The Opinionated Pussycat

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: Blogger Disaster Response Network Formed

Good morning Felinity Assembled!

Nikita and Elvira Mistress of Felinity here with some important news, that is timely, in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Remember the Tsunami in Japan?

Humanitarian groups came to the aid of the humans in need, but the lives of thousands of animals were at risk, as well, because of the radiation contamination, and the forced evacuation by US military personnel.

BlogPaws and Be the Change, and World Vets, with the help of Dr. Jessica Vogelsang, are joining forces to create The Blogger Disaster Response Network and they are inviting any interested blogger to sign up and be a part of it!

"World Vets was the first animal relief organization on the ground in Japan, within 72 hours of the disaster. They provided much needed supplies, support to local veterinarians, and manpower to address the complicated issues that arose in the days and weeks following the disaster.

The grassroots efforts of a committed group of animal lovers was key to the success of the Paws for Japan effort. World Vets is proud to announce it is teaming up with the BlogPaws Be the Change for Pets community to create the Blogger Disaster Response Network, the first of its kind. Members of this voluntary organization will be the first to be notified of a global disaster response effort through World Vets, and given all the information they need to help spread the word about how people can help."

The more bloggers that they can contact when a disaster strikes, the bigger the positive impact we , as a Community, can make in spreading the word about efforts to help.

You may not think that you and your blog, probably with miniscule traffic, can make a difference, but we here, at Meowsings, beg to differ, because we and Daddy HAVE made a difference in a number of ways, over a decade of blogging, on several blogs.

In Ca. we lived in earthquake and summer fire season country and, as of Sept., we now live in hurricane country, so we know how important spreading the word in the time of disaster can be.

We signed up, and will add the badge in our sidebar.

Full Press Release is here. Sign-up page is here.

 

It's National No Kill Day: Educate Yourself and Your Human

 

 

Today is National NO KILL DAY! 

 Click on this link to learn more about it, including how to support and help this effort.

 

Elvira Mistress of Felinity, Daddy Kiril, and I, wish every day could be a NO KILL DAY for all shelter animals.

 

In April I wrote a series of posts on the No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution.

 You can read it, beginning here

 

In our sidebar, under the heading of Rescues & Shelters, you will find a collection of No Kill related links, and links to some important exposes.

 

JUST ONE DAY....

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: No Kill Series Sequel - PETA

Good evening, Felinity Assembled!

Last month I presented a series of posts on the No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution.

In Chapter 7, I covered PETA, and its negative reputation in the Animal Welfare Movement, and my own correspondence with them, with regards to a single word. :-D

Several days after this post I got a couple of tips from a reader calling themselves "Ontario No Kill Advocate", who didn't leave a website for themselves, but shared some interesting links to more reports on PETA.

In March/April/May, Huffington Post Canada columnist Douglas Anthony Cooper did a terrific , 5 part, expose on PETA, culminating in a discussion of Nathan Winograd, & the No Kill Movement, as an altertanive to PETA, and the familiar Shelter procedures.

In Part 1 he writes: "Nobody does the euthanasia thing quite like PETA, Ingrid Newkirk's vaunted animal-rights organization. After long being dismissed as an outrageous slander -- just another right-wing slur -- this gruesome truth has finally gained traction in the mainstream press: PETA's headquarters in Norfolk has the highest kill rate in the nation. A rescued pet has the same chances of surviving PETA's sanctuary as it does of receiving genuine love and affection from Michael Vick."

His piece goes a lot further than just observing that nice Humans should not be taking off their clothes in support of euthanasia of pets at Animal Shelters. Fame and prettiness are potent gifts among the Humans, and should be flashed wisely, he says. nice Humans, he writes should not be convincing equally nice Humans to give their Green Papers to an outfit that "kills pets, indiscriminately, at a rate that would shock seal hunters."

Along the way he has a few choice words for even some of those organizations that lead the fight against PETA, apparently simply because their politics may differ from his, but I don't hold this against him, because he DOES acknowledge the good work they have done in exposing PETA.

He also provides links to exposes by other leading magazines.

READ: "PETA's Celebs: Naked in the Name of Mass Pet Slaughter."

In Part 2 he begins by sharing the truly touching story of how PETA founder Ingrid Newkirk rescued some Cats in 1972, and learned the shelter she turned them in to proceeded to kill them, leading her to soon found her organization....

