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.
Did you know that it wasn't really until after WW2, with the growth of the suburbs, and other societal changes among the Humans, that the status of the Cats, and even Dogs, in their lives, changed as well?
Cats went from being working animals, chasing Mickey Mouse, Jerry, and all their relatives out of the barn, shed, or house, to being "companions", able to live a life of comparative luxury, play, and relaxation, with, eventually, even enough time to write books, and take up blogging on the internet. :-D
And yet, the killing continued.
In the 60's the Humane Society USA led the way in setting up standards, & practices, for shelters, and began to fight against anything that went against their ideas.
All sorts of laws were passed, and fees charged, related to education, ownership, and licensing, not to mention medical issues related to guys getting our privates "taken care of", and gals getting Lady Gardenectomies, and the feeding of strays.
Efforts to make licences, & procedures, affordable, and easier to obtain, by the poor, met with opposition from the shelter, & vet industry, and the very public shelters were meant to help were blamed for the situation that existed.
When all these laws ended up being ignored, or were targeting the wrong people, well...
Even when low cost clinics proved successful, they didn't last, for all sorts of reasons, from budgetary, to political.
Before the 1990's things were a mess, as local, and national, organizations, led the way in killing most of the Cats, and Dogs, that came thru their doors, considering all these healthy, adoptable, animals not worth the effort to help find Forever Homes for.
It blew my mind when I first read that a former leader of the HSUS, once wrote an article explaining "Why We Must Euthanize", explaining that she had personally put 70,000 Cats & Dogs, "to sleep", & that it didn't trouble her one bit.
So this "kindness" became more justified, by having a soothing name for it.
No Kill Nation reprints a devastating disection of her essay that will make you, and your Human, think.
In the 1990's things began to change in a serious way, and efforts to expose the troubling side of the Shelter Industry, began to appear on the scene, especially with the birth of the internet, allowing for easier disimination of the information discovered.
I can't stress enough that our coverage, in this series, is just meant to get you, and your Human, interested, and curious, enough to do your own research, and reading, and decide for yourself.
The story of the last 188 years is a complex, and detailed, one, with a lot of steps forward, and a lot of steps backward along the march of progress.
Shelters, and rescues, and even activist groups, have done, and continue to do, much on behalf of animals that is positive, but there is much that is troubling, and should not be shoved under the rug, and ignored.
The 1990's saw the birth of the No Kill Movement, and things began to look up in the cause of finding more Cats, and Dogs, Forever Homes.
Next up = FNN SPECIAL REPURRT: The No Kill Animal Shelter Revolution 3
Wowwie!
Yous has opened eyes around our house!
Mommy's Mommy was always so very upset that cats and dogs was not only put to sleep at the shelters but they was sold to Universities for testing and dissection in the 60's.
She worked tirelessly to get that stopped where Mommy grew up.
Keep up the informative posts!
We is enjoying them.
Kisses
Nellie
Posted by: Penelope | April 12, 2012 at 06:51 PM