There are some municipal shelters who still resist working collaboratively with animal welfare groups, who see rescue groups as competitors rather than partners; shelters who dont make the pets available to the non profit groups until they fail the temperament test, and then suddenly make those animals available to rescue only. If a dog does pass the temp test there are some shelters that feel possessive about them, and wont allow a non profit to take the dog, accusing animal adoption groups of wanting to cherry pick the good ones. There are some animal shelters that would rather keep those adoptable dogs for months and months - sometimes in awful conditions which look more like hoarding situations than a shelter, just so they can pump up their adoption figures to look a bit better against the still hideous euthanasia numbers. And on the other side, there is a growing adversarial hostility from the no-kill movement towards the city and county shelters whose workers have to do a piss awful job often in crappy conditions. Its a recipe for a bad outcome. All of us who know what is going on in our shelters can see that the failure of animal shelters to partner with the community, the failure to provide community outreach services, the failure to partner with animal welfare groups and the failure of some in the no kill movement (to this point), to offer strategic solutions and systemic change all contribute to the fact that we have not had any meaningful impact on the pet overpopulation problem. And while animal adoption groups want to focus solely on rescuing from shelters, the problem will only get worse. And while the major funder of animal welfare groups only supports shelter rescue efforts, there is no incentive to work directly in the community. There. Ive said it. Dont get mad. Get busy changing this model. How many more of those posts about dogs about to die, on death row, due out on his review date can you bear to see, with those pitiful photos of a dog on a dirty concrete floor with chain link kennel around them, their eyes reaching through the bars of a cage screaming help!. Its a social network nightmare. There is an alternative. We just have to be willing to work with our traditional adversaries to achieve it. The one point the no kill advocates and I agree on is that something has to change. And it was the determination to change things that created the advocacy group PAWS FOR THOUGHT in Berkeley in 1998, which in turn led to the massive transformation we see at Berkeley Animal Care Services today. People may not realize that 16 years ago, Berkeley had one of the worst euthanasia rates in the region, the city shelter was run by the Police Department and no-one seemed to have any idea what was going on, least of all those comfortable liberals sitting on City Council. We had a lot of educating to do. Why, you may ask, did I choose a beautiful sunny Sunday, to go on a pretty sharp edged rant. One which will bring down a ton of barely concealed dislike upon my head? Because yesterday, we accomplished a few things at PAW FUND. We adopted out three beautiful pups who were left on a busy road in the Berkeley Marina and which, though they were completely adoptable, the local shelter asked us to take, which in turn cleared some kennel space for them; we adopted out a pup who had come from an existing PAW FUND client whose drug addictions makes it hard for her to cope, so her asking us for help means a great deal; we saw a young tough little dog go off into a possible home (paws crossed), and we got photos from little Brogan, the pit bull pup whose leg will probably have to be amputated, in his new loving home. And we talked to some supporters who would like us to bring our Vaccine Clinic model to their city. Partnerships - with individuals, with shelters, with other advocacy groups, with funders and supporters - are key to our success. Youre used to my rants. Some of you even enjoy them. But they wouldnt have any meaning unless I had been there - in the trenches, working tirelessly to make change happen. Happy Sunday everyone!
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 22:30:11 +0000
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