Honest Definitions of No-Kill

The No-Kill Advocacy Center - Some shelters have adopted the rhetoric but not the programs of No-Kill. As a result, they are using "temperament testing" to deem dogs unadoptable and make their statistics look better.
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The MaxFund - is a true no-kill shelter. There is no pre-sorting of animals into "adoptable" and "non-adoptable" categories, discarding the so-called "unadoptable." The MaxFund takes every animal it has the space for.
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Animal People News - The no-kill concept had already won the battle for public opinion decades before no-kill sheltering existed on any significant scale. Dogcatchers were a familiar film villain even before animated cartoons and "talking pictures" were invented.
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Best Friends Society - There has often been a certain tension between traditional humane societies that are involved in euthanizing the animals they receive into their care, and the growing no-kill movement.
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Maddie's Fund - The history of no-kill goes back more than half a century when independent caregivers began rescuing and sheltering homeless animals with the intention of keeping them alive. This was in reaction to the standard operating procedure of most humane societies and tax-supported animal control services that killed stray and abandoned animals.
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Richard Avanzino - Richard Avanzino has had a major influence on the nation's animal welfare movement. As president of the San Francisco SPCA from 1976 to 1999, Avanzino led San Francisco to become the first (1994) city and county in the nation to offer an adoption guarantee for every healthy shelter cat and dog. The vast majority of the city's sick and injured shelter animals were saved as well. In 1998, Avanzino revolutionized animal sheltering with the opening of Maddie's Pet Adoption Center, the first facility in the country in which cats and dogs awaiting adoption were housed in cozy home-like settings rather than cages.
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At the opposite end of the range is Monterey County Animal Control in California, who expands the term "unadoptable" to any animal it fails to find a home for! "The way the law reads is you can euthanize any unadoptable animal, but it also allows each shelter to come up with its own definition of "unadoptable." We are going to define "unadoptable" animals as animals that are not going to a home." Many would disagree with this extraordinary interpretation which ignores state law and begs for a legal challenge by shelter reformists.
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Tails a' Waggin - Many shelters are classified as 'no-kill' and this has been a controversial term ever since shelters were created. It divides people and has become the center of many debates. Many believe that this cannot be practiced humanely. Tails a' Waggin is a "no-kill" shelter. We follow the following criteria to meet this classification:
* We never kill an animal, except for a humane reason such as pain and suffering. We will do everything possible to treat the animal and try to save the animal regardless of expense.
* We will never transfer an animal to another shelter or facility that euthanizes animals for any other reason than those mentioned above.
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Wikipedia - No-kill Shelters are a type of animal shelter with an anti-euthanasia policy for the animals they house. The most widely accepted definition of a no-kill shelter is a place where all adoptable and treatable animals are saved and where only unadoptable or non-rehabilitatable animals are euthanized. Humane societies and SPCAs often euthanize pets because they cannot find homes for them. In 1994, the City of San Francisco originated the current trend towards "No Kill" shelters. The San Francisco SPCA guaranteed a home to every healthy dog and cat who entered the shelter system. However, the San Francisco Department of Animal Care and Control euthanizes many dogs and cats. In 2001, Tompkins County, New York became the second community in the nation to adopt this policy. And in 2002, Tompkins County went one step further by saving 100% of sick and injured treatable animals and 100% of feral cats. It repeated this in 2003, becoming the community with the lowest per capita euthanasia rate in the United States. Nathan J. Winograd is the former Executive Director of the Tompkins County SPCA and Director of Operations for the San Francisco SPCA. He has created successful No Kill programs in both urban and rural communities, and his organization, No Kill Solutions is often hired to help communities transition to No Kill. Italy outlaws the euthanasia of healthy companion animals and controls stray populations through trap, neuter and release programs (TNR).
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No-Kill Animal Association, Lethbridge - The current band-aid solution to overpopulation is that many "excess" pets are killed. More "upstream" measures, such as mandatory sterilization, are not in place to control the burgeoning companion animal population. A question of morals and responsibility: Is killing the most humane and responsible way to control the pet population?
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Alley Cat Allies - Are you looking for the most humane, cost-effective solution to the endless numbers of feral cats brought into your facility? Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) is the only way to effectively bring down the numbers of feral cats in your community, in both the short-and long-term.
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Animal Ark - What no kill really means. In her article, Ms. Dixon writes that "Many people don't realize that 'no-kill' does not mean 'no-euthanasia'." In writing this, Ms. Dixon seems to confuse the act of killing for convenience ("killing") and humanely ending the life of a terminally ill pet ("euthanasia"). In my experience, any responsible "no-kill" organization believes in the latter and not the former. It probably shouldn't have to be said, but it is important for animal shelters to understand the difference between those two things. Dixon suggests that the only way for an animal shelter to help an animal is to take it in. But, in many cases, what an animal needs may not be available at an animal shelter. Feral cats are a great example.
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Declaration of the No Kill Movement in the United States - No Kill sheltering models, based on innovative, non-lethal programs and services, have already saved the lives of tens of thousands of animals. But instead of embracing No Kill, many shelters-and their national agency allies-cling to their failed models of the past, models that result in the killing of millions of dogs and cats in U.S. shelters every year.
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Dr Craig Bestrup - First, there's a basic discrepancy between the words and the actions of a "full service" shelter. Animal welfarists commonly speak of the preciousness - the intrinsic value - of animals' lives. Yet their shelters are the place where healthy animals are daily killed, and people bring animals there knowing this. This leads to diminished credibility and effectiveness in the shelters' education programs.
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