No Kill Advocacy Center

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd:We do not...

Mon, 20 May 2013 09:48:00 -0700

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd:

We do not have the financial might or media reach of the large, national groups that are steeped in killing. But we have a few advantages they do not: truth, right, the hearts and minds of the American people, and the tide of history. Three out of four Americans believe it should be illegal for shelters to kill animals who are not suffering. The fourth is confused by the false claim that killing is a “necessary” evil, rather than what it just is: evil. Take a moment to send an email to your local Mayor, Supervisor, Commission or Council. Together, we can move mountains.

Dear Mayor,

Today, there are over 130 communities, representing roughly 400 cities and towns across the U.S., with save rates between 90% and 99%. If they can do it in cities throughout Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, Utah, California, New York, Colorado, Nevada, Iowa, Tennessee, Texas, and elsewhere, so can we.

We now have a solution to shelter killing and it is not difficult, expensive nor beyond practical means to achieve. As the enclosed documents demonstrate, No Kill is a humane, sustainable, cost-effective model that works hand in hand with public health and safety, while fulfilling a fiscal responsibility to taxpayers.

Ours is a community of animal lovers, and our citizens, as well as the animals we love, deserve better. We deserve a shelter that reflects our values, not thwarts them.

- Dollars & Sense: The Economic Benefits of No Kill Animal Control: http://bit.ly/12rNoWz

- No Kill 101: A Primer on No Kill Animal Control for Public Officials: http://bit.ly/13EOPQU

Thank you.

On June 11, 2012, the No Kill Advocacy Center and Animal...

Sat, 18 May 2013 08:51:00 -0700

On June 11, 2012, the No Kill Advocacy Center and Animal Ark asked shelters across the country to end the killing of animals for Just One Day by putting down their “euthanasia needles” and picking up cameras instead: to photograph and market animals. We asked them to reach out to rescue groups, host adoption events, stay open for extended hours, and ask their communities to help them empty the shelter the good way. About 800 organizations answered the call, finding homes for roughly 9,000 animals, erasing one day’s worth of killing. It may have been the safest day for companion animals in shelters ever.

Those participating included some of the largest animal control shelters in the nation. In a California shelter, roughly 100 animals found homes. A Texas shelter, normally closed on Monday, opened for the day and placed 231 animals. A Florida shelter also participated and placed 116 animals. The director of animal control in still another reported, “The parking lot has been full since 10:00 this morning, it continues to be full. I’ve never seen so many people come out here all at one time, in one day.” Seventy-eight animals went home from a South Carolina shelter. In an Arizona shelter, 88 out of 100 dogs and 28 out of 30 cats were adopted by 11 am. In another community, they ran out of animals.

We are asking shelters to do the same on June 11, 2013. And if they can do it on June 11 for Just One Day, they can do it on June 12 for Just Another Day…

Ask your local shelter to take the pledge: www.justoneday.ws

Photo: The State of Colorado has declared June 11 as a day of No Kill. The Governor has asked every shelter across the state not to kill healthy and treatable animals as part of a nationwide effort to end the killing. (www.facebook.com/NoKillColorado)

Check out our online store. Your purchases help support our...

Fri, 17 May 2013 12:43:11 -0700

Check out our online store. Your purchases help support our efforts to end the systematic killing of animals in shelters.

http://www.cafepress.com/nokilladvocacycenter

Michigan animal lovers: stand up to animal abuse!

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:40:00 -0700

A pending bill before the Michigan state legislature would require people convicted of animal abuse to register with the state. The Animal Abuse registry would then be available to shelters, rescue groups, pet stores, breeders, and the public. If it passes, it would be the first such statewide registry in the nation and an important step toward curtailing the scourge of abuse by expanding common sense protections we now afford to children to another equally vulnerable population: animals.

Unfortunately, the state’s largest kill shelters are opposed saying that requiring them to look up abusers in an online database is too “burdensome” even though it would protect animals from harm and take two or three strokes of a keyboard. In addition, groups like HSUS are siding with kill shelters and abusers and not supporting the bill: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-j-winograd/hsus-protecting-animal-abusers_b_3238668.html

Please contact your state senator and representative and ask them to cosponsor and vote Yes on “Logan’s Law,” HB 4534/4535.

How to find your representative: http://www.house.mi.gov/mhrpublic/

How to find your senator: http://www.senate.michigan.gov/fysenator/fysenator.htm

Animals are capable of great joy when it comes to those they...

