We recently had the pleasure of attending a talk by Nathan Winograd, our nation’s current leader on promoting No-Kill sheltering and the programs that make these shelters a success. Although his conference was at times both light-hearted and witty, his message remained clear throughout; stop the unnecessary killing of our nation’s shelter pets.

Winograd took the audience down the path of shelter history, informing us about how the shelter systems started out as a safe-haven for saving lives and slowly spiraled into the shelters we know today.

The current trend in animal sheltering is saving the animals we can and euthanizing the rest. Winograd rejects this idea, saying that if we were really trying our best to save lives in the first place, there wouldn’t be such a large surplus in the end. He says that in order for No-Kill shelters to work there are a number of programs that must be up and running.

• Foster care: foster parents help ease shelter crowding by taking in animals not yet ready for adoption. They provide care, housing, and training necessary to make these animals loving pets and help place them in new homes.
• TNR “Trap, Neuter/Spay, Release” program: caretakers trap feral cats living in a neighborhood, spay or neuter them, then release back into their territories. Since the cats can no longer reproduce, the population eventually declines, thereby keeping unwanted cats off the streets and out of shelters.
• Low-cost Spay/Neuter: allows low-income families to get their pets altered with little to no cost.
• Volunteers: increases the number of hands useful for cleaning, training, walking, bathing and fund-raising.
• Compassionate Director: A director that is not compassionate about saving lives simply won’t be saving enough of them.
• Adoption programs: heightens the adoption rate by keeping shelters open when people are off work, take animals off-site to get public attention, and increase public awareness by utilizing televised news stations, newspaper ads and websites. Keep animals in their new homes by making sure they are a good match for their adopters.
• Rescue Groups: takes the burden off of shelters by bringing animals into their own adoption programs.
• Retention: keeps animals in their current homes by providing medical assistance, behavioral advice, and keeps lost animals for longer periods before putting them into adoption programs.
• Rehabilitation: provides animals with medical problems proper veterinary treatment. Uses behavior modification and training to save the lives of difficult pets.
• Community Involvement: increases the amount of supporters for donations, adoptions, and other help.

Is your local shelter doing all it can to fulfill the no-kill equation?

To attend a No Kill Conference near you visit the No Kill Advocacy Center. For more information about Nathan Winograd and future talks, visit Nathan’s website.

Nathan Winograd