"PETA, for reasons near impossible to comprehend, decided to devote itself to precisely the treachery that inspired Newkirk's mission in the first place. Her organization now routinely takes in animals, with the gentle lie that it intends to re-home them. It then exterminates them. Generally within twenty-four hours. All of them."

So what the hell happened?

Why does PETA conceal its intentions from rescuers?

Why does PETA do so much of what it does that is detremental to Animal Welfare efforts?

Why does PETA's literature "describe euthanasia in terms that can only be considered pornographic"?

Mr. Cooper goes into great detail, with links, to provide answers to these, and other questions.

His discussion of the beliefs of Newkirk, and how PETA  doesn't give a damn for the helpless, is an eye opener.

READ: "Ingrid Newkirk's Death Wish."

In Part 3, Mr. Cooper writes a link filled expose of Nathan Winograd, & the No Kill Movement he leads...

The best way to explain why he goes to such lengths with this part of his story is written in his own words:

"Nathan Winograd believes that PETA's founder, Ingrid Newkirk, is mentally ill. That to him is the only credible explanation for her monstrous compulsion to kill healthy shelter animals. In contrast, I have argued that she is fully rational: Her viciousness has its own internal logic; moreover, it is counterproductive to psychologize evil.

This is a significant difference of opinion -- it goes to the heart of an important moral issue. Winograd is the leader of the No Kill movement, and in fact I disagree with him about many things: We've been having a lengthy email conversation, and it's remarkable how much we differ on crucial issues. Why then would I follow this man to the ends of the earth?

The answer is that it's not about being correct. It's not about his argument trumping mine, or his having the higher moral ground. It's not about us at all. It's about the animals. If what we do is right for the millions of abandoned creatures consigned to shelters, that's all that matters. Everything else is unimportant. And I have determined -- I am convinced -- that Nathan Winograd's No Kill program is the best thing to happen to the world's domesticated animals in my time. Perhaps ever. It is a genuine revolution, of the sort that it is a privilege to experience: we are living in one."

READ: "The Humane Alternative to PETA's Pet Slaughter." 

 

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 7

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Welcome to the last chapter in this series, and thank you to all who have read it, and spread the word about it.

Tonite I want to introduce you to 3 websites playing a roll in spreading the word, via their websites, and numerous reports, and exposes, about 2 organizations who have built 2 distinctly different reputations in the Animal Welfare Movment...and how all is not what most people think, with regrds to these organizations.

 

Humane Watch has been keeping a watchful eye on the Humane Society of the United States at least since February 2010.

Why?

They explain it this way:

"The dog-watchers at the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) need their own watchdog too. HSUS now has an annual budget around the size of an NFL payroll. It has become too big and too unaccountable. Someone has to pay closer attention.

This blog is an attempt to make sense of what’s going on inside that sprawling organization.

Is the Humane Society of the United States all good? All bad? The truth probably lies somewhere in between. And there are many conflicting assessments of its performance."

The HSUS is a national group with no ties to your local Humane Society Shelter.

Charity Rating Services have been mixed in their assessments, but Humane Watch explains it this way: They "don’t dig very deep into anyone’s programs, and they don’t look at much beyond a tax return."

Humane Watch digs deeper, and they have quite the Document Library.

They have collected documents going back to the early days of the HSUS, in 1954, and classified them into 14 different categories.

They have promoted a list of Shelters in every state in its "Daily Humane Bites" feature, making no distiction between Kill & No KIll, with the feeling that supporting these places is more responsible than supporting the HSUS.

They have created 6 ads, such as the one above, to promote public awareness about the troubling side to HSUS.

They have a Blogroll of 38 organizations, and websites, that do similar work to what they do.

Visit, and explore Humane Watch.

 

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 6

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Tonite I want to introduce you to 4 websites playing a roll in spreading the word about the No Kill Nation Shelter Movement.

1. The No Kill Advocacy Center was begun, in 2004, by Nathan J. Winograd.

The center's No Kill Equation is the only model that has been successful in creating a No Kill community.

The Equation promotes 11 seperate programs, and services, required for a successful No Kill Facility, and you can read all about these programs, here.

For Shelter Reform to be successful, the site recommends that people get informed, be thorough, be successful, don't settle, and require accountbility, and explains what each of these ideas means.

