From the Humane Society of the United States web site www.hsus.org

Seven Basic Policies for Every Animal Shelter
This article is a reprint from the January-February 1996 issue of Animal Sheltering magazine, published by The Humane Society of the United States.

Is your public or private animal-care facility meeting the basic needs of animals and the public? Find out by comparing the following seven of the most essential shelter policies with those of your facility.

POLICY #1
Accept every animal brought in.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: For a shelter to be a true haven for lost or unwanted animals and provide a comprehensive service to the public, its doors must be open to all animals. THE FIRST GREAT LIE. No "shelter" has property on another planet, so unsellable animals are killed to make room for the next delivery. To call this "sheltering" is a lie - it is a business and it is profitable. The lie is finessed in this business by blaming the supplier. Every pet disposing business says that the source of its product - the pet dumper - is irresponsible. But if all pet dumpers did the responsible thing, kept their pet, or found it a home, or had it put down themselves, the source of free product would dry up and their businesses would be out of business. So none of them ever make the supplier take responsibilty.

A shelter that turns away an animal being surrendered, or asks someone to keep the animal until space opens up at the facility, risks losing that animal to abandonment or some other cruel fate. THE SECOND GREAT LIE. This is just protection of free supply. We address this particular sales pitch at " But if the SPCA doesn't take all unwanted pets, won't worse will happen to them?" http://www.animaladvocates.com/cgi-bin/newsroom.pl/read/3508

Similarly, a shelter that cannot accept an animal found running at large or rescued in a cruelty case is not acting in the animal's best interests.

Shelters exist, first and foremost, to protect animals. Euthanasia of shelter animals to make room for others is a tragic necessity that prevents animal suffering. THE THIRD AND FOURTH GREAT LIES. "Euthanasia - a painless death to relieve suffering". But the suffering has been imposed by the euthanisers. This is a diabolical perversion of logic for gain. Space killing is only a "necessity" if you are running a business that accepts all free product. These are two shameless uses of Orwell's newspeak to hide the ugly truth and to promote the pet disposers' businesses

An organization that cares for homeless animals but doesn't accept every animal may be doing admirable work as an adoption center or a limited-access refuge, but it isn't providing the full complement of animal sheltering " A full complement shelter" Catchy business phrase. functions needed in every community. A facility that doesn't accept every animal can supplement an animal shelter, but it can't substitute for one.

Some private shelters are not authorized to take in strays from areas where they do not have contracts with municipalities or counties. Together with the governing entities, such shelters should arrange for any strays brought to the shelter to be housed there until they can be transferred to an appropriate facility.

POLICY #2
Do not charge a fee for surrendered animals.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: This policy ensures that any individual who wants or needs to give up an animal is able to do so without obstacle. A shelter should encourage the public to bring stray and unwanted animals to its facility. There it is - keep that free product coming in even though you will kill a lot of it.

Some shelter staff and administrators argue that shelters should make it difficult for people to give up their owned animals to convey the message that pets are not disposable property. But if someone inclined to give up her pet is denied the opportunity to take the animal to a shelter—or made to feel guilty when she calls the shelter to ask about surrendering the pet—the results can be disastrous. Such a person may give the animal to anyone who will take him—even a stranger—without ensuring the animal's well-being. THE FIFTH GREAT LIE. This is exactly what the big business pet disposal orgs do - they sell to anyone, no matter what their p.r. departments say about screening and matching. Never saying 'No' is only to protect the business's share of marketable product and to prevent the loss of product to all the little rescue groups. These little orgs have been seriously biting into the big orgs' supply of free product (and donations), as more and more people were driven away from the big business shelters by the horrible, bottom-line conditions that their product was kept in.

Or the person may keep the animal, in inhumane conditions—for example, chained to a doghouse or otherwise neglected. Or the person may abandon the animal in the suburbs in the naive hope that a sympathetic individual will take him home. Shelters should work to prevent, not encourage, these situations. People surrendering animals should be encouraged to make a donation to the shelter, which should institute programs to help pet owners solve pet-behavior or other problems that may lead them to give up their pets. There it is, the real reason to have full shelters. Full shelters attract money from animal lovers who do not understand that the basis of this business is 'moving product" - sell it or kill it.

POLICY #3
Maintain a clean, comfortable, safe, and healthy environment for each animal.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Animals, like humans, are sentient beings who deserve to live in a humane, disease-free environment. A shelter should examine animals soon after they arrive and place them in appropriate housing areas of the facility. Animals should be separated by species, sex, age, and health status. They should be housed in a way that minimizes stress and disease transmission and should be provided with proper food and water, human attention, protection from the elements, adequate ventilation and heat, and veterinary care when needed. Pet disposal centres are typically where helpless animals die of disease, despair and the needle. AAS has documented this at many BC SPCA facilities. Anything more cuts into the bottom line. But this way of doing business is so discredited and has led to a huge loss in business to more humane small orgs that the industry is now providing couches and bright colours for its product to be displayed in at its sales centres.

