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No More Homeless Pets Forum
January 12, 2004 Ethical Dilemmas |
Should you put that animal down or spend the $1,200 on vet care? Serve meat at your fundraising event? Spay that pregnant cat? Let go of the big donor who demands to set policies? Faith Maloney of Best Friends will help you examine these and other ethical dilemmas that shelter managers, staff and animal caregivers face.
Introduction from Faith Maloney:
All of us in animal rescue are faced with tough decisions regarding the health and welfare of animals every single day. The need is so great and resources may be limited, especially if you are just starting out in animal rescue. How can you decide how to use our resources wisely and still be able to sleep at night?Also, when you stand up for the animals, you discover a potential minefield of ethical issues that maybe you never knew existed. What we eat, what we wear, what charities we support, and who we vote for suddenly become important and often controversial. Balancing our personal choices and the choices for our organizations is a challenge. How can you navigate the minefield and still remain true to your mission?
I'll look forward to exploring these and other ethical questions with you this week.
Questions
Where to draw the line on spending money on older, ill animals
Should you spay pregnant animals?
Serving meat at benefits for humane organizations
Is euthanasia the best solution for behavioral problem animals?
Dealing with people who threaten to hurt animals if you don't take them
How far to go to keep demanding donors happy
Recovering chronically ill cats with upper respiratory
Should you rescue from other areas when animals are still dying your community?
Ethics of doing just spay/neuter vs. treating all medical needs
What will happen to adoptions when we reach no more homeless pets?
Determining board positions on controversial issues
Helping people find solutions but not getting bombarded individually with requests
Should we applaud shelters that do high volume adoptions but only of easily placed animals?
What to do if you suspect a foster is a hoarder?
Should dogs and cats be fed vegetarian food?
Where to draw the line on spending money on older, ill animals
Question from Deb:
Our rescue is no-kill. But there's got to be a point where that doesn't apply. Our director has been known to spend literally thousands on very ill, quite elderly cats, with very poor diagnoses. Normally they pass, anyway. So how do you know when to draw the line?Response from Faith:
I see part of the problem in your question. You say "our director" makes this decision. In my opinion, it is always a big mistake for just one person to have all the power in these situations.When it comes to making decisions about euthanasia, emotion can outweigh common sense.
Here at Best Friends several people will be involved in that process, and fortunately we also have veterinarians on staff who can advise us about the prognosis of a particular animal. Unfortunately, a vet in private practice might feel unable to push a client in a certain direction for fear of legal retribution or being seen as "needle happy". In some cases, a vet might just see more dollars coming in by keeping a hopeless cause going on and on. To be fair, that is very rare, but a vet is trained to do what the client wants done.
Many years ago, while working with veterinarian Richard Allen, he uttered a phrase that has been my guiding light in my own personal euthanasia decisions, and I know we have integrated into our philosophy here at the sanctuary.
Dr Allen was asked to look at an older dog who was in liver failure. In speaking to the caregiver he said, "We know the end of this story." What he meant was that taking everything into account, age of the dog and his test results, this dog was not going to get better and ever act like a young pup again.
I took that phrase "we know the end of the story" to heart. I interpreted it to mean we could make the decision to euthanize at any point from this day on or wait for the animal to pass away on his own. I happen to feel that euthanasia (literal meaning being gentle death) is a gift that we have to end suffering, so in my own life with my own animals I might make that decision earlier than another person, but there is no point on that time continuum that it would be a wrong decision.
How much a person might do or not do for a very sick animal would depend also on how much they have to spend. I know money is an awful thing to bring up, but this is whole point of looking at this subject this week.
Everyone has a budget, even Donald Trump! How much you have, dictates how much you can spend. We all make choices. Maybe Donald doesn't stay awake at night wondering if he can buy a filing cabinet for the office, but some of us in rescue do. We are also, as a group, prone to guilt about our financial decisions, hence we prefer to go the thrift store for that filing cabinet, rather than buy a nice new one from Staples.
But when it comes to the animals we often feel that the sky's the limit and we should spend "whatever it takes" to provide treatment.
I don't have to tell you that veterinary medicine today is like human medicine - there is very little you can't do. So the question is 'should' you?
My feeling is that in your case, the director should take other opinions and information into account. What is the prognosis for this elderly cat? If the cat is in renal failure, for example, you can range from considering a transplant to supportive care at home. In this case, we would do the supportive care until the cat indicated by appetite, and general demeanor that he wasn't enjoying his life anymore and then we would ask the vet to euthanize him in the company of all those who had loved and cared for this kitty.
So, enlarging the committee of people who make the euthanasia decisions is always a good idea, so that different points of view can be considered. Also having a heart to heart with your the vet you use beforehand, empowering him or her to tell you the honest truth about a prognosis without retribution, will be a great help.
Should you spay pregnant animals?
Question from Nancy:
As someone who has struggled with abortion in humans as an ethical issue I would like to know how you feel about spaying a cat that is pregnant? Obviously the further along the pregnancy the higher the risk to the mother, but when is it justified to end lives that have already begun? And what about the additional 5 or 6 new cats in the world that may have a hard time finding good homes?Response from Faith:
Thanks for asking the BIG ONE on the first day of this Forum! I know of some groups that have experienced schisms on this subject, and it's a tough one. Our mission at Best Friends is to bring about a time when there are no more homeless pets, and the best way to achieve this is through spaying and neutering. So we tend to value this procedure highly.I feel there is no "one size fits all" answer for this difficult question. It depends on space, time and your resources at this moment in time. It also depends on when you and your organization believe that life begins - conception or birth.
