Hypothetical Question for ya....
YOU have just been hired to run a shelter (Congrats!). It was a high-kill shelter before you arrived, mainly pitties and adult cats. The shelter is underfunded and there is a daily issue of where to keep all the animals(Congrats?).
Another non-profit organization supplies a large portion of your funding, but only on the condition that you do not kill any healthy animals.
On your first day, you find out that your shelter is killing animals because they have kennel cough or similar easily treatable ailments. Someone tells you, off the record, that it is a necessary evil because there isn't space, and if you blow the whistle on your own shelter, you will lose needed funding.
What do you do?
Rock On,
Harris
http://www.stewietotherescue.org/
btw - Come back tomorrow, we'll be discussing this video...
8 comments:
I'd blow the whistle on the org. No question about it. Integrity reigns.
I couldn't sleep at night without going public. Other shelters are doing the right thing, why can't ACC? It makes me nauseous just knowing, yet not knowing, the full extent of what transpires at the ACC.
ACC? Who's that?
Harris
Yes, I think I would blow the whistle too. Maybe then something could change. Letting it continue just perpetuates it. What is really needed is more shelters as the current situation is untenable, they have to take in every animal and yet there is finite space.
But then what?
Okay, you've blown the whistle...
Now, not only are you still killing the same number of animals due to space limitations but you've also lost a lot of your funding. You were already low on staff/food/vets...now yu cant even afford to keep the bare minimum that you had.
Harris
recruit volunteers and fosters immediatley - but the ONE thing that MUST be put in place immediately to stop this is FREE NEUTERING & $20 SPAY - with free neutering ( otherwise EVERY NINE weeks - a cat or dogs gestation period) there are more & more batches of animals to deal with . THE ONLY WAY to get this under control is MANDATORY SPAY & NUETER CONTROL - being that the general public is NOT smart enough to figure out that their animal has to be spayed or nuetered , the thinking MUST be done for them . 1 animal is capable of producing 20,000 ( twenty thousand) offspring - this does NOT take a brain surgeon to do the math - 8 kittens or puppies has 8 kittens or puppies , that each have 8 kittens or puppies tha t each have 8 kittnes or puppies ( boom you have 20,000 PR ANIMAL ) -FREE SPAY & NEUTER MUST BE IMPLEMENTED TODAY AT EVERY SHELTER IN THE US, within 3 years this will pay for itself. WHY this is not being done is beyond me and I barely made it out of high school and can figure out this is the end all to the problem. without spay & neuter in place the problem can ONLY GET WORSE .
I would involve the public and let them know what's happening and ask for their help. I think there are a lot of people who would donate (time, money, homes, food, cages, etc) and then I'd look at those shelters that have gone no-kill and I'd work my butt off to make some of those things happen. But you can't do it without the community supporting you, so I think that's the first step.
First, I'd notify my 'superiors' in writing that I've just become aware of this situation, and am now making them aware so that they can assist in the solution. (Not that the 'superiors' at this fictitious shelter will allow a solution, but it is a CYA move.) Then I would would reach out to the animal organizations in the area for emergency assistance, combining their networks with my PR budget to get the word out that "due to unusual circumstances" a massive adoption movement is needed (no need to bring up bad PR at this point in the game). I would reach out to the shelter orgs around the country who have recently achieved new successes in adoption and euthanasia rates, such as Irving, Houston, Austin, etc.
I would also reach out to service animal organizations to build a relationship that helps to provide them with dogs that can help those with disabilities, police efforts, search and rescue efforts, etc.
I would reach out to local vet schools to build a relationship with vets in training to assist with their education, get feedback on improvements that could be made in my facility and processes, and get free vet treatment for my animals.
I would work with local police authorities to get a conversation going about dog fighting (and how that can be addressed), educating people about how to handle strays, or what to do with animals they don't want anymore, or where feral cats can be TNR'd.
I'd create a series of web PSAs on how to pick-out, train, take care of, and be responsible for a pet to put on my website, hand out to new owners, put on YouTube. Perhaps a design/film school could be involved to make these low cost, and more encompassing of the community.
It seems I'd be doing a lot of "reaching out and involving." The A...um...this shelter needs to have the doors open and welcoming to encourage new winds to come thru and clean out the old, stale ideas.
Peace
Cat
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