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?
The interest in Humans for looking out for the welfare of their pets, and animals in general, can trace its history to the birth, in 1824, of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in Great Britain, and to the birth of 2 organizations in the United States:
The ASPCA, founded in 1866 with this mission - "to provide effective means for the prevention of cruelty to animals throughout the United States".
American Humane Association, founded in 1877 with this mission - "Ensure the welfare, wellness and well-being of children and animals, and to unleash the full potential of the bond between humans and animals to the mutual benefit of both."
Shelter killing is THE leading cause of death for healthy cats (& Dogs, too!), with millions of Felinity Assembled being put to death every single year!
Doesn't this bother you? Bother your Human?
For far too long, Humans have deluded themselves into accepting that there is no other way and...that this killing is THE RIGHT THING TO DO!
Meow, wow, wow! Makes one want to cough up a hairball just thinking about it!
So, um, what went wrong, when, why, and what can building a national No Kill Movement do to reverse such an appalling situation?
A lot, actually, but it hasn't been easy, and is a longterm battle, with no end in sight.
In 1994, San Francisco became the first city in the United States to end killing of healthy homeless Dogs & Cats in shelters.
A movement was born, in the wake of this astonishing move.
It is a movement with the potential to persuade public, and government, alike that it is NOT true that "the best we can do for homeless Dogs and Cats is to adopt out a measly few, and kill all the rest."
Which brings me to the reason behind this new Special Repurrt...
As readers know Daddy was recently invited to a special 1 day event in Toronto, Canada, about building a No Kill Movement, and featuring the most recognizeable name in the Movement, Nathan J. Winograd, as speaker.
Sadly, Daddy could not go.
An Invite, A Compliment, A Challenge, and A Choice
Instead, Elvira, & I, will cover the event, and the subject, based on the PDF's sent us by the rescue group in Canada, any updates they care to send us, and our own reading, and research.
To start, Daddy bought the 2 books arguably considered the "Bibles" of the Movement, both written in the last 5 years, by Mr. Winograd.
After reading the Forward, and "To the Reader" message, that begin the 2nd edtion of his first book, REDEMPTION: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America (Pub. 2007, 2nd ed. 2009), I found myself deeply troubled, and inspired to write this post to kick off this series.
I pride myself, as does Daddy, on knowing a lot of things, learned over a nic long life, but I, and Daddy, especially, are always learning new things, in our journey together as a Cat Family, and as Cat Bloggers, and writers.
As regular readers know, in the sidebar can be found a huge list we call "Rescues, Shelters, Societies, Foundations, & Associations."
We took the oportunity to finally seperate out a new list, within that section, that we call "Building a No-Kill Nation."
In 2010 I mailed a flier describing the content, and purpose, of this blog, to 80 shelters, and rescues, in the main list, many of them based in SoCal, and even here in the OC, but never heard from one.
Daddy even passed out cards at Pet Expos, & adoption fairs, to no avail.
Humans can be such slow learners but, they DO learn, and have begun to reach out to the Pet Blogging Community, since those days, in many ways, so we have hope that this series will play a part in that.
We would love to hear from you, and/or your Human, about your experieces, or about the shelters in your area, so send us a link if you do a blog post, or if you know of news stories similar to the one I reported on, in your local paper, send us the link!
Our e-mail is in the sidebar, near the top of the 1st column.
As Elvira Mistress of Felinity says...
You are about to enter the No Bull Zone!
Grab your tails, Felinity Assembled, it's going to be a bumpy ride! :-D
Next up = FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 2
*****If you like this series, and feel it is important, we encourage you to share it in every way you can, from a mention on your blog, and e-mail to friends, to Facebook, Google +, Twitter, Stumble Upon, and any other of the Social Networking sites in the Share Buttons below each post, and the much bigger list in the top of the first sidebar.
****UPDATE - 4/19/12****
Welcome to readers of the remarkable Scratchings & Sniffings Blog, by "The Grumpy Old Lady", Yvonne DiVita, and friends!
She is co-founder of Blogpaws, & had some very nice things to say about us, and this series, in an excellent post that rips into Loews Hotel for it's stance on a Feral Colony on the grounds of one of its hotels, and also discusses TNR, and campaigning for a different way to help Felinity Assembled than the traditional Kill them all & Let Ceiling Cat Sort Them Out way of doing things...
"This is a serious issue! We are lucky to have these smart kitties covering it."
****END UPDATE****
Wonderful Post!
Me is with yous on this one!
Believe it our not, me was destined to die at the shelter, because me was UNADOPTABLE, because me bited and scratched, anybody who came close!
My Daddy had to sign a waiver because me was so bad!
Look at me now!
Me believes in NO KILL, And me and my peoples has supported it ever since.
ROCK on!
Nellie
Posted by: Penelope | April 10, 2012 at 08:30 PM
While "no kill" is admirable, you have to realize at this point there are so many homeless animals that 10,000 are killed every day.
If we all of a sudden decided to go "no kill" then where would they all live?
How would we feed them all?
Not to mention the second and future generations that are created due to their not being killed. Warehousing is not the answer.
The better investment is in low cost neutering. More help for rescues doing TNR, and help people who want pets but can't really afford them to get basic care.
Stop the problem before it starts.
Keeping new generations from showing up in shelters will keep shelters from having to kill healthy and adoptable animals simply because there is no room at the inn.
Posted by: Connie | April 11, 2012 at 09:26 AM
Connie, Daddy, and I used to believe the notion of "Overpopulation" unquestioningly, but the more we read the more we are learning, and opening our eyes.
As for TNR, we are learning more about that, too, and want to cover that issue more, as well.
Winograd, in his book, Redemption, spends considerable time on it as well.
As he writes, For Feral Cats, Trap/Neuter/Return is "the sole alternative to the mass-killing perpetrated in U.S. Animal Shelters."
There is a near 100% death rate, among Ferals, in shelters with no TNR program.
The Humane Society of the United States even considers TNR "Inhumane", calling it tantamount to "Abandonment", according to a letter Winograd discusses in his book.
They are not alone in villainizing Ferals.
Part of the reason for our Street Seens: Cats Outdoors, Thru the Daddy Cam has been to document moments in the lives of Ferals encountered by Daddy in his daily travels.
By doing so we hope to bring more attention to their plight.
Posted by: Nikita cat | April 11, 2012 at 10:35 AM
Excellent report Nikita. HSUS are one big scam, like PETA, they don't have much care for the animals they rake in millions of dollars to protect. Both organisations kill animals.
We think the best bet for we cats in all countries is education for the apes! Animal welfare should be taught in schools from day one until the last day of school with a huge emphasis on the importance of spay/neuter. Large scale spay/neuter campaigns, low cost of course, should be rolled out everywhere. TNR should be subsidised and local communities ought to take pride in caring for ferals.
We have similar problems in the UK. The very large charities have some hard core dubious policies regarding ferals and strays. Thousands of healthy cats are killed every year over here. It makes us weep, but it's what happens when the big charities set up to care for and defend animals use the animals as a means to make a living.
One RSPCA "shelter" we know of kills any cat for just one sneeze or bout of diarrhea. Elderly cats rarely stand a chance, any cat which could thrive with a bit of care is routinely killed.
The RSPCA pleads for money non stop but sits on a fortune estimated to be £130 million! That doesn't include the property they own either. They also have ridiculous and very restrictive homing policies which make it very hard for anyone to adopt from them.
We know Mr Winograd has some rather dodgy ideas about declawing and defanging cats, but we are definately supportive of the no kill movement.
Oliver, Gerry & Mungo
Posted by: Everycat | April 23, 2012 at 03:48 AM