Space: Do you have places to put all your pregnant dogs and cats? Time: Do have time to allow a mother to grow her babies, deliver, nurse and train them for the big wide world? Money: Can you afford to provide the space, the time, possible vet care, and special food costs?
The reason I say "at this moment in time" is because things change for animal groups all the time, with the exception of your belief system, which tends to remain the same. There was a time here at Best Friends when we had little or no space, even though we had the time and some of the resources to pay for vet care and food costs, so our decisions back then reflected that. Now we have enough space to allow an observable pregnant friendly animal to go through with the pregnancy, knowing that her kittens and puppies will all be spayed and neutered before being placed in new homes.
I used two words in the last paragraph that are still relevant to our decisions here - friendly and observable.
In our TNR feral cat program we spay all animals that come to us in a trap. If a feral cat is pregnant our vets will spay her. In the past we tried to let them go through with an observable pregnancy, but felt that it was ultimately unkind to a feral cat to confine her for a relatively long period of time when she would rather be back out living her feral life.
Some people I know will release a pregnant feral to have her babies outside. We do not want to add to the population of ferals, and because there is a chance we might not be able to trap that mother or her babies again, we feel that spaying the cat while we have her in our program is the best solution.
We also spay every animal who is brought into our spay/neuter program by the public. It is unlikely we will be seeing those people again and we want to make sure that no dog or cat will be out there breeding.
We spay and neuter all the animals that we take into the sanctuary, and a percentage of those may well be a "little bit" pregnant. If it is not possible to tell from the outer size of the cat or dog that she is pregnant, she will be spayed. If an animal comes to us observably pregnant we will find a staff foster home, or a local foster home if possible, so that the dog or cat can have their kittens or puppies in a home setting. We then make sure that the puppies and kittens are spayed or neutered before adoption as well as the mother.
Each organization has to make their own decision about works for them, knowing that nothing is carved in stone and can be changed as time, resources space and circumstances dictate.
Comment from Azar:
My heart goes out to anyone who has to make that decision. It would be an agonizing one for me.A neighbor, who is committed, ethical, responsible and truly caring about cats, wanted to adopt a pregnant cat at the local shelter. She is a VERY responsible person who would have had all the kittens spayed and neutered when the time came. However, the shelter refused to adopt the cat out to her unless they spayed her (killing the kittens) first. Otherwise there would be no alternative - Mom and kittens would have been euthanized. So with a VERY heavy heart, my friend had no choice but to "allow" the shelter to kill the unborn kittens. Mama cat was saved, adopted, and I know my friend will grieve for those unborn kittens for the rest of her life.
One more example of how the animals and we suffer because of someone else's (the original "owner" of the mama cat) irresponsible behavior.
Comment from Celeste:
Thank you, Best Friends, for being willing to take this difficult stance on spaying pregnant ferals and pets that come in through the spay/neuter assistance programs that No More Homeless Pets offers.One side note is that it's not usually, "the additional 5 or 6 new cats in the world" that, "may have a hard time finding good homes." I have worked with many shelters during kitten season. My experience has been that the brand new usually get snatched up pretty quickly.
It's usually the 5 or 6 pre-existing cats, usually the black or brown adults, who have already been giving of themselves to humans for years that get passed up again and again as the kittens fly out the doors on wings. It's like adults become invisible right before the potential adopters' eyes. Even volunteers find it hard to resist the lure of cuddling a baby for an hour, instead of socializing or grooming a ho-hum adult. So the full grown cats become ever less appealing.
It's the grown-up adoptables who really pay, often with their lives, every time an infant enters any community that has too many births and not enough homes.
Serving meat at benefits for humane organizations
Question from Sheryl:
I am particularly interested in your views on diplomacy where humane organization fundraising is concerned. I believe that promoting kindness to all beings includes living life as a vegetarian. Of course, I intend this to apply to humans. Our cats are obligate carnivores! But the Humane Society where I volunteer is concerned about reaching the greatest number of people possible. To them that includes serving meat products at fundraising events and annual meetings so that the food will appeal to meat eaters, and so the people who attend will feel they're getting their money's worth, or something like that. I hope you will address this aspect of the issue.Response from Faith:
Thanks so much for asking this question, as it comes up time and time again.I feel very strongly about this issue. To me it's a no brainer! Why would anyone feel that serving animal flesh at a shelter fundraiser is a good idea?
I was asked to speak at an event out of state a while back. Due to my extreme naiveté, I never thought to ask what the menu was going to be. I assume that people will not serve dead animals at an event for live animals! Thank goodness, a watchdog group in that community did think to ask, and the host agency was planning on serving chicken and shrimp on the menu!
E-mails began flying backwards and forwards across country, and I told my host that I could not attend or speak at the event if the menu wasn't changed to exclude all flesh and seafood. This was quite a big deal as my airline ticket had been purchased and invitations had been sent out.
My host was new to the world of animal rescue and had fallen into the mind trap that you describe in your question. She had felt that the people she was asking to attend, who were from the upper echelons of her community, would mind not having a meat or seafood selection.
She was easily convinced that this was one meal out of the many thousands of meals these people will eat in their lives, and that they were welcome to eat whatever they chose for breakfast and lunch that same day!