POLICY #4
Hold stray animals for a minimum of five operating days, including a Saturday.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Whether or not this is written into your local animal control ordinance (and it should be), a minimum holding period of five operating days allows owners of stray pets time to reclaim their animals. For example, a healthy animal picked up on Thursday at 11:17 A.M. must not be adopted out or euthanized until the following Tuesday at 11:18 A.M. If your shelter is closed on Sunday or a holiday, then that animal must be held until Wednesday at 11:18. If a stray enters the shelter on Monday, the animal must be held until Sunday morning to give the owner a chance to come in on a Saturday. Given budgetary and space constraints, shelters should be wary of extending the required holding period beyond five days; shelters should instead evaluate strays on a case-by-case basis after the required five-day holding period ends. This is the heart of the dog control business. Every day a dog is held costs money and disposal is cheap.

POLICY #5
Screen prospective adopters using adoption standards.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: A shelter's adoption program should seek to find responsible, lifelong homes for animals suitable as family pets. It should not simply aim to find homes for as many animals as possible. A shelter should have set guidelines and standards for determining which animals are made available for adoption and which potential adopters are likely to care for animals responsibly.

Equally important is how the shelter applies its adoption standards. Shelters should not apply their standards so rigidly that they ignore an applicant's special circumstances. Also, shelters should conduct adoption screening fairly and compassionately so that they do not alienate prospective adopters. Do not alienate prospective customers is the first rule in sales. No unlimited intake business can afford to refuse many sales. AAS has documented that the SPCA until very recently, refused no sales, and even now is refusing very few. It's p.r. claims of careful matching is only that - p.r.

POLICY #6
For euthanasia, use sodium pentobarbital administered by well-trained, compassionate individuals.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: Animal shelters have a mandate to provide a humane death for those animals whose lives must be ended. The consensus among veterinarians and other experts is that the barbiturate sodium pentobarbital, property administered via injection, provides the most stress-free, painless death. It is the method of choice for companion animal euthanasia, recommended by The Humane Society of the United States, the American Humane Association, and the American Veterinary Medical Association.

Carbon monoxide can provide a humane death for certain animals, but only if proper procedures are followed. The most essential procedures include using only commercially compressed carbon monoxide in cylinders, using a chamber free of leaks and other defects, loading animals into separate compartments, and never exceeding the chamber's recommended load capacity. Because carbon monoxide is an unacceptable method of euthanasia for animals who are old, sick, or younger than 16 weeks of age, such animals must be euthanized using sodium pentobarbital. Shelters unable to obtain sodium pentobarbital for such animals must make appropriate arrangements with local veterinarians.

Shelter personnel often lack adequate training and experience to euthanize animals such as reptiles, fish, chickens, and pigs. A shelter should prepare for all contingencies by developing an arrangement with at least two local veterinarians willing to euthanize such species of animals. There would be no need to train staff to kill if surrender was limited.

POLICY #7
Spay or neuter all animals at time of adoption, or guarantee that all adopted animals are later sterilized.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT: A shelter must not perpetuate pet overpopulation by sending unsterilized animals back into the community.

Unlike a system that requires follow-up by shelter staff to ensure that adopters have their animals spayed or neutered, a sterilization-at-adoption program guarantees that no shelter animals will reproduce. Shelters with such programs but without on-site veterinary facilities usually have staff or volunteers deliver animals directly from the shelter to cooperating local veterinarians, who perform the spay or neuter surgeries. (Animals younger than six months of age are taken to veterinarians proficient in early-age spaying and neutering.) Protocols for vaccinating animals and ensuring that they are appropriate candidates for surgery are developed in conjunction with the veterinarians. Adopters typically pick up their new pets from the veterinarian's office. To avoid unnecessary surgeries, spay/neuter appointments should be made with veterinarians at the time of adoption, not before.

For shelters not yet able to institute a sterilization-at-adoption program, a policy or ordinance that requires adopters to have their animals spayed or neutered within a specified time (known as mandatory spay/neuter) is the next best thing. However, even a low percentage of non-compliance by adopters means that shelter animals will contribute to pet overpopulation. That's why shelters must aggressively follow up on adopters to strive for 100 percent compliance. But if the purchaser does not sterilize their animal, the business gets to pocket the fee that the purchaser paid to it, so there is often no follow-up. Just another way to make money in the pet disposal business.