When the commission began exploring the idea of making the city by the bay a no-kill community, it sought the advice of a number of animal welfare organizations, including Best Friends Animal Society.
Focus on FelinesGregory Castle, Best Friends co-founder and interim chief executive officer, traveled to San Francisco’s City Hall this summer to speak to the commission. “It would be easy for them to become a no-kill community with some commitment,” Castle says. “They have a very high save rate — about 85 percent. There are a lot of people who feel that if they just did a few things right now, they could become the biggest city in the U.S. to become no-kill.”
Castle told the commission there are some key things that must be in place if San Francisco wants to reach the goal of becoming no-kill community. Agencies and organizations, including Animal Care and Control, government agencies, the San Francisco SPCA, veterinarians, rescues, and other no-kill organizations — must form a coalition and work together toward the same goal. And one of those organizations must be willing to step up and take leadership of the group effort, providing coordination, motivation and direction, Castle says. He says the coalition must tap all available resources, and that there is money available from foundations such as Maddie’s Fund that is currently not being used to save lives in the San Francisco community. And if San Francisco and other cities across the nation are ever to reach the goal of No More Homeless Pets, they must keep those pets from entering shelters in the first place, Castle says. That means having programs that help animals with behavioral and medical issues so they can stay in their homes or find new ones. It also means having programs that address the most commonly euthanized animals in shelters — pit bulls and feral cats. “Pit Bulls: Saving America’s Dog” and “Focus on Felines” are two of four Best Friends campaigns aimed at reaching the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Read more about the campaigns here.
Where to go from here
After spending months hearing testimony from Castle and other animal welfare advocates, commission chairwoman Sally Stephens and commissioners Angela Padilla and Andrea Brooks put together “One Possible Road Map to No Kill in San Francisco.” The plan does indeed incorporate some of the advice from Castle and others, such as creating a coalition. Among other things, it would offer free or low-cost dog training classes and would develop a fund to pay for medical and behavioral treatment of animals at Animal Care and Control. It would create a halfway house for shelter animals to stay until foster homes could be found for them. It would provide education and outreach to help end the horrible blood sport of dogfighting, and it states that landlords can’t refuse to rent to pit bull guardians. In addition, it would make trap/neuter/return (TNR) an official city policy. But many, including Castle, say the plan doesn’t go nearly far enough. Castle says the policy should be a mandate and not just a resolution. He says Animal Care and Control should be mandated to run TNR programs, and that the city should also mandate programs that address pit bulls, feral cats and animals who enter shelters sick or in need of rehabilitation.
FixSanFrancisco.org, a group made up of local animal welfare advocates and organizations, agrees.
“We believe that legislation is absolutely necessary to accomplish no kill in San Francisco,” wrote Kathleen McGarr in a letter to commissioners on behalf of the group. “No kill legislation in San Francisco is a tangible goal within our reach. It is time to ensure that all savable animals in San Francisco have a secure future.” Stephens says the road map is by no means a final document. She and the other commissioners drafted it simply to get the discussion going. She says she’s not sure whether the final plan should be a mandate.
“If it is mandated, the city is saying you have to do this,” Stephens says. “If you don’t have programs in place to support it, it becomes an empty mandate. How do you enforce it? If they don’t meet the mandate, do you fine them? The money spent on fines could be going to the animals. If there was better coordination between these groups, no-kill would happen whether there’s a mandate or not.”
Pit Bulls: Saving America’s Dog
The importance of working together Getting all of San Francisco’s local organizations to work together and coordinate their efforts could prove to be a challenge. For a long time, the San Francisco SPCA, which is celebrating its 141st anniversary this year, was considered the model for how to do things right. The organization worked closely with animal care and control to help raise the city’s save rate to the impressive 85 percent it is today. It built a brand new adoption center and was one of the first organizations to create cage-free environments. But in the last couple years, some have criticized the organization for diluting its lifesaving programs and becoming less committed to no-kill.
One of the biggest criticisms of the SFSPCA is that it brings easily adoptable animals in from outside the community while refusing to take in many of the animals from animal care and control. According to FixSanFrancisco.org, the SFSPCA brought in more than 1,000 animals from outside the city in 2008 alone.
The SFSPCA is bringing in animals that are easy to adopt while “choosing to abandon the older black dog who needs his teeth cleaned,” McGarr says. Only when San Francisco reaches the goal of saving all of its own animals should it reach out to take in animals from other communities, the letter to commissioners said. According to FixSanFrancisco.org, any road map to no-kill must also:
Establish that San Francisco shelters’ primary role is to save the lives of animals.
Fully comply with California’s Hayden Law, including the section that requires shelters to transfer animals to rescue groups that are willing to take them.
Make TNR an official city policy.
Provide free and/or affordable spay/neuter services for all of the city’s low-income companion animals.
Establish uniform criteria for determining if an animal is saved or killed.
Prohibit killing animals based on arbitrary criteria such as breed bans.
Require shelters to notify people surrendering animals about the possibility of those animals being killed.
Refuse to kill savable, surrendered animals even when requested by the guardian, unless independent assessment has been made that the animal is irremediably suffering or hopelessly ill or injured.
Require shelters to regularly report outcomes — how many animals are adopted, killed, transferred to other shelters or taken in by rescue groups — and conduct regular reporting of the outcomes. And, those statistics should be reported monthly rather than annually.
Require both public and private shelters to have fully functioning adoption programs that include such things as offsite adoptions, use of the Internet and staying open seven days a week with some evening hours.
Require shelters to involve qualified, trained volunteers in all aspects of animal saving endeavors, including fostering and socializing animals and assisting with adoptions.
Already having an 85 percent save rate, San Francisco is very close to becoming the country’s first large no-kill city. But everyone will need to work together if they’re going to make the final stretch to the finish line. Castle says the community as a whole must believe that the goal of No More Homeless Pets is possible and must be committed to getting there.
“None of it is very difficult,” Castle says. “They need to save an extra 600 animals a year.”
Written by Sandy MillerPhotos by Molly Wald
As part of Best Friends’ 25th anniversary in 2009, our goal is to double our membership, so we can double our efforts to bring about a time when all companion animals have a forever home. What can you do to help? Give the Gift of a Best Friends membership to family and friends.
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