The chef at the venue was happy to oblige, and the food bill was cheaper as rice is a lot less expensive than chicken and shrimp!
Many communities now have vegetarian/vegan restaurants that might be very happy to cater an event and get the word out about how delicious and guilt free their meals are. I would suggest that a vegan (no dairy or eggs either) meal covers all bases.
There is a wonderful package out there for groups looking for some advice on serving non-meat meals at their events. I highly recommend it.
Food For Thought - promoting the adoption of vegetarian policies for SPCA
and humane society sponsored events.
A short, thought-provoking booklet is available from
Animal Place
3448 Laguna Creek Trail
Vacaville, CA 95688
phone: 707-449-4814
e-mail: info@AnimalPlace.org
Or download it from their website.
Comment from a member:
I don't understand why it is wrong to serve meat and seafood at shelter events. I'm not a vegetarian. I do not believe that eating meat or using animals is wrong. It seems to me that whether or not to serve meat is more of an opinion than an "ethical" question. Am to understand that most involved in shelters and rescue are pro animal rights, and therefore believe anyone who isn't a vegetarian is wrong?Response from Faith:
What a good question, and thanks for asking it. I have chosen to live a vegan vegetarian lifestyle as a personal choice and as a result of exposing myself to the practices of raising animals and fish for food consumption. I wasn't always a vegetarian. In fact the choice to become vegan (no animal products) is relatively new to me, and I am not always perfect in my choices in that area. I am a work in progress.I don't impose my food choices on friends, family or colleagues if we all go out to dinner together. In fact I make a point of choosing the best burger place in town when my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson come to visit, as they are all meat eaters. The restaurant also serves a veggie burger, so we are all OK.
I make a big distinction between personal life and choices and what I feel we should do at animal fundraisers and events. I know it may sound odd and even inconsistent to some people, but I do feel there is a difference.
It's such a small thing to do, for example. As I said in answer to the question about serving meat at animal related functions, it's only one meal out of the thousands we will eat in our lifetime. I see it more as a statement about sensitivity.
At the event, we are honoring the lives of animals - mostly dogs and cats. Which, by theway might be the main dish in many parts of the world! It seems to make sense to me that we could hold off eating the flesh of a cow, or a chicken, or a pig, or seafood for that one meal. In many cultures it is as abhorrent to eat cows (Hindu religion) as we feel it is to eat dogs and cats.
Many of the people who are beginning to get involved with animal work are looking past pets to the bigger picture of animal abuse. They may be struggling with issues around food and clothing choices, so coming to this fundraiser is important. Others who want to help the dogs and cats are already over the hump and are happily munching on tofu. What's the harm in serving veggies and pasta with meatless sauces? No one is going to be offended by that.
Many families make meatless choices these days for economic reasons. It's not a big sacrifice that for this one event, to raise money to help the animals. No dead animals had to pay a price. It makes a statement and provokes thought and discussion, which is never a bad thing.
Comment from Crystal:
Having worked at a place that regularly hosted public events, I can tell you that caterers "want" customers, and even if their regular menu isn't vegetarian, most are more than happy to put together a vegetarian meal at your request. Since so many people are watching what they eat these days, a request for a vegetarian spread is not unusual.Second, for anyone who either wishes to go vegetarian themselves or (heaven forbid) is on such a shoestring budget that they have to cater their shelter's events themselves, Mollie Katzen, formerly of Moosewood Restaurant in Berkeley, has three excellent books: The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, The New Moosewood Cookbook, and Still Life with Menu. Deborah Madison, chef with Greens restaurant in San Francisco, has published Vegetarian Cooking For Everyone. Both Katzen' and Madison's are treasure troves of delicious recipes and helpful hints for yummy vegetarian cooking, "from soup to nuts."
Comment from Renu:
I recently started volunteering for a local rescue group. Although I have attended just one fundraising event (which was completely vegetarian, thank God!), I have overheard some of the other volunteers, who are also adoption counselors like me, talk to each other at adoption events about non-vegetarian food. They are non-veg eaters. I fail to understand how someone can be an animal lover and eat meat.Is euthanasia the best solution for behavioral problem animals?
Question from Kathy:
Keeping in mind we are a foster home network, which do you feel is more humane, euthanizing a cat with unresolved behavioral problems or relocating it to a responsible barn home? Neither sets well with me, but I have a hard time with putting a returned 3-year old cat outdoors when it's only known indoor safety and comfort.Response from Faith:
You only give two options here, euthanizing or a barn. We are very big on catteries for problem cats. When a call comes into our Network office we might advise a person who loves the kitty, but cannot tolerate the behavior - urination issues or biting - to put up an outdoor cattery or create some kind of indoor/outdoor situation with a shed or garage. This means the person can still take care of the cat, but the problem has been moved into a more acceptable area.I hear from my colleagues at the Network that people leap on this suggestion. It reduces guilt for not wanting to put up with the problem, and at the same time offers a great and easy solution.
However, if there were only those two solutions you suggest, I would vote for life anytime. Animals adjust because they want to live too. A good barn can be a wonderful life for a cat, as long as the cat is spayed or neutered of course.
