Same As It Ever Was

Sunday, November 18, 2007
Same As It Ever Was
Between Seattle and Portland, a large billboard off of Interstate 5 reads "In 2008, can I just vote No?" The sentiment is real. It touches a chord in all of us who have watched politicians over the last decade who say one thing, while they believe and act another way, and leave us trusting no one.

What I believe the author of that billboard wants is the same thing we all want. Americans want someone who will speak the truth, who will tell us how they really feel, what they truly believe, and what, if elected, their Administration will stand for, practice, promote and most of all, fight for. In other words, we are dying for authenticity.

Unfortunately, not a single candidate, regardless of the political party, has chosen to speak with integrity for Americans. They speak the language of the common man, but it is bereft of authenticity. Instead, we are given platitudes, cliches, empty phrases, emptier suits, and what the great 19th Century French novelist Alexandre Dumas called "mouths that say one thing, while the heart thinks another." That is what we have been given for nine years, and that is what the candidates are giving us still.

These last nine years have not been lost on Wayne Pacelle, the head of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), the nation's largest "animal welfare" organization. Speaking with a politician's desire to avoid the truth, avoid controversy, avoid alienating the animal control bureaucracy to which he is intimately connected, avoid losing revenue from people who are tired of the killing of dogs and cats, avoid HSUS's own sordid history of opposing progressive programs which have been proven to save animals, avoid the fact that HSUS continues today to legitimize the killing of animals in shelters, Wayne Pacelle posted a blog on November 8 declaring his support for No Kill, claiming HSUS always supported No Kill, and taking credit for the lifesaving gains over the last several decades, which in reality were the result of programs HSUS opposed and fought to prevent.

The blog is written with a politician's pen and a politician's goal. In other words, it is filled with platitudes, cliches, empty phrases, desire for money, desire for power, and a mouth that says one thing, while the heart "and HSUS" thinks and does another. It is disingenuous. And it lacks the integrity and authenticity to atone for past mistakes, to change policies in the present, and to move the nation forward with a bold new vision for the future. It is out of touch with how most of us feel about dogs and cats. It continues to hide behind half-truths and outright lies. And it avoids the reality of what HSUS continues to do in practice to thwart lifesaving No Kill initiatives around the country.

Why Does it Matter What HSUS Says and Does?

HSUS has the potential to lead us toward our inevitable No Kill future. We will get there, even if we have to do what we have always done: fight HSUS every step of the way. But by cooperating with us, rather than working against us, we can get there much more quickly. As a result, HSUS could lessen the body count by millions of animals if they supported, rather than thwarted the effort as they have historically done and continue to do. The potential for nearly overnight success under an HSUS which fully and completely embraces the No Kill philosophy is very real. But under Mr. Pacelle's leadership, it is being thwarted; the body count increases. I do not make this claim lightly.

HSUS is the nation's largest and wealthiest humane advocacy organization in the nation. It has assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and it has a budget in excess of one hundred million dollars annually. It claims the support of twelve million members and it has a powerful media presence. Their magazine, Animal Sheltering, is sent to shelters nationwide. Their animal sheltering conference, HSUS Expo, is the nation's largest, drawing sheltering staff from across the country.

More than that, shelters nationwide defer to them, and look to HSUS for guidance and direction. It is not uncommon for shelters to proclaim that they are run in line with HSUS policies. And when activists in communities working for reform pressure local government to embrace No Kill, HSUS responds by defending the shelter director and their failures and refusal to change, calling No Kill "impossible", "unreasonable," and attempting to sow seeds of doubt among public officials, such as recently occurred in King County, Washington.
Where No Kill is succeeding, such as in Reno, Nevada, HSUS supports the efforts of Dr. Kate Hurley, an anti-No Kill veterinarian, who goes to those communities to intentionally derail their success by arguing that No Kill is a bad idea and equating it with animal hoarding.

It has been over a decade since San Francisco pioneered the lifesaving model of the No Kill Equation to become the first to end the killing of healthy homeless dogs and cats, an achievement HSUS denigrated. It has been five years since No Kill success has been achieved in communities such as Tompkins County, New York from 2002-2007, in Charlottesville, Virginia, since 2006, and increasingly elsewhere, which HSUS ignored. And HSUS has never reported this success to their constituents, shelter directors, or local governments, and has not embraced the only model which has made it possible.