There are links, and PDF's realted to Dogs, & Cats, and to info related to understanding the No Kill Philosophy, Improving Shelter Operations, Legislation.

 Check it all out here.

2. The Annual No Kill Conference describes itself this way:

"Join the nation’s most successful shelter directors, animal lawyers, and shelter reformers for an inspiring and empowering conference that will help you save lives.

This is the only national conference that says we can end the killing and we can do it today!"

You can learn more, including about speakers, and seminars, here.

3.  No Kill Nation is a Florida based organization in the process of building their website, and they explain their mission this way...

""our mission and passion is to educate, enlighten and inspire all of us to know that there is a better way. That the status quo is a betrayal to our kindred spirits. The mass systematic shelter killing of the innocent loving souls, whose only crime is that they are unable to find a loving, caring home, is immoral, unacceptable, and unnecessary. With compassionate dedication we will
and must finally end this injustice, for only then shall we find true redemption."

Stay tuned for more on their website, and connect with them on Facebook, and Twitter, in the meantime.

4. No-Kill Community News is a remarkable, and important,  blog, begun last July, with an important purpose...

"To Track open-admission no-kill shelters.  “Open-admission” (also known as “open-intake”) shelters are obligated to take in strays (either serving as animal Thyecontrol themselves or accepting strays from animal control) and animals surrendered by people who live in the area served by the shelter — in other words, these shelters cannot pick and choose what animals they take in or how many animals they take in.  “No-kill” shelters are ones that maintain a 90% or better live release rate.  That is, 90% or more of the animals that come into the shelter leave it alive, whether they go to an adoptive home, a rescue, or are returned to their owners.  More and more shelters are managing to be both open-admission and no-kill, which is a revolution in animal sheltering."

Their sidebar lists links to:

32 Open-Admission No-Kill Communities, And Counting.

8 No-Kill Shelters in Progress, and 15 Communities to Watch for developements.

4 Internation No Kill locations.

They have a page with stats to help no-kill advocates to make their case to shelter management or to city or county officials.

 

They also have a page with links to other resources.

 

Visit the site, here.

 

The Final Chapter = FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 7

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 5

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Tonite I want to share links to a declaration, a website and proposed legislation, related to the No Kill Shelter Movement, and what it hopes to accomplish.

You, and your Human can read them at your leisure, as they are all interesting, thought provoking, and well worth your time.

Nathan J. Winograd was the primary author of the Declaration of the No Kill Movement in the United States, witten in Sept. 2005.

As he explains:  “No Kill is a revolution. And behind every revolution is a declaration—a statement of grievances, and a listing of rights and principles that underscore our great hope for the future. We assert that a No Kill nation is within our reach—that the killing can and should be brought to an end.

Join us in endorsing The Declaration of the No Kill Movement in the United States.”

No Kill sheltering models, based on non-lethal programs and services are cropping up all over the nation, and this declaration makes the case for ending population control killing methods of sheltering that have been the norm for over a century, and expanding methods that include ensuring public access to affordable spay/neuter services, allowing rescue groups to save animals on death row, and communitywide Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) for feral cats.

Whereas the No Kill Resolution has 15 Whereas's, now, therefore be it resolved, that I encourage you, and your Human, to read the Statement of Rights, Guiding Principles, and No Kill Standards, and ponder them thoughtfully.

Once you have done so please encourage your Human to consider joining over 30,000 animal lovers, animal advocates, and animal groups in the U.S. who have read, and signed the No Kill Declaration....Daddy Kiril has signed it this very evening.

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 4

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Tonite, in Toronto, Canada, author, and activist on behalf of Animals, Nathan J. Winograd, makes his first appearance in that fair city, to promote the cause of No Kill Shelters, and to promote his 2 important books on the subject.

Last month, the Organization for the Rescue of Animals, sent out word of this event, and even invited Daddy Kiril to attend, which he, sadly, could not afford to do ( An Invite, A Compliment, A Challenge, and A Choice ).

The Press Release, in part, read as follows:

THOUSANDS OF LIVES DESTROYED EVERY YEAR IN TORONTO AND THROUGHOUT THE GTA.

Cats and dogs are killed every year by the thousands in pounds in Toronto and throughout the Greater Toronto Area. An alleged over-population is usually the justification invoked for high killing of companion animals in our city and in other parts of North America.