Dealing with people who threaten to hurt animals if you don't take them
Question from Lyla:
I run a very small privately funded cat shelter with limited resources. Is there any standard way of dealing with people who call in wanting you to take a stray cat who is hanging around their place that they say they will shoot if you don't take it? In our are, rural homeowners have to pay $20/animal to take an animal to the shelter and shooting unwanted cats is very common practice, though illegal (but not enforced).However, it obviously puts me in a bind. I am angry about the manipulation, and don't want to give in to such behavior on the part of the owner/homeowner. But the cat is in obvious danger, quite likely. I just took a cat in under those circumstances and it is a wonderful cat. I will likely eventually find a home for it, but I don't really have room for it right now. How do other people deal with such behavior? Obviously we can't take in every cat just because such threats are made.
Response from Faith:
This makes me want to say, "If I had a dollar for every time I have heard someone threaten to shoot an animal, I'd be rich." We live in a rural area too, and at the start of Best Friends here in Utah people would reinforce the threat by bringing up the animal and the gun!This is a tough one, and people may not like what I am going to say, but your first priority is to remain in business as a viable cat shelter, not to succumb to blackmail and extortion from your local community.
As I said to the woman screaming at me in the local grocery store threatening to shoot any stray animal that came on to her property, "A person has to do what a person has to do." What she does or doesn't do in her life is not my responsibility. I think she was hoping for an emotional reaction on my part or for me to plead with her not to do this. She did look a bit stunned as we unlocked shopping carts, and I moved slowly away down the cereal aisle.
To be honest, I had just about had it with people like her. But in a way people like that can help you focus on what you are really meant to do. Only you know your limits. You know how much money you have and how much space. Don't compromise the welfare of the animals you have chasing after every threat.
It's tough, I know. Maybe at this point in time you can only do so much for the cats. But that is not to say you couldn't look towards doing more down the road. It was because we saw what we were dealing with in a rural community that we at Best Friends instituted a low cost spay/neuter program over eighteen years ago. And, we are still busy with that program! Making spay/neuter available does more to reduce the numbers of animals needing to be shot by locals.
Many shelters have used this kind of threat level to really move on getting a large number of foster homes. I am thinking of Tompkins County SPCA in up-state New York. Nathan Winograd expanded their foster network dramatically after he took over as executive director.
You may want to sit down with staff, volunteers, the Board, and come up with some proactive plans to tackle this problem as you go forward. But stick to your guns right now. Don't overburden the current shelter with cats you cannot properly care for.
Comment from Susan:
I remind myself I have a waiting list of very good people who need help. Their cats may die if I am delayed too long in helping them. Then someone calls threatening to kill cats, and the good person will be bumped back down the line if I give in to these threats. Either way, cats may die. I also know from experience the good person will call immediately (I make them promise) if a new stray shows up in the future. He/she will never again have a huge problem with tons of cats and kittens. The nasty person will wait until a new cat has more kittens before he bothers to call, and will forever have cat problems he expects me to fix. If I can help only one, I'll help the good person on my waiting list, because I'll only have to help them once. They will help themselves in the future, and will also teach others. The cruel person will not.How far to go to keep demanding donors happy
Question from a member:
We have a new large donor, but she has from the beginning tried to turn our shelter upside down. We have sat with her several times to go over our missions and goals and how we choose our expenditures based on our financials. She is becoming very impatient with us. She wants certain things bought, and the good thing is she is funding it. She is dictating to the employees how to handle the dogs when her experience is not sizable.She volunteers but disregards existing procedures and interferes with scheduled tasks of the employees. Her intentions are good, but her delivery style is causing much tension at our facility. She feels she has the right to demand certain changes because of her monetary investment and her time volunteering. But in relation to other volunteers and investors her commitment does not warrant her image of her own importance. What are some of the approaches we can use to try to re-direct her efforts to our core mission of "Sheltering, Adopting and Educating the Public in the Humane Treatment of Animals"?
Response from Faith:
Oh dear! Haven't we all been here before? Time for a nice sit down breakfast or lunch, away from the shelter, to discuss permissible areas of involvement for this donor, I'm thinking.Remember it's only money. I know that may sound a bit flippant when money may be tight, but it's the truth. If the only reason you are tolerating this person's interference in your mission is because of her money, then it's time for an attitude adjustment all around, beginning with you and your shelter staff.
Your donor is using her money and the promise of money as a tool for a kind of extortion. This is not tolerable. I work with many large donors, and the best NEVER do this. But I've had to have a few sit-downs myself over the years with people who have tried this one here. We have had to define what we will and won't put up with.
In some situations this has worked very well. To get a bit psychological, some people are begging for some kind of control in their lives. If you are going to provide it, you will benefit and so will they.
In other situations it has not worked at all well, and the person has stormed off, usually to go and try muscling in on some other animal group. And this is OK. It's only money! If you have a person in your midst who is creating tension and negativity, which is distracting you all from doing your jobs, then her money is not worth it!
Let me take another tack for a moment as I know of some situations where an outside pair of eyes can see things about a shelter or rescue that need fixing. None of us is perfect, I think you'll admit. Some people can get defensive when a volunteer points out things that need changing. Make sure in this case that you are not dealing with that emotion before tackling the donor.
During your sit-down breakfast or lunch meeting (dinner is too late in the day for serious conversations of this kind) outline the problems. Be honest. People who use money in this way often aren't given straight talk by the people who are convinced they need her money. They just put up with her.
Have a plan. What can she do; what can't she do? Be clear and precise. Be generous in your offer to make it all work out, but keep the lines tight. Don't give her any wiggle room.