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:42:00 -0700

Animals are capable of great joy when it comes to those they know and love. So it should be no surprise that they also are capable of great sorrow. In the recent Time magazine article “The Mystery of Animal Grief,” the author explains how cats will cry at the loss of a mate, elephants will reverently caress the bones of a departed friend even years after their death and dogs and rabbits mourn, too: “[S]orrow following a death has been observed on the farm—among goats, pigs, ducks—and in the oceans…” Indeed, there is great evidence proving that, like humans, animals “honor, mourn and even hold wakes for their dead.” What are the implications for a No Kill nation? And what does it tell us about shelters and groups that kill and/or defend killing?

Read “Death, the Great Equalizer,” an important article by No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd by clicking here.

From Nathan Winograd: When animal lovers learn about the tragic...

Sun, 12 May 2013 10:18:14 -0700

From Nathan Winograd: When animal lovers learn about the tragic reality of cruelty and killing that is endemic at our nation’s “shelters,” and that the national organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, and the ASPCA defend the killing and thwart reform efforts, the first—and the most logical—question that inevitably follows is: Why?

My book Friendly Fire answers this often confounding question while telling the stories of animals who have become catalysts for change: Oreo, Ace, Patrick, Kapone, Hope, Scruffy, Jeri & Murray, and others.

Today, the e-book version of Friendly Fire, will be available for free on Amazon (in the U.S.). You can download it here: http://amzn.to/12gHgNw. If you do not have a kindle, you can read it on any smartphone, computer, tablet or other e-reader with one of these free Kindle reading apps: http://amzn.to/11JcJtl.

When the early founders of the animal protection movement died...

Sat, 11 May 2013 07:38:00 -0700

When the early founders of the animal protection movement died and their organizations took over the job of killing those they had been formed to protect, a fiery zeal was replaced with a smoldering ember that gave little light or warmth and the humane movement went to sleep. After over 100 years of this antiquated and deadly paradigm, the grassroots of the animal protection movement is finally waking up.

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Over 40 workshops, over 30 speakers, hundreds of attendees from all over the world, one goal: ending the killing of animals in your community. Make the story of the No Kill revolution, the story of your own hometown. Join us at No Kill Conference 2013. More info/register: www.nokillconference.org

You can support the No Kill Advocacy Center without spending any...

Sat, 04 May 2013 09:54:00 -0700

You can support the No Kill Advocacy Center without spending any more than you already would if you follow this link to Amazon every time you shop there: http://amzn.to/Y28dDP. By following the link, you do NOT pay anything extra, but the No Kill Advocacy Center gets a portion of the proceeds.

“PETA is ‘using’ its status as a...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:53:47 -0700

“PETA is ‘using’ its status as a ‘shelter’ to the great detriment of animals in the Commonwealth [of Virginia].” So writes the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, in support of the No Kill Advocacy Center’s petition to the Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDACS) to remove PETA’s designation as a shelter, which would have curbed a needless slaughter. In the last 11 years, 29,426 animals have died at PETA’s hands including those they themselves described as “healthy,” “adorable,” and “perfect.”

Read the NKAC petition: http://bit.ly/ZK4kjj

Read the VFHS letter: http://bit.ly/ZgBzfb

Tragically, VDACS denied the petition. The killing continues…

No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd asks,...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:48:00 -0700

No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd asks, “What if you ran a shelter that saved all the animals?”

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd: Florida...

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 08:03:00 -0700

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd: Florida just passed The Shelter Transparency Act requiring shelters to release monthly reports about the number of animals adopted, transferred to rescue groups, reclaimed, killed, died and more. It will shine the cleansing light of public scrutiny on shelter death: “Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air and light, injustice must be exposed, with all the tension its exposure creates, to the light of human conscience and the air of national opinion before it can be cured.” The new law also confirms that TNR is legal in Florida… Using the data from the new law, we’ll be back with bills that require shelters to actually do their jobs and save lives.

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Hats off to Jack Cory of www.paconsultants.com who spearheaded and ushered the bill through the legislature. Jack will teach a workshop on lobbying and legislation at No Kill Conference 2013.

In the last 11 years, 29,426 animals have died at PETA’s hands...

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 07:35:00 -0700

In the last 11 years, 29,426 animals have died at PETA’s hands including those they themselves described as “healthy,” “adorable,” and “perfect.” In some cases, this includes animals they promised to find homes for, only to put them to death within minutes in the back of a van—a donor-funded mobile death squad on wheels. It includes kittens and puppies. According to Ingrid Newkirk, PETA is “not in the home finding business.” Its mission is to put animals to death. PETA has no adoption hours, it does not keep animals alive long enough to find homes, and it does no adoption promotion. How is this legal? PETA is registered in Virginia as an “animal shelter.”

