For the Animal Lover
This is an appeal for you not to turn your back on the cats, dogs and other animals. I know you care. I know you love animals. But we can't just say it and we can't just feel it. We have to work to make this happen. We have to press for change. We have to invest some time and some money to protect the animals from those who are supposed to protect them. We have to. Please commit, here and now, to helping this cause.
1. Ensure all friends and family purchase adopt their pets from a shelter or no kill rescue group. If you really want a purebred, there are purebred rescue groups. There is even a network of volunteers who drive animals across Canada and even from the USA, both for cats and dogs (and perhaps other pets too, I'm not so sure). But really, the muttigree and catigree make excellent pets. Until there are no pets killed by shelters, I see no reason to purchase from a breeder, even a respectable one. Please note that papers showing animal registration are essentially meaningless in terms of whether the pet came from a respectable breeder or a clearly inhumane miller. The American Kennel Club does not inspect the conditions and welfare of the animals. This is almost certainly the same situation in Canada.
2. Foster, if you can. This helps reduce the killing. Especially for orphaned kittens (this can be hard work), but also for older cats and senior cats.
3. Advocacy. This is the hardest part. You must educate your friends and family first about the conditions for animals in your community. If your shelter is transparent, that is great! If not, you will have to do as much digging for information as you can. This will probably include getting information about the pound/animal control contract for your town/city. Connect with others in the community who care about animals. This may take work, but it will spread the workload and also ensure you are much more effective. Do your research on the financial benefits of TNR and the No Kill Equation. (We hope to put this info on the website one day). Prepare your 'business case' for going no kill. This may mean that your municipal politicians will negotiate the pound contract with a set of standards, for example. [Has this been done?]. Ideally, a shelter should not run the animal pound. They cannot advocate for the animals when they are in the position of having to manage a huge intake (i.e., in most cases, killing an average of 70% - I can't quote the exact website, but that data came from the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies). You may even need to recruit talented people (lawyers, accountants, business managers, etc.) who have a no kill philosophy, to run for the board. Sometimes, or oftentimes, the existing board and management will not be warm to this). You will also have to do a lot of work to educate the community. Is there a successful no kill shelter within driving distance? If so, wouldn't it be great if the local newspaper or TV station did a segment about how they did it? Maybe you can do a Public Service Announcement and get it on the radio (15 seconds). Maybe you can do a video about why No Kill is important to you. If you are a student, can you do a project revolving around No Kill and make your classmates aware of the arguements on both sides of the issue?
4. Funding. Where do your donations go? To an organization 100% committed to saving the lives of animals, or to an organization who is not?
5. Connect with others. In your advocacy work, you will have been connecting with like-minded people in your community. There are also like-minded people on the internet, and in other Canadian cities, so get involved and keep in touch with them. You will be surprised how beneficial the sharing of information can be!