At the same time as I'm speaking out against mandatory spay and neuter laws I feel compelled to offer some suggestions that will reduce the rate of shelter deaths.
There are three things that could have an immediate positive impact (1) shift hours to those convenient to the public for finding their lost animals and for adopting available animals (2) for cats stop accepting trap and kill. Support trap, neuter and release, but don't invite, encourage or support cats and kittens being brought in that are unowned. Provide legal protection for people who trap, desex and release cats that are on public property, or with the permission of the property owner. (3) outreach adoption. Get the animals out of the shetlers, and into the community where they can be seen.
Shelter philosophy often reminds me of the people who think if they preach abstinence to teenagers then they won't have sex. These folks firmly and adamantly refuse to provide any information on sexually transmitted disease, nothing about relationships, nothing to help the teen sort through fact and fiction. They think that providing information will make a slut out of the teen. Well it doesn't. And avoiding discussing breeding and taking the stance that there is no such thing is responsible breeding is not going to help the shelter problem.
Even an idiot can figure out if you don't breed there won't be dogs. And a slightly wiser idiot will figure out that if you want healthy dogs with appropriate temperaments and predictable qualities you can't get there by shifting the percentage of well bred dogs downward. If you want better pets you need to shift the breeding criteria up by educating people on what that requires.
Let's be radical. Stop telling people not to breed at all. Instead give them the information to breed well, and support their puppies in placement. Yes, shelters should promote responsible breeding. I know this is shocking but in my experience a major reason the casual breeder does breed in a casual way is that they have never been presented with information on good breeding. They only know the kind of breeding they've seen. And they've been only offered a choice of that, or nothing. But most do care about their dogs, and what happens to their puppies. They just don't actually know the facts. They just have never experienced a good breeder so they have no idea what it takes to be one. And they don't know why it matters.
The information won't make more people breed. I've had enough responses to the criteria I set out to be convinced that once many people know what can be done they will either do it, or choose not to breed. Of course not everyone, but enough to make a difference. I'm not saying to give up on pushing spay and neuter. I'm just saying we need to raise the bar on what we expect out of our breeders. And the best way to raise that bar is to teach wide and far the qualities of a good breeder.
Start thinking of some creative ideas to ensure that every pet adopter learns what they need to learn to make that adoption successful. The single biggest effect we could have on shelter killing is to address the reasons why the dogs are there.
What can we do to reunite pets and their people? Can we make microchips more widely available and less expensive? Can we do better in making animal intake information accessible? Can we centralize posting of intake, and make it real time or close to it? Shelters need to make a record of each animal coming in. Can we find a why to pipe that information to a central database as it is entered?
Let's work on that "moving" problem. What can we do to help building owners feel more comfortable about accepting pets? Can keeping records of training, and test results help? What about a pet resume? Can we create a situation where people see that actually learning about training their dog has some positive benefits, like being about to keep the pet when moving?
So ... maybe it is requiring that each person placing a pet administer a simple quiz, record and retain the results. The questions would include requiring the person to identify an available veterinarian and trainer in the community. Of course people will provide the expected answers if they know the quiz is coming. So what? To provide the expected answers that they still have to learn the answers which means they get exposed to the information. That is what is really important, confirming that they have been exposed to the information sufficiently that they can at least parrot it back.
Find a way to follow up on placements from shelters. Find a way to fund very low cost pet manners classes. Better yet find a way to exchange work for classes. Maybe have potential students stuff envelopes, pass out educational information, cleanup parks, take up neglected maintenance, create art, help network school computers, help a senior care for their pet, whatever exchange might be useful to the community. And make the classes fun. Stop thinking we can't and start thinking we can.
Information on Responsible breeding
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Copyright © 2007,
Diane Blackman
Created: April 23, 2007
Updated: June 1, 2007
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