Be prepared for anything! She could cry, (that has happened to me), she could get angry, (ditto), or she could sit there eager and attentive to learn how she can become a valuable member of your team. And, yes that has happened to me too.
If she feels you are an ungrateful wretch, and you could do so much with her financial help, but now you are not going to get it, so there! Then thank her for everything she has done for you and wish her the best in her life.
You will not regret this move. Negativity and tension tends to keep people out of the shelter. If she decides to move on, the air will clear and other people will be drawn to help and bring in even more money. (OK, a bit of creative visualization doesn't hurt, and it may well happen that way. It has here at Best Friends.)
Recovering chronically ill cats with upper respiratory
Question from Jamie:
Out of 120 cats in our shelter, 60 of them are ill with upper respiratory. Some of them spend weeks in our sick room and are therefore not up for adoption during this time. Often times they will recover enough to go out to adoptions only to get sick again and return to the sick room. The cost of medicine is phenomenal. Where do you draw the line with young otherwise healthy cats that are continuously ill?Response from Faith:
Only you can make the decision about what happens in your own facility, you know your space, financial, and personnel limitations. But my heart aches for you, as we have had to live with all of this too. I'll get to your specific question soon, but just a brief digression about isolation in general.We have worked out some procedures and protocols to relate to incoming cats and kittens. You do not say what yours are, but you do mention a sick room. Forgive me if my response sounds very basic and you are already doing all this, but some of these points could be helpful to other people who are starting to work with cats.
All incoming cats and kittens are isolated on their own for seven to fourteen days. We will keep a litter together, but solo kittens are not mixed in with other unrelated kitten - ever. We use large stainless steel cages, which are thoroughly sanitized between occupants. Even before we had our current more sophisticate isolation area, we did a strict isolation. We have also used the regular plastic cages, and also the show type cages. It did mean you would find cage set ups in every corner of a building - offices, bathrooms, corridors etc.
All incoming cats and kittens start the vaccination series during their iso period. No new adult cat is allowed contact with other cats until they have had a combo vaccine on board for a minimum of 72 hours. For kittens they need to have had a minimum of two combo vaccines and be at least 16 weeks old.
Taking time and care at this point helps a lot with potential chronic illness. However, as you describe, it's virtually impossible to stop an all out upper respiratory epidemic in regular shelter surroundings. For the last three years, thanks to the generosity of Best Friends supporters, we now have a better isolation set up which has helped us cut down on transmission of disease. We highly recommend working towards having a place where your air exchange is controlled.
Let's go back to your question. Our no-kill commitment to our animals is total. Once they arrive here at the sanctuary they are assured life, unless they become so ill that they are suffering. So we find ways to relate to our chronic, special needs cases. We also do manage to find new homes for them, including cats with chronic URI.
Surprisingly, in our experience, if you can find a safe place for these chronic URI cats they usually get better in their own time! This may take a year or two. Foster homes can also be an option for this period, but up to two years is a long time for most people to foster an animal. Antibiotics are useless against a virus anyway, so we stop loading the cats or kittens up with those and just give them good food, a clean and open cattery environment and supportive care. You might want to ask your vet about using Interferon. It's an immune system booster and has helped with some of our chronic cats.
Keeping cats in small cages for the duration is not recommended. This creates stress not relieves it.
Allowing cats time to recover in their own time requires quite a bit of space. I realize you, and a lot of shelters, may not have space to allow a cat the time to develop a stronger immune system and shake off a chronic URI, so I have to throw you back to my first sentence. Only your group can assess what works for you. Maybe at this point in time, with your current resources, you may have to make some tough decisions for those chronically ill cats. This is fine. We can only do what we can do at any given time. And it's a whole load better than doing nothing. But strive towards a time when you can have more resources, space, time and all those good things.
Comment from Melanie:
With our chronic URI and herpes virus cats, our vet has them on Interferon daily. We are noticing an improvement in some of the cats. It may have to be given over the lifetime of a cat, but it is inexpensive and tastes a bit salty to the cat.We are also using it on the cats with stomatitis.
Should you rescue from other areas when animals are still dying your community?
Question from a member:
We are a rescue group who takes animals from high kill shelters, and generally end up taking from around our state and some from out of state. We get a lot of flak from some people who are upset that we aren't helping our own community but our shelter locally won't work with us. Do you think it is wrong to take animals in need from out of your community? Isn't it important to help an animal in need regardless of where it is located?Response from Faith:
In these days of the Internet, mass media, global economies and the dissolution of geographical boundaries, isn't it time to see our animals in the same way? I am all for moving animals around the place. Congratulations on your bravery in making this move in the face of local opposition. I know that being on the other end of the flak cannot be easy for you.This happened to a friend of mine in a neighboring western state. She heard of some puppies that were being killed for want of enough homes in a mid-western state. She knew she had people ready and willing to adopt those pups in her community, so she arranged for the transport.
She felt so good about this that she organized for some national publicity on the transaction. Oh my, all hell let loose. The local groups in her city went to the local papers and stories came out castigating her because animals were still being killed through the animal control and other animal agencies in her own city.
The resulting publicity was very damaging to this lady, and I felt that was quite unfair. She was responding to a need (perfectly adoptable puppies being killed) and she knew, as we all do, that a percentage of her adopters are looking for puppies. Her agency spays and neuters at eight weeks, so those pups would be fixed before adoption, ending their cycle of reproduction.
And, for reasons too ridiculous to go into, the local groups would not work with her anyway! Sound familiar?