In reaction to these tragic situations, the no kill movement has grown by leaps and bounds throughout North America and advocates have been successful in envisioning life saving methods that, where implemented, have brought the rate of euthanasia down to less than 10%.

ORA-Organization for the Rescue of Animals is proud to host on April 14, 2012, for the first time in Toronto, a conference on “Building a No-Kill Community” with Nathan Winograd, the leader of the no-kill movement in the US. Nathan Winograd, a graduate of Stanford Law School, a former criminal prosecutor and attorney, held a variety of leadership positions including director of operations for the San Francisco SPCA and executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA, two of the most successful shelters in the nation. Designated number 8 amongst the “Top 15 Thinkers and Writers in 2011” by Forbes magazine, Nathan Winograd has transformed, almost overnight, high kill pounds in San Francisco, New York and even in rural America into practically no kill facilities (with less than 10% rate of euthanasia).

With some goodwill, the same results can be achieved in Toronto.

“This is a huge event that could bring many positive benefits for pound animals across the GTA,” says Claudia Vecchio, the founder and chair of ORA-Organization for the Rescue of Animals.

“The Toronto Humane Society board members will attend, as well as some Toronto city councillors, animal advocates and generally animal caring people who wants to know more about how to make our city pounds implement tax-saving, ethical and alternatives measures to the ongoing repugnant and unnecessary killing of thousands of defenseless cats and dogs."

As you can see there will be no naps, and snoozes, in Toronto, this evening. :-D

 

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 3

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Well, there was a reason for no post, yesterday, and I'm afraid I'm partly to blame.

Daddy got us some new toys, and Elvira, & I were testing them out, but something else has been happening for a few weeks now, but Daddy didn't notice until yesterday, and Daddy was so pre-occupied with his camera that I couldn't find time to do some blogging!

Daddy noticed that I, Geezer Central, was friskily playing chase, and wrasslin', with, Elvira, even Talking Smack back with the Sassy Young Thang along the way.

Look, I can't explain it either, but there WILL be pictures of all this, non-journalistic, behavior, don't worry. :-D

Anyway, to continue with this series....

I want to share something about the beginnings of the No-Kill Movement, before moving on to the event happening in Toronto, and those involved, plus some other links we have long had in the sidebar, after that.

Before the 1990's it wasn't all just about city, and county, shelters, and expensive vets, the business of killing, and disuading the growth of low cost clinics, and adoptions.

There have been Rescues around for decades, and attempts at low cost healthcare for pets, even efforts at the care of Feral Colonies.

But, a Movement, with real teeth in it, has to have its start someplace, and that place was at an SPCA in San Francisco.

Nathan J. Winograd, in his book Redemption, tells the fascinating story of how an agency that was killing most of the 20,000 Dogs & Cats it impounded every year, during the 1970's, became the birthplace of the No Kill Movement we know today.

The national organizations such as the Humane Society, ASPCA, and even PETA, were not on board with what began in San Francisco.

When Richard Avanzino too over the SFSPCA, in 1976, Shelters were not known to proactively reach out to those Humans willing to Foster care pets elegible for adoption,, rescue groups, stores, and other, it was mostly about killing the inmates, even if they were healthy.

At the time there was a successful low cost spay/neuter program in LA, and this gave Avanzino some food for hought.

He wanted to take the idea further, much further.

He believed it was most important to get pet lovers to adopt from shelters, not stores, or backyard breeders, so he set about finding ways to make his shelter better serve the public...and the animals that came into his lock-up.

He began a program of fixing the inmates BEFORE putting them up for adoption, thus slowly begining to cut the numbers of  animals being killed in his shelter.

He developed a volunteer foster care system, and began holding adoption events all over town, and changed the hours the shelter was open making it easier for wroking people to visit.

Over the initial decade he created other lifesaving programs, all the while openly going against 100 years of standard practices, and beliefs, about "How things were done".

A lot of very powerful people, and interests, nationwide, were less than pleased, and far from convinced, about the rightness of his methods, despite the enthusiasm of the general public.

In 1988 Avanzino signed one final Animal Control contract with the city, and then cut the cord completely.

He walked away from $1.8 million  in annual shelter income.

His staff walked away from HIM, and went to work for the city shelter, displaying an open dislike for his methods, by doing so.

