Forewarned is Forearmed
Sarasota, FL, City Commissioners voted unanimously to require local animal shelters to maintain a minimum 90% placement rate. The ordinance must still be approved at a second reading before it becomes law. But People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is trying to ensure this does not happen.
In an Op-ed they published in the local newspaper, PETA recycled its usual opposition to No Kill. PETA contends that a shelter faces three extreme choices: kill animals, turn them away, or warehouse them for months. There’s another option: the No Kill Equation — a series of cost-effective programs that include marketing, pet retention, volunteers, and robust adoption campaigns:
These programs are humane, readily available, affordable, and — when comprehensively implemented to the point that they replace killing entirely — effective. Communities across the country that embrace the No Kill Equation place 95%- 99% of animals without turning animals away, putting public safety at risk, or warehousing animals. Collectively, the No Kill Equation has resulted in a nationwide shelter death rate decline of 95%, fewer people buying animals, more people adopting, and 30% fewer puppy mills.
As forewarned is forearmed, we had previously written to the Mayor and City Commissioners, warning them that PETA would do this and urging them not to listen.
Hopefully, they won’t.
Dear Mayor and Members of the Commission,
On behalf of the Florida members of The No Kill Advocacy Center and our Sarasota members specifically, we thank you for your leadership in making local shelters a place where animals find a new beginning instead of what they find elsewhere — the end of the line. We endorse the No Kill Shelter Ordinance enthusiastically. To that end, you can find sample policies and procedures on our website. We hope it provides helpful information for your local shelter to assist in the transition.
Finally, we write because your leadership on this issue has made national news. And while that has given animal lovers across the country hope that they may replicate your efforts, we believe you will soon hear — if you haven’t already — from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). PETA will oppose your effort and encourage you to refrain from approving it during its final reading, as they typically fight these efforts nationwide.
PETA contends that a shelter faces three extreme choices: kill animals, turn them away, or warehouse them for months. There’s another option: the No Kill Equation — a series of cost-effective programs that include marketing, pet retention, volunteers, and robust adoption campaigns.
These programs are humane, readily available, affordable, and — when comprehensively implemented to the point that they replace killing entirely — effective. Communities across the country that embrace the No Kill Equation place 95%- 99% of animals without turning animals away, putting public safety at risk, or warehousing animals. Collectively, the No Kill Equation has resulted in a nationwide shelter death rate decline of 95%, fewer people buying animals, more people adopting, and 30% fewer puppy mills.
While PETA’s opposition to No Kill still surprises some, it shouldn’t. PETA kills roughly 90% of the animals it takes in, despite over $80 million in annual revenues. Why? PETA officials believe that sharing one’s home subjects animals to bondage and oppression: “Let us allow the dog to disappear from our brick and concrete jungles — from our firesides, from the leather nooses and metal chains by which we enslave it.”
As PETA believes people are incapable of caring for animals and that those animals likewise cannot live on the street, animals are damned either way, and thus killing them is a “gift.” Given that PETA runs a facility that historically has been the functional equivalent of a slaughterhouse, it begs the question: why should anyone listen to PETA on how to run a shelter?
Thank you again for your compassionate leadership. We look forward to reading about the ordinance’s final passage. And if we can assist in any way, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Very truly yours,
Nathan J. Winograd
Executive Director
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