We are all working towards a time when there are no more homeless pets - anywhere! I agree that it is good to start that in your own backyard, but if in trying to do that you meet with opposition, go elsewhere. Don't just give up helping because some people don't like it.
Petfinder, and many other web sites, are a modern day miracle. I loved reading that recent Forum about Internet adoptions. Through our web site and Best Friends magazine we have placed animals all over the country and we are thrilled. Carry on the good work. But do keep trying to build bridges in your local area as well. It sounds like you have a lot to offer that agency in your hometown about doing successful adoptions.
Ethics of doing just spay/neuter vs. treating all medical needs
Question from Bonnie:
At a recent municipal animal shelter meeting a group was presenting a proposal for TNR for a local feral colony. Several advisory group members were concerned because the "N" stage involved only doing a neuter and shots - no treatment of ear mites, worming etc. One person on that board shared her concerns with me (I am not on the advisory board for the animal shelter). My shared opinion was that I would probably not put any obstacles in the pathway of this effort because we need to get the cats fixed. To meet her concern I felt that once the effort was established, some volunteers, especially the novice ones, would step forward and, over time, begin to provide this level of care.Given that most volunteer groups have time and money limiting resources, how do you approach the ethics of trying to neuter/spay all vs. doing fewer and providing more health care vs. not doing it at all unless doing it "right."
Response from Faith:
What a great question and one that worries a lot of people, I know. I completely agree with your viewpoint about not putting any obstacles in the way of getting the program started, even if that means just doing the basic spay/neuter. Getting a foot in the door is really important. Often in these kinds of programs it is easier to add a few things as you go along, as necessary.In our own TNR program (we spayed or neutered 704 last year in our rural community), we do vaccinate, but we don't test for FeLV or FIV. We do other treatments as indicated, but we do have the luxury of an in-house clinic and veterinary staff.
I think you might find that once a feral cat is under sedation, the vet clinic you are working with might well do more procedures as indicated. However, if you are the oversight group, you will need to keep an eye on added costs to your basic spay/neuter agreement fee scale.
It is possible to get some items relatively cheaply, like Ivomectin for ear mite treatments. You may even be able to get this donated. A long-acting penicillin shot for a wound or an abscess is not expensive, and your vet may give you the wholesale cost. The same might go for the vaccines. Your vet might agree to give you a wholesale price on those too.
Another idea is to start a separate fund for the extras. Many people like contributing to medical procedures.
You might also try to get some items donated from drug companies or distribution houses. Some items are dated, like vaccines, and many of the companies are agreeable to do a big discount to sell the product before its due date. Most pharmaceutical packages have a phone number on them for customer service. So you could ask a charming, but persistent, volunteer to call the companies and ask for donations of product. It's worth a try!
But get that foot in the door. One of our technicians said to me this morning that just getting them fixed is going to take so much stress off the cats, that their overall health is going to get so much better - less fighting, less abscesses, less cats around (because breeding has been halted) so more food available. TNR is the way to go. All the best on getting this program started.
What will happen to adoptions when we reach no more homeless pets?
Question from a member:
I fully support the vision of No More Homeless Pets and am an advocate of spay/neuter, of course.I'm curious, though, about the long-range picture. If we are able one day to achieve a time when there are no more homeless pets, then what is the vision for the kinds of animals who will become our well-loved pets? Many people prefer mixed-breed dogs, for example. So, ideally, who will be "in charge" of breeding? And how do we ultimately ensure that the breeding process is done responsibly and humanely?
Response from Faith:
What a wonderful question! I want you to picture this: a large hotel ballroom at the second No-Kill Conference in Denver, Colorado. The year is 1996 and the room is full of rescue people listening to adoption guru, Mike Arms. Mike was still with North Shore Animal League at that time and their annual adoption figures were up in the 40,000 range.Mike is a great speaker, and he loves to challenge his audience to think outside the box. North Shore was already dealing with the shortage of puppies in the New York, Long Island area, so he posed this same question. "What are we going to do when our mission to end the killing of homeless animals is successful."
To be honest, I had never given this much thought until that day. And from the reaction of the rest of the people in the room, neither had they. It almost felt like blasphemy to even think about breeders and breeding. But that's Mike for you. He wants us to think about a time when we need to look at this subject.
So I have been thinking about it ever since then. I don't think we are there yet by a long way, as the number of homeless animals being killed in various animal facilities is still totally unacceptable. It is going down, (just over 4 million at last count), so we all have a lot to be proud of, but as a movement I don't feel we can endorse any kind of breeding at this point.
However, I can see a time in the future when the US may be more like some European countries where there is not a major pet overpopulation problem. There, the citizens have choices. If they want a poodle, they go to a poodle breeder and purchase a puppy.
Sounds simple? However, it scares me to think that at that time we will end up driving business to the puppy and kitten mills and unscrupulous backyard breeders.
I like the idea that this subject is on the table. I also feel good that wiser heads than mine will be looking at how we deal with that hurdle when we come to it. For the moment, though, we can go ahead with our adoptions, our spay/neuter programs, and even our transport services to bring animals to areas where they can fill the gaps. We have over 4 millions lives yet to save.
