Adopting our way out of pet overpopulation: Yes, we can
By Christie Keith
June 18, 2008
It was an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise, about a media conference held at the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley in Southern California, in support of AB 1634, a law that would require all puppies and kittens in the state to be spayed or neutered by the time they are four months old.
Sharing the spotlight with the speakers were 482 stuffed garbage bags piled high next to the podium:
Emotions weren’t evoked until it was announced that each garbage bag represented the number of dogs and cats euthanized each week at the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley, the San Bernardino City Animal Shelter and the San Bernardino County-Devore Animal Shelter.
“That translates into 22,900 cats and dogs each year,” said Susan Dawson, president of the Humane Society’s board of directors.
Representatives from the area shelters laid out the cost in dollars and lives of their animal control system: 22,900 animals killed in the last year. Costs spiraling up towards $8 million for next year’s animal control bill.
Ken Childress, director of San Bernardino City Animal Control (where a mandatory spay/neuter law has been in place for more than a year) said “the facilities can’t keep up with the number of animals that are being dropped off by pet owners or picked up by animal-control officers.”
Then something struck me. I was reminded of a much more gruesome media conference held 18 years ago in San Mateo County, CA, when then-Peninsula Humane Society director Kim Sturla decided to teach pet owners a lesson — or in her words, “take a 2-by-4 and hit them over the head” — by killing four kittens, a cat, and three dogs on the evening news.
“Body Bag Mountain” certainly didn’t go that far. In fact, the mound of trash bags made a very good visual for the story. I applaud whoever came up with the idea. And it made me curious, so I went to the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley’s website, to see if they applied that same PR savvy to marketing animals for adoption.
I was confused, at first, because there is no mention of adoption anywhere on their landing page. I looked and looked, and couldn’t find a link anywhere, not even clicking down deep on the site, to adoption information.
Well, I figured, it’s just bad web design. That happens. I can understand how it is. So I used Google to do a site-wide search for the word “adoption.” I got only two returns, one to a donation form, and one to an article informing readers that it is not possible to adopt our way out of pet overpopulation.
“That’s true enough,” I thought, “when you don’t even try.”
In fact, in that article, which outlines steps people can take to help animals, while they find the time to tell people to “teach peace” to children, discourage the wearing of fur, and urge people to become vegetarians, they don’t even once suggest that people adopt a pet from the shelter. They actually say not to bother, because “Adoption alone will not solve the problem of pet overpopulation.”
And then you wonder why Allan Drusys, chief of veterinary services for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, told the audience that he “hasn’t seen a backlog of people wanting to adopt pets.”
Well, I have a suggestion.
Instead of telling people that what they can do to help animals is support mandatory spay/neuter programs, which have never worked to end animal population control killing in any community, why don’t you get whoever came up with “Body Bag Mountain” to design a PR campaign just as powerful convincing people to adopt shelter animals?
Every community that has reached the No-Kill goal or come very close has done it with a set of programs and policies that include creative, aggressive, continuous adoption outreach. Richard Avanzino of Maddie’s Fund has shown that only a very small percentage increase in shelter adoptions will completely eliminate all animal population control killing, not just in one year but on a sustainable basis. And Maddie’s Fund puts their money where their mouth is; they awarded 85 grants totalling $10 million last year to help communities in 16 states reach that goal. Did San Bernardino apply for any of those funds?
I wonder if the person who came up with “Body Bag Mountain” writes grant applications, too?
How about offering the community a way to reduce the number of bags in the mountain? How about a publicity stunt/adoption drive where the shelter stays open all weekend and encourages/promotes adopters to come by. If people find a pet to adopt, they can go out to the mountain in front of the shelter and remove one of the body bags. Then they can add one stuffy - or whatever - to the mountain of saved lives. Let the community see the difference they can make in a graphical representation of “mountains”.
I’m not a PR guy. Sometimes I just sits and thinks.
Comment by slt — June 18, 2008 @ 5:43 am
What about all of the people who would love to adopt more, but face landlord restrictions, county/city pet restrictions, etc? I don’t think killing the animals is the answer, but many people simply cannot adopt more. In my case, I have 2 cats and just finding an apartment that takes 2 cats is difficult.:( Many landlords require large deposits and pet rent. The city I live in also restricts people to a total of 4 pets (dogs/cats) total. And that’s pretty liberal compared to some surrounding cities. I know at least one allows only 2 pets.
I think a LOT of changes need to be made to solve this problem. One needs to be rolling back pet restrictions since they don’t stop hoarders and bad pet owners anyway. I get tracked because my pets see the vet regularly. Hoarders and bad pet owners don’t even bother taking theirs to the vet anyway. And don’t get me going on the licensing fees.