San Francisco also had various rescues, and a non-profit vet hospital, and the fresh start by the SFSPCA signaled the opening salvo of a possible new way of doing things.

Things began to really change, in 1993 and 1994, with an Adoption Pact with the city shelter that led to all healthy Dogs & Cats not adopted out by the city, or claimed by owners, being sent to the SPCA, instead of being killed.

It took a lot of public education, and eventual enthusiastic support, to get the Animal Welfare Commission, and city shelter leaders, to sign on.

San Francisco became what Winograd calls "the safest urban community for homeless pets in the United States."

 

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 2

Good evening, Felinity Assembled, for anyone who missed the start of this series, you can read it here.

Well, yesterday's post was full of good cheer, wasn't it? :-D

Like me, when I first began to delve into this, you are probably asking what the hell happened?

Where did the movement, born out of 19th century compassion, go wrong, and why?

There is so much to this story, far more than a couple of books could ever hold, but Nathan J. Winograd's efforts are a good starting point, that can guide you, as they have led others, to do further online research for others covering the story.

The founder of the SPCA never intended it to run the City Pound but, after he died that's what happened, and by 1910 it was mostly tossing Dogs & Cats in the Hoosegow, the money involved playing an important role in this outcome.

The growing number of Humane Societies, across the nation soon followed suit.

As I've been reading about all this, and seeing how things evolved over 140 + yrs. in America alone, as laws, and procedures, and fees, for this, that, and some other aspect of the evolving Shelter Industry, not to mention the conditons in facilities, and the changing methods of killing, it's a puzzling, frustrating, and angering,  experience.

From the 1870's there WAS a growing campaign to educate the Humans on the importance of a lifetime commitment to their Cats, and Dogs, keeping them in the home, and not loitering on the streets, and the homeless were offered up for adoption, and slow, painful, methods of killing animals, such as drowning, beating, and shooting, gave way to the use of early gas chambers.

With that last there was no turning back, no attempt to consider the notion of NOT killing most of the animals that entered the shelter system.

Morality, and compassion, were tossed in the nearest litterbox, and covered up...seemingly for good.

 

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 1

Happy Tuesday, Felinity Assembled, get in your Naps, and Snoozes, now, as I'll be covering a lot of ground over the next couple of weeks, and some of this stuff may give you the Willies. :-D

( & Welcome to readers who may have been refered here since this series began - See Updates below!)

For many of us our earliest memories in life start with the Animal Shelter Experience, when we were Kittens, and found our Forever Home.

As readers know that was my own experience, in 1998.

I do not know if my Mom, and littermates, were as lucky as I was, and it does no good to dwell on what I had no control over.

Others of us have had Shelter experiences later in life, for the first, & only time, or the first of several times.

The stories that can be told are legion.

Last month I did a report on the shocking state of affairs at our local county shelter, as reported by the OC Register, and I highly encourage you to read it:

FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The Disturbing Tragedy of Cats in the OC Shelter

This is NOT an isolated situation, but the norm, everywhere in America, and many places around the world, even worse.

The Humans of America are Cat lovers.

Collectively, they share their homes with maybe 95 millon Felines.

We converse with them, and they us, they keep our photos in their wallets, and share them online, they celebrate our birthdays, and mourn our deaths, travel with us, include us in holiday events, and take time off from work to care for us when we get sick.

They blog about us, or allow us to do our own blogging (We have even invaded Facebook, & Twitter!).

They write books about us by the storefull, and help us write our own books.

Every year, Humans spend more than 38 billion green papers on us, and Dogs, too! They donate billions more to charities that promise to help those of us in need, with the largest of such places with astronomical budgets.

Most Humans in America believe in the humane treatment of animals, and you can see this reflected in their laws, all the animal protection organizations, increasing spending on animal care, and wonderful advances in Veterinary medicine.

But, and yes, there is a but...the agencies that those same humans expect to protect us are instead killing millions of us annually.

How, in the  name of Ceiling Cat, did this happen?

How did the same organizations founded on compassion become the leading killers of Kitties (& Dogs, too!), in the nation?

How did a nationwide system of tax-funded animal shelters that the Humans expect to give homeless animals a 2nd chance at the Good Life, become specialists in wiping us out?

And why do the Humans not only accept this, but continue to foot the bill for this daily slaughter through taxes, and even, get this...voluntary donations of their hard earned green papers?