Determining board positions on controversial issues
Question from Kim:
I'm helping to start a new animal rescue organization whose board hasn't clarified its views on issues like breeding, declawing and animal experimentation. Could you please share your organization's position on these topics and on anything else you consider key in the rescue community?Response from Faith:
Knowledge comes over time. I can still recall the time when I didn't know a lot about animals, and I've been doing this work for a very long time now! I didn't grow up in a very animal aware home. We had pets, they got pregnant, had puppies, we gave them away to neighbors. Never gave it much thought to be honest. My own education came over time and experience.Animal organizations are made up of people with a wide variety of experiences and knowledge. I feel that it's the responsibility of a board to educate themselves about the issues they will face in doing their oversight work.
Declawing, for example, is still controversial in many animal areas. Some people feel that if the procedure keeps an animal safe in it's home, then it is OK to ask the vet to do it. Other people feel it's the height of cruelty. The board needs to examine how they feel about this, with a full understanding of what is involved in the surgical act of declawing. So many people are unaware of how it's done, but will pull a face as it is described to them!
You mention breeding. I have met many people on animal organization boards who are breeders. They love their breed. They fit the description of "responsible breeder" in that they do it for the love of the breed, not just for money. They look at someone like me as a total heathen because I oppose all breeding at this point in time. A walk down the aisles of a busy city shelter can put that one into better perspective.
It may have happened over time, but our board and administration are aware of the issues involved in working in animal welfare. Depending on our area of work, some of us may know more than others about a particular subject. But no one is ignorant of the plight of today's homeless pet population.
I was asked to attend a meeting of some new board members for a relatively new animal group recently. They were a wonderful, dedicated group of people, but I saw that several of them had a lot to learn about our area. One lady expounded on the joys of her pure bred Labradors, and I know they made a special effort to prepare a vegetarian meal - because they knew I was coming, not because they thought it was "the right thing".
I knew that if these people stuck with it, they would come to know a lot of what is second nature to me now. I wasn't going to force it over their lovely meal. People come to knowledge when they are ready to hear it.
I think what your organization needs to do is decide what their mission is. Get everyone on board for that. If it is spay/neuter then everyone needs to know why it's so important. If it's adoptions, ditto. Insight into the problems that animals face in experimentation, factory farming, fur production, entertainment, rodeos etc., etc. may come over time. But in the meantime, animals are still being helped by your organization's programs.
Helping people find solutions but not getting bombarded individually with requests
Question from a member:
The rescue group I volunteer for doesn't handle feral cats, but since I also volunteer at a feral cat clinic, they send all the people who have issues, or questions regarding strays/feral cats to me. I have been giving out addresses and phone numbers of groups like Alley Cat Allies to these individuals but I can tell they want me to handle their issue. Many will ask for my phone number or email address. How do I politely explain TNR to individuals while also keeping myself from getting bombarded with requests to help?Response from Faith:
Isn't so interesting how people respond to situations in such different ways? As an example, our Humane Ed department has been working with a lady in the Middle East who wants to translate basic animal care booklets into her native language. Cathie, our HE manager, sent her copious amounts of information about the various web sites that offer education materials.It didn't work. This lady kept writing in and asking the same questions. It's not that this lady didn't have a connection to the Internet, as all their correspondence was via e-mail.
Cathie brought it up with me in a meeting, and I told her to send this lady a physical booklet, actual pieces of paper with pictures! Now that worked!
What I suggest you do is get hold of some actual booklets and materials from Alley Cat Allies. We also have a basic booklet on ferals you can send for. When you get a call, either take their name and address, or ask them to send you a stamped addressed envelope, if the budget might not be able to handle the extra postage. Send them an actual self-help TNR booklet with a cover letter from you saying that this is all you are able to do to help them with their feral cat problems. Highlight the numbers in the literature so they know who to call for more help or advice. I expect you have already thought of putting a message on your home answering machine to help handle those calls?
Also, I congratulate you on knowing your own limitations. Many people get drawn into animal rescue work and then it begins to take over their lives. Usually most people start to feel guilty when they feel the need to pull away. Knowing what you can and can't do at any given time is the key to a healthy, balanced life.
I hope that suggestion helps.
Should we applaud shelters that do high volume adoptions but only of easily placed animals?
Question from a member:
Should groups that only accept young, easily placed dogs and cats, be applauded for their high adoption numbers? Many shelters won't accept animals over five years old or animals with any type of behavioral issue or physical handicap. Yet they bump up their adoption numbers with puppies and kittens and highly adoptable animals, which looks good for donors and funders. Other groups that take these in and may have less adoptions and don't look as good in numbers, because the challenge in placing these animals into good homes takes longer.Response from Faith:
I really dislike this emphasis on numbers alone as a barometer of success. Goals are good, but we are in the business of saving lives not selling ketchup!Best Friends is primarily a sanctuary. We do not have super high adoptions stats. We have a lot of hard to place, older, special needs animals. We are overjoyed when just one of them goes to a new, loving, permanent home. In fact, we practically break out the champagne when a 9, 11 or even 14-year old dog goes to spend his or her last few years as a member of a loving family. We once placed a 22-year old cat! We cry, we hug the adopters, it becomes a bit of spectacle to be honest.
And we rejoice in the follow up pictures and e-mails describing this animal's new life and post them all over the walls in our animal areas so that our staff and volunteers can see how well their charges have done.
But we are also thrilled to see a big city's high adoption program find homes for hundreds of dogs and cats. Our own Super Adoptions, which can place hundreds of dogs and cats over a weekend, are a triumph. We need both kinds of programs in our communities, I feel.
