What does it mean to be a No-Kill shelter?

The following is the first in a two part essay written by BDAR’s President and Founder, Britney Wallesch

Twenty years ago, the idea of No-Kill shelters was a completely foreign concept; an unattainable dream put forth by animal rights advocates, tree-huggers, vegetarians and hippies.  Those “in the know,” who had been managing and running the nation’s pounds staunchly refused to acknowledge that anything could be done differently. 

Thankfully, taxpayers and community members are realizing that it is no longer acceptable to pay our shelters to kill adoptable animals. The expectations have increased and the public is demanding that shelters increase their adoption rates, decrease the killing, and provide outreach services to the communities in order to help people keep their pets in their homes. This is the commitment of the No-Kill shelter. Above all else, it is a promise made by the shelter’s leadership to pursue all avenues and options available to every single individual animal entering the organization’s umbrella of care so as to ensure that that animal leaves the shelter alive.

A No-Kill community is one achieving a 90% or more live release rate from its shelters for both dogs and cats.  Like all animal shelters and animal control agencies, No-Kill shelters have the same responsibility to protect the public welfare and consider the quality of life for an animal prior to releasing that animal from their care. Those animals that are hopelessly ill or injured, or vicious with a poor chance for rehabilitation cannot responsibly be released from any adoption program. Luckily, these animals statistically comprise only about 5-10% of all animals entering shelters.

Creating a No-Kill shelter and promoting the No-Kill mentality within a community does not take years.  It can, and does, happen very quickly. Once the organization’s leadership decides that killing is no longer an option and therefore creates programs focused on positive, life-saving methods, the greatest hurdle will have been conquered.  It has been done in cities all across the country, with diverse population demographics and extremely varied per capita funding levels.  No-Kill communities have been created in New York, South Carolina, Texas, California,  Colorado, and Nevada; the communities supporting these shelters are diverse in demographics, as is the per capita funding of the many successful No-Kill shelters there.  Most states have several entire communities well on their way to achieving No-Kill.

Repeatedly, it has been demonstrated that No-Kill can be achieved in every community, regardless of economic status, animal intakes, or geographic location through a series of programs collectively referred to as the No-Kill equation. When used together, these programs have been proven to eliminate the need for euthanasia as a means of population control in any kind of animal shelter. The factors in this equation include:

• High volume, low cost spay/neuter services – These services should be readily available to targeted populations of people unable to afford the surgery at the normal rate and/or specific jurisdictions within a community known for having a large number of unaltered animals.
• Feral cat trap/neuter/return­- Feral cats (now more commonly referred to in a positive light as community cats), are often the most frequently euthanized animals in shelters. Traditional methods of managing community cat populations have involved removing cats from their home territories and euthanizing them. If this strategy were effective, we would have eliminated the problem of community cats decades ago! More recent and modern community cat management strategies involve neutering the cats and returning them to their capture site. As a neutered community cat population ages, the number of cats will decrease by natural attrition and will not be replaced by subsequent generations. Numerous studies have shown that trap/neuter/return is the most effective way to reduce community cat populations over time, and it is the only way to keep those cats from being euthanized.
• Comprehensive adoption programs – It may seem simple, but the best way to increase the number of adoptions is to make those adoptable animals as available to the public as possible. Extending shelter hours to accommodate working people and families after hours and on weekends is crucial, as are staying open on holidays, offsite adoptions, adoption incentives, promotions and post-adoption support.
•  Foster Care- This is a low-cost and frequently free way of extending a shelter’s capacity and preparing animals who may not be immediately ready for adoption for success in the future.
• Rescue groups- Rescue groups provide a valuable resource to shelters. They free up kennel space and often take in animals that are not doing well in kennel situations or who have become stressed as a result of confinement. Partnerships between shelters and rescue groups can greatly increase the number of lives being saved in a community.
• Pet retention/proactive redemptions- preventing surrenders to shelters in the first place is an obvious method of decreasing shelter intakes. Shelter workers should be equipped with the knowledge and training to help people resolve the problems that drive them to surrender their pet, or to direct them to other resources that can help.  Lost animal reclaims are an important component in successful animal control. Shelters should proactively attempt to reunite lost pets with their owners by any means possible.
• Compassionate and dedicated leadership- This might be the most important factor in the No-kill equation. Without strong, knowledgeable, flexible, and inspired leadership, the framework of the No-kill shelter will crumble. Animal sheltering is exhausting, demanding, and emotional work. It is up to the shelter’s leadership to keep their staff and volunteers motivated.

Currently, there are 3.7 million cats and dogs dying in our nation’s shelters every year. What seems to be an overwhelming number of homeless pets can be put into perspective with the added information that some 23 million American households add a new pet to their home annually. With numbers like those, it’s impossible to see how we can ethically continue killing adoptable animals. A No-Kill nation is not only possible, it is probable; and organizations like Maddie’s Fund and Best Friends Animal Society are facilitating this transition with the goal of reaching a No-kill country by 2015. It’s time Wyoming started looking to the future.