Since employees of “animal shelters” are the only non-veterinarians authorized by Virginia law to kill animals, removing PETA’s designation as a shelter will put the brakes on PETA killing. Here is the petition filed with the Virginia Department of Agriculture (VDACS) on behalf of the No Kill Advocacy Center to do so: http://bit.ly/ZK4kjj

Please take a moment to email VDACS Commissioner Matt Lohr and Animal Shelter Inspector Dr. Dan Kovich and POLITELY ask that they grant the NKAC petition to remove PETA’s designation as an animal shelter:

Commissioner Lohr: matt.lohr@vdacs.virginia.g ov

Dr. Kovich: dan.kovich@vdacs.virginia.gov

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd: One...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 09:46:20 -0700

From No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd:

One morning after Tompkins County, NY became a No Kill community, a woman brought in a stray cat she had found. She explained to me how this was the first time she had ever brought an animal to the shelter. In the past, whenever she found an animal in need, she took the animal home. She explained how she often felt overwhelmed by the amount of animals she had to care for, but she didn’t have a choice because the shelter would have killed any cats she found and brought in, something she would never allow them to happen. She then expressed relief and gratitude that Tompkins County was now No Kill, and had a shelter she could turn to for help.

How would you like to live in that kind of community? How would you like your bathroom to be your bathroom again, instead of a kennel for injured animals you’ve found? How would you like to wake up and drink a cup of coffee, rather than first spending an hour medicating sick animals you have found? Of course you can always still do those things, but it doesn’t have to all fall on you. Join me and dozens of other speakers at No Kill Conference 2013 as we show you how to build a No Kill community.

We have new workshops and new speakers, including increasing adoptions, harnessing community compassion, raising the money to pay for it all, keeping your rescue/shelter animals healthy, and so much more including a track on advocacy and activism to reform your local shelter.

Workshops: http://nokillconference.org/workshops/

Speakers: http://nokillconference.org/speakers/

Check out photos from 2012: http://nokillconference.org/2012-2/

MONDAY is the last day to get an early registration discount. If you are with a shelter or rescue group or are a student, there are additional discounts. If you are a municipal shelter director, you can get in free. But only if you register by Monday. (Professional education certificate and continuing legal education credits are available).

No Kill Conference 2013
Washington, D.C.
July 13-14, 2013
www.nokillconference.org

From No Kill Advocacy Center Director Nathan Winograd: “A...

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:41:29 -0700

From No Kill Advocacy Center Director Nathan Winograd: “A rescuer or volunteer not only has the First Amendment right to speak out against inhumane practices committed by a governmental entity, he or she also has a constitutionally protected right to demand that the government correct the wrongs identified.”

Williamson County enacts retaliatory policy: http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130407/WILLIAMSON01/304070060/Shelter-adopts-new-volunteer-policy?nclick_check=1

Read my letter on behalf of the No Kill Advocacy Center to the Mayor: http://bit.ly/10exPNJ

Have you been subjected to similar retaliation? Read “Section 1983 to the Rescue”: http://bit.ly/STBP0B

What is a dog worth? Not much, says the Texas Supreme Court in...

Fri, 05 Apr 2013 14:51:00 -0700

What is a dog worth? Not much, says the Texas Supreme Court in its ruling today.

The Court rejected the No Kill Advocacy Center’s contention that families whose animals are negligently killed are entitled to compensation beyond their economic value. At issue was whether Avery, a dog who was wrongly killed by a Texas pound, had value beyond the replacement cost of another dog. We had filed an amicus brief arguing that the Court of Appeals correctly ruled that dogs are worth more than market value for a replacement. In other words, while the family can get another dog, they cannot get another Avery. Tragically, the Texas Supreme Court ruled against Avery’s family, effectively shutting the doors of justice to people whose companion animals get killed.

We were opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association, the American Kennel Club, the American Pet Products Association and other industry groups who, in effect, argued that the “human-animal bond” only applies when people are writing checks to them. And, not surprisingly, the large national groups like the Humane Society of the United States remained silent because their friends at shelters will also be held accountable for wrongly harming and killing people’s animals.

For a copy of the No Kill Advocacy Center brief: http://bit.ly/W3uATI

To read an article about the case: http://bit.ly/UnKnyT

To read the Court’s ruling: http://bit.ly/10CcTyO

Cat lovers: PETA says Florida’s feral cats are better DEAD...

Sun, 31 Mar 2013 13:59:44 -0700

Cat lovers: PETA says Florida’s feral cats are better DEAD than FED. As shelters and health departments nationwide embrace trap-neuter-release programs, PETA remains a stalwart opponent of this humane alternative to killing, arguing that healthy feral cats should continue to be killed.