It is harder to place "older" animals, and for some programs that is anything over three. I think part of our job is to educate people about the benefits of an adult animal. Some people think that an adult will not bond as well as a pup. During my animal control days, when I would pick up animals in town, I discovered that dogs of any age will bond extremely well during a five-mile car trip!
I am suspecting that the programs you describe are ones that are trying to address the market of people who might go to a pet store for a puppy. It's a fact of life for any of us who are out there at adoption venues that the majority of people looking to acquire a pet for the family want to start with a puppy or at least a very young dog. It is good that some programs specialize in having animals available for that segment of the population; otherwise we drive the business back to the pet stores and backyard breeders.
But some of us want to be there, as much as we can, for the older, the behaviorally challenged (is that the correct PC term?), the sick and the plain looking. I feel there is room for both kinds of programs, and we should put our energies and support behind whichever one speaks to our hearts.
What to do if you suspect a foster is a hoarder?
Question from a member:
When you learn that a foster in your rescue might be a hoarder and is putting the animals at serious health and behavior risk because of inadequate care, how do you control the situation? If you "fire" the volunteer, she may be likely to go off on her own and end up with countless animals and an even worse situation.Response from Faith:
The supervising agency has full responsibility for the actions and state of their foster homes. A well run foster program will have someone in charge do a home check prior to allowing an individual to foster animals, and will keep in contact with that person throughout the foster contract. Foster homes should be able to pass your adoption screening qualifications, because as we all know, they may end up adopting their foster animals on occasion!It is so easy to let some of that slide, and I have been there too! I have pulled the plug on a few fosters over the years because they were not living up to the required standards. I know how it is possible to turn a blind eye when you are desperate for places to put the animals, but it never works and ultimately your animals that suffer.
I knew a foster home one time that could turn a perfectly nice dog into an unsocialized monster. I never fathomed that one out. Needless to say she was taken off the foster home list!
How do you stop them going out on their own? You can't. The best you can do is informing your local animal control of the problem. I have made a promise to our city animal control to let him know if I suspect there is another hoarder is in town. We had a bad case here in Kanab several years ago with a cat hoarder. She left town after animal control tried to step in to protect the animals she was abusing. Our officer contacted the animal control office in the city she moved to, so they could also be aware of her proclivities. Sometimes that is the best you can do.
If your group doesn't already have foster agreement contracts, and other paper work, including maybe a care manual, you might want to look into that. It could give you some protection.
I'd like to refer you to a 2003 Forum by Jenn Clayton on foster homes. She is experienced and made many excellent points about protecting the animals and yourself in this process.
Should dogs and cats be fed vegetarian food?
Question from Steve:
I've seen a lot of back-and-forth on whether to serve vegetarian/vegan meals at shelter events and fundraising dinners (Animal Place has done a great job of raising awareness about this), but the ethical issue we struggle with is over what to feed the dogs and cats at our sanctuary. Since we are all about saving lives, I do not like the idea of feeding pet food made from dead animals to our sanctuary residents. As a vegetarian myself, it sure doesn't sit well.Although I know vegetarian pet food is available - and we feed it much of the time - it is usually very expensive, particularly if you're feeding large numbers. We've tried the home-cooking approach, too, using James Peden's Vegedog recipes, but don't have the time or equipment to do this effectively any longer for the number of animals we have. So my question is, what do you guys at Best Friends feed your dogs and cats? If you feed them animal-based food, how do you reconcile that with serving only vegetarian/vegan fare for humans? I'd appreciate any insights/lessons you guys have learned from your experience.
Response from Faith:
In the early days of Best Friends I agonized over this issue. I am not ignorant of the horrors associated with the food and pet food industry. I read books, such as Dogs and Cats Go Vegetarian, consulted with holistic and nutritional veterinarians and many others. I'm not sure my conclusions are going to satisfy everyone, but I worked this out for myself and feel content with it.By nature, dogs are omnivores. They can eat just about anything, but that also includes flesh. I know that fast dogs can catch slow rabbits and they will eat the whole carcass. Dogs are hard wired to hunt, catch, and kill. Now some dogs are a lot better than others. I don't think my Chihuahua, Schnibbles, would last too long trying to get her own food, but Bowie, my island street dog from the Caribbean, shows some fierce hunting skills.
I can make the decision to not eat meat, knowing that I can maintain good health by eating a variety of plant foods. This is my choice. I don't feel it's my right to impose that decision on an animal who would not be making that choice for himself.
Cats are true carnivores. Their systems require the substances found in flesh foods. I know there are companies who produce supplements that aim to provide those substances in plant form, but it is tough to create a balanced, healthy diet for cats without using animal protein. And again, given their druthers a cat will hunt, kill and eat its own food.
So we here purchase high quality meat based dog and cat food. We are also happy to receive donations of dog and cat food from pet food companies or distribution centers. The money we save by using donated food can go into our other animal helping programs.
Some people may see some inconsistency here with my feelings regarding not serving meat or seafood at animal fundraisers and events. I don't myself, but I've discovered in life that we all work out complex ethical issues as best we can. Another person may well make a very persuasive argument in another direction.
If we were all to revert to a more natural way of living, without packaged food and microwaves, we humans could sow seeds, tend, and grow plants and fruits to nourish ourselves. Dogs, cats and other animals or birds do not possess those skills. Their nature would be to hunt and kill their own food. I might wish it were another way, but that is how God designed us. I honor that design.
