Tuesday, October 9, 2007

a little canine controversy

Pat Burns at Terrierman has a synopsis of Nathan Winogrand's new book Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America. Pat's post is a little hard in places to figure out where he's being sarcastic, but he does also link to a nice review by Christie Keith of Winogrand's book with some good quotes from Winogrand himself.

I won't go into too much detail, but Winogrand's thesis is two-fold: that too many healthy cats and dogs are euthanized in shelters around the US because civic contracts to neatly dispose of apparently abandoned animals provide a powerful financial disincentive to shelters to keep dogs and cats alive and because those same shelters lack leadership that seeks to address the seeming overabundance of cats and dogs with legitimate needs-assessment and creative problem solving, eg. more community outreach, better foster-care programs, subsidized neuter-spay programs. I'm looking forward to reading this one.

I was on the Board of Directors of what was then our local SPCA back in Maine. Those were tumultuous times, but happily not because we were arguing about whether no-kill was a realistic fiscal and ethical stance. I'm pleased to see that they have now opened their new facility and appear to be doing well.

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