Now, PETA is fighting legislation that would clarify that TNR is not illegal in Florida. According to PETA, “Senate Bill 1320 (S.B. 1320)—and its companion bill in the House (H.B. 1121)—would essentially strip cats of existing legal protections by allowing humans who starve, neglect, and harm them to avoid criminal prosecution for cruelty to animals.” This is fear mongering at its worst. Today, feral cats are slaughtered in shelters. SB 1320/HB 1121 will allow them to be neutered and released to their habitats. Here’s the bill: http://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2013/1320/BillText/Filed/PDF

Send polite emails asking for a YES vote on SB 1320 scheduled for April 1:

bullard.larcenia.web@flsenate.gov, flores.anitere.web@flsenate.gov, galvano.bill.web@flsenate.gov, garcia.rene.web@flsenate.gov, montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov, sachs.maria.web@flsenate.gov

Please also call the committee’s main line at 850-487-5133 to express your SUPPORT for S.B. 1320.

The No Kill Advocacy Center has model shelter reform...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 11:05:31 -0700

The No Kill Advocacy Center has model shelter reform legislation, the Companion Animal Protection Act (CAPA), which ends convenience killing (killing when there are empty cages or other readily available lifesaving alternatives) and requires shelters to implement alternatives to killing such as foster care and medical rehabilitation, all proven lifesaving programs of the No Kill Equation:http://bit.ly/Z7VnDX.

So far this year, versions of CAPA have been introduced in Rhode Island, West Virginia, Texas, Illinois, Florida, New York, and Minnesota, with more states to be announced shortly.

Given the powerful opposition these laws face from entrenched shelter directors and the large national groups like HSUS, the ASPCA and PETA which have successfully derailed these efforts in the past, we are looking to the grassroots of the No Kill movement in the states where these laws were introduced to help get them passed. Alerts are posted regularly on Rescue50.

Educate yourself as to why groups like HSUS oppose these laws when they should be championing them: http://bit.ly/105Re5Z

And if you live in a state where CAPA has not yet been introduced, lead such an effort. No experience necessary. Our tools will show you how: http://bit.ly/U4dsMS

Attention Florida animal lovers: SB 872 Bill, the...

Thu, 14 Mar 2013 08:06:22 -0700

Attention Florida animal lovers: SB 872 Bill, the “Transparency in Animal Shelters Act,” would require animal shelters to compile a monthly and annual report of how many animals they take in, adopt out, reclaim, kill, transfer to rescue, die in kennel, and go missing/lost. The information must also be posted on their website. Transparency is the key to reform.

THE BILL IS SCHEDULED FOR A HEARING THIS MONDAY. NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE YOUR VOICES HEARD.

Please contact the Senate Ag Committee and urge a “Yes” vote: montford.bill.web@flsenate.gov, bullard.dwight.web@flsenate.gov, brandes.jeff.web@flsenate.gov, galvano.bill.web@flsenate.gov, garcia.rene.web@flsenate.gov, grimsley.denise.web@flsenate.gov, sachs.maria.web@flsenate.gov.

More info: www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Bills/billsdetail.aspx?BillId=50001

The newest tool from the No Kill Advocacy Center: What’s in a...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:57:00 -0800

The newest tool from the No Kill Advocacy Center: What’s in a Name? As No Kill advocates seek to pass progressive shelter reform legislation in communities and states throughout the country, time and again their fiercest opponents are organizations with names that allow them to masquerade as something they are not. What’s in a Name? from the No Kill Advocacy Center will allow legislators and policy makers to understand why groups like HSUS and the ASPCA oppose badly needed shelter reform legislation. To print or download it for FREE, click here.

For our shelter reform guides, including How Does Your Community’s Shelter Measure Up?, No Kill 101, Dollars & Sense, and more, visit our No Kill Advocate’s Toolkit by clicking here.

Twelve years ago, there were none. Today, 94 communities...

Sat, 02 Mar 2013 08:42:30 -0800

Twelve years ago, there were none. Today, 94 communities representing about 300 cities and towns across America have save rates between 90% and 99% and the numbers continue to grow. In fact, in 2012, over one new community per week achieved a save rate above 90%. The No Kill revolution is on the march.

Please join over 30 other speakers at the No Kill Conference in Washington, D.C. this summer as we celebrate those achievements and teach you how to do the same in your community.

Register this month to get the early registration discount, to get the rescue group discount, to get the shelter discount, to get the student discount and to get the municipal shelter director discount.

Learn more: www.nokillconference.org