Comment by Raven's Mom — June 18, 2008 @ 6:09 am
I would like to mention a law that few know about. Homeowners associations in California CANNOT ban pet ownership. They can limit size and number but cannot keep you from having a pet.Landlords are another story.
On another note. “Sits and Thinks” idea is brilliant. Hearing constantly about the faliures of shelters to adopt is disheartening but the blame alwys comes back from them that it is the “publics fault” and nothing that the shelters are doing can stem the tide of “unwanted animals”. YES THEY CAN.. and YES WE CAN. I would be willing to donate 200 “stuffies’ to any shelter to make a MOUNTAIN OF PRIDE.. or a MOUNTAIN OF HOPE.. and yes.. we need to make it easier for pets to be accepted into homes.. rental ( I ONLY rent to people wiht pets) Eliminate pet limts. Encourage pet placemnet with easier and simpler forms to fill out when “adopting ” a pet.
Heres’a fun idea.. let’s get Llyod Levien to “adopt” a pet.. after all he has a lot of spare time now !!! LOL
Comment by bestuvall — June 18, 2008 @ 8:41 am
Did I read this right, Ms. Christie? This county ALREADY has forced spay-neuter? And this has helped them … how?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — June 18, 2008 @ 8:47 am
You read it right, but it’s San Bernardino City, not county.
Comment by Christie Keith — June 18, 2008 @ 9:05 am
Yerrg, one “turn off” for the public after another. Sorry, but telling the public how awful and hopeless the shelter situation is doves NOT bring people in in droves to adopt a new pet. (although they don’t particularly seem to want to actually bring folks in) A lot of individuals and families will not visit shelters because they are perceived to be to depressing already.
Instead of links describing how helpless the shelter is to save it’s inmates or links to articles that preach life style changes (also a turn off for the average citizen, guaranteed) How bout links to testimonials from happy adoptive families? Lists of offsite adoption events? Volunteer foster opportunities. Dates listed with extended hours?
I was in the neighboring county picking up a bulldog at their new shelter last weekend. Nice facility. Nice people, very very helpful and easy to work with. Not their fault they are working in the twilight zone. No signs for it’s exit off the highway. No signs for it’s exit off the frontage road. Way down off the frontage road. Lots of signs letting me know I was approaching the prison!! The shelter is tucked away, behind the County jail. That’ll make you want to bring the family to adopt a new pet alright. And crappy hours. Only open to the public on the weekend from 1-4. This all assumes you can find it in the first place, I ended up in the prison parking lot on my first attempt.
It reminded me of the beginning of HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy where the main character finds out that all the plans for his homes demolition were on public display, in a file cabinet, in a basement, behind a locked door with a sign on it saying “beware of the leopard”
Where are the signs? How bout a billboard on the highway advertising the great pets available? How bout nice long weekend hours listed on that sign with an 800 number and a website where folks can go take a looksee?
An awful lot of folks looking for a pet go to the paper or the internet. Gina is absolutely spot on! Using this sort of creativity to market the shelters would be such a good use of money and energy
Comment by JenniferJ — June 18, 2008 @ 9:17 am
“Sorry, but telling the public how awful and hopeless the shelter situation is doves NOT bring people in in droves to adopt a new pet.”
My apologies for this sentence, not much sleep last night
Comment by JenniferJ — June 18, 2008 @ 9:23 am
So if I’m reading this right, in year one following enactment of MSN, the county is looking at a 22% INCREASE (from $5 million to $6.1 million) in costs to pick up, house and euthanise animals. Seems like they’re using MSN as an excuse to pull animals from homes and kill them than as a way to end killing.
Comment by Brent — June 18, 2008 @ 9:46 am
It also doesn’t help when the shelter is - as our shelter is - dingy and smelly and staffed by people with bad attitudes. Even when people come in to adopt it can take over an hour for someone to be available to fill out the adoption paperwork. Volunteers are discouraged. Rescues are given a pile of grief. And then they have the audacity to whine in the local paper about their euthanasia numbers and insist that MSN is the only solution.
Comment by Dutch — June 18, 2008 @ 9:49 am
“Homeowners associations in California CANNOT ban pet ownership. They can limit size and number but cannot keep you from having a pet.Landlords are another story.”
I didn’t know this. Interesting. When I first started looking at places to live there, I did notice many “Pet Friendly” ads, but you could only have a small dog (25/30lbs seemed common limits). Or you could have more than one pet but they couldn’t weigh much combined. Generally it amounted to a toy breed or 2 or toy & cat or 2 cats. I don’t know if I would have a dog if it had to be a certain size.
Comment by straybaby — June 18, 2008 @ 11:13 am