Finally, after spending several hours on the telephone with Malisow answering numerous questions which had absolutely nothing to do with the situation in Houston, the success of No Kill elsewhere, and what needs to be done to improve the plight of homeless animals in Houston, I sent him the following:
We talked more about attacks and rumors about my character than about what it takes to reduce killing, and that makes me a bit wary. My whole life has been dedicated to ending the killing of animals, and in the process, I�ve come to realize, as have many others, that often it is bureaucratic inertia and politics or even lack of caring that keeps animal care poor and killing high. It�s also the thinking that they are �just animals.� I can�t imagine a human hospital keeping a doctor whose license was suspended in another state for substandard care, but this is the status quo in sheltering, and it appears to be happening in Houston with their veterinarian (if the allegations reported in the [Houston] Chronicle are true). Given your questioning, which I accept as you doing your job, all I ask is that �controversy� and �shock value� don�t replace fundamental fairness. It�s not fair to me and it is not fair to the animals.
There are far too many animals being killed, and I would hate this to sidetrack about whether reducing the killing is a good idea or not a good idea. Even the Humane Society of the United States can no longer argue with the facts and in language that was excitingly similar to statements throughout my book, in late 2008 they stated that the public does care and is not to blame for their killing, that killing animals in shelters is �needless,� that we can be a No Kill nation today, and that �pet overpopulation� is more myth than fact. According to HSUS, �By increasing the percentage of people who obtain their pets through adoption-by just a few percentage points-we can solve the problem of euthanasia of healthy and treatable dogs and cats.� They also stated that:
* �The needless loss of life in animal shelters is deplored by the American public. People deeply love their dogs and cats and feel that killing pets who are homeless through no fault of their own is a problem we must work harder to prevent. They want animals to have a second chance at life, not death by injection.�
* �The needless killing of pets by animal shelters and animal control agencies comes at an enormous economic and moral cost.�
This comes after announcing that staunch No Kill advocates Suzanne Kogut and Bonney Brown will be speaking at Expo 2009, HSUS� animal sheltering conference. Kogut runs an open admission No Kill animal control shelter, while Brown has led a No Kill initiative now saving 90% of dogs and 83% of all cats in Washoe County, Nevada.
It is not pet overpopulation if kittens are being killed in shelters because the shelter refuses to put in place a foster care program which would eliminate the �need� to kill kittens, as too many shelters in this country do. It is the lack of that program which is causing the kittens to be killed. It is not pet overpopulation if Pit Bull-type dogs are being killed because the shelter kills dogs based on arbitrary criteria, even if the individual dogs are healthy and friendly. It is the arbitrary policy that is killing those dogs. Just like it is not pet overpopulation if feral cats are killed, or puppies, or shy animals or any of the other categories of shelter animals which can be saved with a targeted program to save their lives, which shelters simply refuse to implement, even as implementation will provide a lifesaving alternative to systematic killing. The reality is that short of leaving them alone or outlawing their trapping, you cannot save feral cats in shelters without a Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) program, just like you cannot save kittens or puppies without a foster care program. This is why opposition to No Kill is a non-starter. How do you save animals without these programs? You can�t. But while any level of lifesaving is not possible without these programs, No Kill is precluded unless they are comprehensively implemented to the point that they replace killing entirely.
But let�s assume for the moment that you can never reach No Kill. Today, shelters nationally are killing roughly half or more of all incoming animals. If I can borrow from an overused sports analogy, that puts us at the 50-yard line. And although the evidence is fairly overwhelming to the contrary, let�s say that we can never cross the goal line because of �pet overpopulation.� What is wrong with getting to the 20 yard line or 10 yard line? If all shelters put in place the programs and services of the No Kill Equation, the model which brought rates of shelter killing in communities from San Francisco, CA to Ithaca, NY; from Reno, NV to Charlottesville VA, and points in between to all time lows, we can save millions of lives nationally, regardless of whether we ever achieve a No Kill nation. Even if people do not believe that a No Kill nation is inevitable as I do, that is worth doing and worth doing without delay. Because every year we delay, indeed every day we delay, the body count increases.
The promise which the No Kill model offers to end the killing of animals in our nation�s shelters is a very real fact in several communities. And it is a fact only because leaders of the shelter and the community have stopped the excuses and worked to build the infrastructure needed to save lives.
Despite his inaccuracies about me, I am grateful Mr. Malisow is critical of government institutions which use tax money to kill, rather than save animals. I am grateful that his article reflected the desires of animal lovers in Houston who have long called for reforms of the Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care. But I am hopeful that in the future he would not be so dismissive of programs with a documented, track record of lifesaving success. Without viable solutions, the problem can never be solved. And the animals of Houston and the Houstonites who care about them deserve an accountable, progressive, innovative, well run animal control agency serving their community which reflects their values.
In the meantime, I encourage all Houston animal lovers to find out how they can help create a No Kill Houston. Visit www.nokillhouston.org.
A note to rescue groups with a Houston mailing address: Judge for yourselves. Read my book Redemption. Contact me by February 2, and I will send you a free copy.