55% of unclaimed dogs.
Meaning at The Lost Dogs Home, more than 1 in every 2 unclaimed dogs are killed (a rate which has only seen an improvement down from nearly 70% in the last two years). Their 2010/11 revenue was $12 million.
The RSPCA Victoria unclaimed dog rate has been consistently falling;
Mirrored by the kill rate which has dipped to 40% or less in the last two years;
That means that one in every three unclaimed dogs are killed. The RSPCA Victoria’s income for the 2010/11 year was $31 million.
When we look at the performance of local pounds and shelters who have engaged rescue groups and volunteer foster carers, expanded their adoption programs and embraced online technologies to reduce killing, are these rates of killing acceptable?
When the number of community rescue groups and the awareness of rescue has never been higher, and the revenue of just these three organisations for a single year was more than $90 million – why are one in every two (or three) unclaimed dogs still dying?
Why doesn’t an almost unimaginable amount of money, resources and exposure save them?
In the last ten years, the number of cats unclaimed at the RSPCA NSW shelters has been steadily increasing;
While the numbers of cat killed maintains a constant 60+%.
Unclaimed cats and killing run nearly one-for-one at The Lost Dogs Home;
9 out of 10 unclaimed cats are still being killed at the LDH.
While the RSPCA VIC unclaimed cat numbers have remained pretty constant, at around 15,000;
While the percentage killed sits are around 60%.
With the myriad of programs known for keeping cats out of shelters, why are so many still being impounded and killed?
How an organisation chooses to conduct itself, or that organisation’s culture dictates what are and aren’t acceptable behaviours and beliefs for staff. Despite claims to the contrary (ie. ‘no one wants to kill pets’), the long-term trends at each of these shelters reflect the culture of each one.
The kill rate percentage stays constant even as the intake rates fluctuate higher and lower, because the organisation’s culture supports it doing so. It is the kill rate which management accepts. It is the kill rate which staff believe is ‘out of their hands’. It is the kill rate which donors have been groomed into believing ‘has’ to happen. It is almost assured annually, unless a cultural shift takes place.
At the RSPCA NSW it is acceptable within the organisation’s culture to kill one in every two unclaimed dogs and nearly two in every three unclaimed cats.
At the Lost Dogs Home it is acceptable within the organisation’s culture to kill two in every three unclaimed dogs and nearly every single unclaimed cat (though thanks to public pressure, there has been incremental improvements in their culture and kill rate in the two years).
At the RSPCA VIC it is acceptable within the organisation’s culture to kill one in three unclaimed dogs. It is also acceptable to kill two in every three cats.
Culture – or the choice of how an animal organisation chooses to operate – is what determines its kill rate. Not the number of intakes, not the experiences, successes or failures of other shelters, and not the animals themselves. These are three of the wealthiest animal welfare organisations in the country, so it’s not the organisation’s revenue or staffing levels or resources. It is not a lack of knowledge about the programs and services that can save lives. It is how much killing is deemed OK by the organisational culture.
What we know for certain is that until a life-saving culture sweeps a shelter, pets will continue to be killed. Only when the community recognises that it is not the animal intakes, shelter income, pound facilities, or animal control laws that determine kill rate, but the culture of the organisations doing the killing will we ever see shelters and pounds overhauled to become a safe place for pets. Given ALL the money these organisations make each year comes from us, either through direct donations or our local council rates – we have to decide as a community, how much killing we’re willing to support.