In addition, shelter bureaucrats who aren't told they must change the way they do business (the business of killing) by HSUS, do not feel pressured to do so. They feel vindicated. Shelter bureaucrats who fail to invest in the programs and services of the No Kill Equation are held out as pillars by HSUS despite their regressive practices. Shelter bureaucrats who boldly proclaim that the five million animals being executed every year are not being "killed" at an HSUS conference, but instead are being given the "gift of euthanasia" as a supporter of the HSUS position on sheltering stated, without being forced to recant, are emboldened to continue. Self-proclaimed experts are hailed by HSUS and lead workshops endorsed by HSUS when they claim that Pit Bulls should not be adopted to families with children and falsely claim that the vast majority are aggressive and should be killed. Communities which are told that No Kill is akin to "warehousing" and are falsely told that saving the lives of the vast majority of shelter animals is "unreasonable" by HSUS fail to demand results in their shelters. Governments which are told by HSUS that "No Kill is a sham," "feral cat caretakers are closet hoarders," or that the only way to achieve No Kill is to "adopt Pit Bulls to dogfighters," stop before they start paving the road to building truly humane societies. And health departments which are told that killing 22,000 of the 25,000 dogs and cats a year are within the "norms" of U.S. shelters can boldly proclaim that they are doing a "good job."

This is what has occurred or continues to occur without so much as a whimper of protest from Wayne Pacelle, often with the blessing of HSUS or, just as often, done by HSUS itself. These are not examples of a bygone era. The vast majority have occurred under Mr. Pacelle's leadership of HSUS. They occur still. There is no new HSUS position. And, as a result, the business of killing will continue in most of our nation's shelters.

Because rather than direct HSUS' enormous influence toward comprehensive national reform and true No Kill advocacy, Mr. Pacelle and his staff continue to provide the political cover for the status quo and to those directors determined to maintain it. Just a few months ago, HSUS sought to prevent the King County, WA, Council from embracing a mandate to achieve an 85% save rate of dogs and cats in its shelters, citing opposition to No Kill, calling the request "unreasonable," and siding with a regressive administration which oversaw a shelter where "the animals suffer from high rates of disease, improper housing, inadequate exercise and social contact, a lack of basic comforts, and high levels of stress." (King County Animal Care & Control Citizens Advisory Committee, September 24, 2007.)

Wayne Pacelle says in his blog that HSUS is and has always been committed to No Kill and the lifesaving programs it entails, but this is patently false. It was HSUS's Jim Tedford who called TNR "inhumane" and "abhorrent." It was HSUS' Phyllis Wright who said that killing animals was kindness and that she never worried about the 70,000 dogs and cats she herself put to death. It was HSUS' Roger Kindler who argued that caring for feral cats was illegal under North Carolina's statutes against abandonment, which carried a jail term. It was HSUS which:

Opposed plans to establish a TNR program on the Georgetown University campus;
Endorsed the round up and killing of feral cats at Riverside Park in Virginia;
Unfairly inflated the death rate for dogs and cats killed in San Francisco shelters to downplay the success of No Kill efforts;
Opposed maintaining the integrity of the 1998 Animal Shelter Law in California which required shelters to work with rescue groups and added protections for feral cats and other sheltered animals;
Opposed shelters working with rescue groups to place animals who would otherwise be killed;
Rallied around the New York City animal control shelter even after the comptroller's audit found "a number of allegations of animal neglect and abuse." The report found that not only were animals wrongly killed, but "many animals didn't have regular access to water and were often left in dirty cages";
Supported an animal control shelter at a time when a No Kill agency was poised to take over sheltering operations in Rockland County, New York, even after an auditor substantiated allegations of high rates of shelter killing and other deficiencies that were not corrected after a year;
Opposed a rescue group's efforts to get pre-killing notification from animal control in Page County, Virginia, so that they could save the dogs, calling the request unreasonable;
Said No Kill was impossible in Philadelphia unless Pit Bulls were given to dogfighters and labeled feral cat caretakers as "closet hoarders";
Claimed at a hearing in Eugene, OR that No Kill was a sham and that killing was necessary.
Unequivocally, HSUS has been obstinate in the past when it came to ending the needless killing of savable animals in shelters. The changes in some of these policies did not come easily. They were made only when their positions threatened either their fundraising or leadership position, or when they became politically and publicly untenable. Granted, they are no longer arguing that sending animals to rescue groups rather than killing them is a bad idea because transfer to rescue group would "stress" the animals the way they have done in the past. But they have not truly embraced the No Kill philosophy. For example,

