Turning this killer beast around

Animal sheltering is headed in the wrong direction. Let's fix that.

In the three decades or so before the pandemic, No Kill sheltering became a movement. And as happens with many progressive movements, it was co-opted. Since the pandemic lockdowns presented Austin Pets Alive, Maddie’s Fund, and Best Friends with an opportunity to restrict intake and call it “turning the community into the shelter,” we’ve seen more killing and a lot of cynicism about No Kill, and a resurgence of the excuses that pounds use for killing, especially the one about the “irresponsible public.” As things get worse and worse in sheltering and rescue, especially in Texas, consider this:

In Texas, counties with human populations under 75,000 are not required by state law to have an animal control agency or shelter. According to Professor Google, "Of the 254 counties in Texas, 171 counties currently have populations under 75,000." (Check that for yourself.) There is no database of which counties have animal control agencies and which don't, and some contract with cities that do, but the bottom line is that a vast area of Texas has ZERO government services for lost and unowned cats and dogs.

Many of those cities and counties that do operate animal control agencies and facilities are underfunded and have capacity to meet the needs of 20-30 years ago.

The field of animal sheltering lacks professional standing. I started the first animal sheltering management certificate program, at University of the Pacific, more than 10 years ago, and it's only a certificate program. It doesn't even require a college degree. Most shelter directors come from other fields or work their way up from animal control or volunteer coordination. There is very little systems thinking or leadership in sheltering, and there's a lot of defensiveness and insularity to protect the status quo.

Animal control agencies are dysfunctional in so many different ways. Tolstoy said, “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” That applies to shelters, too. Effective ones are all alike: they help people keep their pets and get their lost pets back home. They take good care of animals that end up in the shelter and provide the veterinary and behavioral help they need, including vaccinations and sterilization. And they get them into good foster and adoptive homes as quickly as possible.

Unhappy, or dysfunctional, pounds are dysfunctional in so many ways. Their sponsoring governments don't fund or support them; or they have killer policies like breed bans; or they don't vaccinate and prevent disease outbreaks; or they don't allow fosters; or they censor staff and volunteers; or they do the bare minimum and blame the public for their high kill rate. This list could go on and on.

And those are just some of the issues within total local and county control. There are also state level regulatory issues like a failure to ban puppy mill sales and online puppy brokers. And there are larger social and economic forces like the lack of affordable, pet-friendly housing and the private equity invasion of veterinary care.

All of these are subject to change via elections and regulation. But we have to see the problem in ways that we can solve it. I get frustrated with irresponsible pet owners, too, but if we accept killing as the norm until every individual pet owner magically decides to spay, neuter, microchip (and register the chip) and keep their pet forever, then Texas is going to be the highest-kill state in the nation forever. And while this post focused on Texas, many of these issues are national.

So let's demand our state and local governments and shelters do better.