HSUS recently opposed an ordinance in King County, WA which would have required county shelters to work diligently to save 85% of all incoming animals calling the request "unreasonable;"
HSUS participated in a No Kill hit piece on the front page of USA Today claiming that No Kill was essentially warehousing animals;
HSUS pressured the National Animal Law Center at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland to withdraw sponsorship of a No Kill seminar there;
HSUS supports the efforts of Kate Hurley (more on her in a later blog), a veterinarian, who is going to communities such as King County, WA, and Reno, NV, to oppose No Kill efforts occurring there;
HSUS fundraised claiming it needed money to help the dog victims rescued from dog fighter Michael Vick, but added very fine print saying the money might not be used for the Vick dogs. HSUS then publicly stated that the Vick dogs should be killed. (All but one of the dogs passed a test for aggression and were being saved as of this blog);
HSUS supported Austin, TX animal control's desire to move the shelter from the vibrant community of downtown Austin which is the daily destination for thousands of Austinites to a more remote, industrial location where it would have led to decreased adoptions, but would have meant bigger offices for shelter bureaucrats;
HSUS raised tens of millions of dollars ostensibly to help animals impacted by the Hurricane Katrina disaster, but spent only a fraction of it. Tens of millions are still in HSUS bank accounts (money that could and should have been used for the donors) intent: to save lives in the Gulf States. (HSUS announced "Mission Accomplished" and left, even while animals were still suffering in the aftermath of the destruction).
One of the most unfortunate aspects of continued opposition or failure to fully embrace the No Kill philosophy by national organizations like the Humane Society of the United States is the lost opportunity to profoundly influence animal shelters in a life-affirming way. We can imagine, for a moment, what the future would look like if HSUS embraced the notion that animals in shelters have a right to live, No Kill philosophies should be implemented everywhere, and used its vast wealth to provide shelters with the training and tools they need to succeed in those endeavors. No other agency has the ability, resources, and influence to bring about a No Kill nation faster.

Every day that HSUS denigrates or fails to fully and unequivocally embrace No Kill, delays that potential future. Instead, animal lovers have to fight pet limit laws, mandatory registration laws, and other destructive policies promoted by these organizations. Instead of turning to these organizations for support and guidance, No Kill groups have to spend time trying to overcome the obstacles they lay in the path to lifesaving. As a result, and because of the cost in animal lives that this potentially entails, HSUS continues to fail miserably in terms of moving this country away from traditional, reactionary, "adopt some and kill the rest" sheltering practices, despite Mr. Pacelle's facile claims to the contrary.

Failure to Lead

In feeling the groundswell of grassroots pressure for change that is occurring, Mr. Pacelle could have chosen to lead us going forward. He could have chosen to champion the animals, rather than the entrenched animal control bureaucracy he currently represents. He could have taken a real, honest, principled stand that put No Kill on the agenda of every community, every shelter nationwide. He could have insisted on it, and then told his employees at HSUS to follow through to make it happen. I would have been the first to stand up and cheer. I would have gladly stood behind Wayne Pacelle.

Instead, he gives us platitudes and thinly veiled attacks on those who can envision a new and better and life-affirming future. And he gives the five million animals scheduled to be slaughtered in shelters next year insult above the injury they already face. It is a slap in the face to animal activists all over the country who know full well that the animal control shelter and just as often, the large private shelter is not doing a good job, is regressive in its policies, and continues to kill in the face of alternatives. It is business as usual. And nothing in Mr. Pacelle's blog fundamentally and unequivocally changes that.

The conclusion becomes inescapable. As a movement and as a nation, our values relating to companion animals are far more progressive and humane than the nation's largest animal protection organization. It is up to us to lead the country into a more humane future by rejecting the 19th Century model of animal sheltering (adopt some and kill the rest) HSUS so tenaciously and tragically clings to. It is irresponsible for HSUS and staff to be offering themselves as "experts" or "leaders" to the media, to the public, to city governments and to the movement, especially in light of the evidence that No Kill is a concept to which staff at HSUS has been historically opposed and that HSUS staff have, at best, only a superficial understanding (and an erroneous one at that) of the dynamic and exciting changes occurring in the field of animal sheltering as a result of the No Kill movement. In the end, it is far better to disband the Department of Companion Animal at HSUS, than maintain it in its current reactionary form. Because without true reform, the time has come when Americans in general, the humane community and city governments more specifically, must cease relying on the advice of Mr. Pacelle and his staff.

We have learned what we can expect under Mr. Pacelle's tenure: platitudes, cliches, rhetoric, pretty words. But we cannot expect solutions. We cannot expect a vision for the future, the roadmap for saving lives. So we must provide it for him.

Where Do We Go From Here?


We are a nation of dog and cat lovers, and we demand that the killing to be brought to an end. We are 150 million Americans strong. Right now, there are only a few thousand shelter directors killing 4.5 million savable dogs and cats each year, who are standing in the way of a No Kill nation and have historically been doing so with the blessing and assistance of the nation's most powerful and influential so-called "humane" organization - HSUS.

Mr. Pacelle's blog makes clear that he has no idea how to lead the humane movement. It is clear he cannot see the future for himself. At the same time, we need to send a very strong message to Mr. Pacelle that we can see through his thinly veiled comments, his insincerity on the issue, his failure to truly challenge the status quo, to fight for the rights of shelter animals to their very lives, and to truly reform what has been a long sordid history of draconian HSUS policies as it relates to dogs and cats in shelters.

And so Mr. Pacelle, I say to you:

We reject your obfuscation, we reject your dishonesty, and we reject the killing your agency continues to legitimize. As Americans who want to end the killing today "not at some mythical indeterminate future time, which appears to have no end" we demand that HSUS change in earnest, and that you demonstrate that change by signing "and promoting" the U.S. No Kill Declaration.

The Declaration calls upon shelters to implement all the programs and services of the No Kill Equation, and for shelters to open their doors to the light of public scrutiny. It calls for shelters to bring about an end to the killing without delay. The Declaration proves the irreconcilability between the No Kill philosophy on the one hand and, on the other, the archaic voices of tradition. Unlike HSUS' Asilomar Accords, which allow shelters to ignore the programs and services of the No Kill Equation (leaving these pivotal programs to "local decision-making"), the Declaration calls for comprehensive and rigorous implementation of all of them. Sadly, not one of the signatories of the Asilomar Accords has endorsed the Declaration; and, to this day, you continue to refuse to sign it.

I am sending you a gift, Mr. Pacelle. In the mail, you will receive from me a pen. I ask you to use it to sign the U.S. No Kill Declaration. For "as 10,000 signatories have already attested to" it is the No Kill philosophy and its implementation alone which holds the key to a more noble future "a future where animals will find in shelters a new beginning, instead of what HSUS holds out for them today, which is the end of the line."

Sign the U.S. No Kill Declaration and call off your employees, such as those in Seattle and Eugene, who are working to hinder and undermine No Kill efforts throughout the United States. For the first time ever, you now claim to support No Kill. I ask you to prove it. The remaining chapters of the No Kill movement's history have yet to be written, Mr. Pacelle. How will you be remembered?

To read the 20-page point-by-point analysis of Mr. Pacelle's blog, click here (skip the introduction and go to page 8)

Hear it for Yourself


HSUS' own expert denies that shelters are even killing animals. At HSUS' national animal sheltering conference in 2006, HSUS held a workshop on killing in which the "expert" stated:

We are not killing them, we are taking their lives, we are ending their lives, we are giving them a good death, we are humanely destroy-, whatever, but we are not killing. And that is why I can't stand the term No Kill shelters.

Listen for yourself by clicking here.

What is more disturbing than the fact that animal control staff from across the nation responded with a thunderous applause (undermining their claim that they are committed to saving lives), what is more troubling than the fact that HSUS is advancing the Orwellian notion that killing is not killing, that killing is, in fact, an act of kindness, is that when you deny that what you are doing is exactly what you are doing, when you disparage a movement founded to save the lives of animals, when you refuse to take responsibility for the killing, the impetus to change your own behavior that might negate the perceived "need" to kill disappears. The end result is the status quo: more animals going out the back door in a body bag than out the front door in the loving arms of families.

See it for Yourself

Waynce Pacelle says that all animal control agencies, all groups, and everyone involved in sheltering is committed to saving lives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Take a visual tour of U.S. shelters by clicking here.


Posted by Nathan J. Winograd at 11:48 AM

Redemption


Get the book that is being called "powerful," "inspirational," "the bible of the No Kill movement," and a "must read for anyone who cares about animals."