Well it should be an interesting spring in Austin. For the first time the City stood fast and did not allow double digit budget increases. They also stood fast and did not pay Austin Pets Alive additional funds. Also, Austin Pets Alive is now prohibited from bringing in animals from outside of the jurisdiction to get more revenue but at the expense of saturating Austin's market and in direct competition with the shelter. Couple that with the need of Austin Pets Alive to raise funds to make their current facility pass State inspection in the fall of this year and it is going to be a challenge. That does not even mention the fact Austin Pets Alive's lease on the old animal shelter (Town Lake) only goes through 2015 and low and behold they don't have funds to build a new facility since both their facility and the new Austin shelter are full. Okay so much for no pet over population and you can go No Kill over night and it costs nothing!
Interesting article in the Huffington Post from an attendee at the Austin Pets Alive Conference (tickets paid for by Austin Pets Alive). The published slide show provided by Austin Pets Alive on "How to Help Rescue Pets" is interesting not so much for what it has in it but for what it does not. Actually some pretty good advice in it but only one minor mention of the "No Kill Advocacy Center" at the end. No mention of Winograd or Clinton. No mention of the no kill equation, nothing. Hmmm, could it be that APA is trying to distance themselves from No Kill and will eventually like so many other rescues have move away from supporting the shelter and leave Austin Animal Services holding the bag so to speak? Then of course they just become limited admission, never report numbers since they are private and then blame Austin for failing? Maybe APA sees the handwriting on the wall? Like I say interesting spring. For the animals sake I hope I am wrong.
An interesting side note. Once each year most of the mayors of cities in Texas meet in Austin for a conference. While I would guess Animals Services is not on the top of their discussion list I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear Austin's feedback to them about No Kill. Reduced killing is possible just not with the no kill equation as it stands.
Thanks Anon.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
How long until these people figure out that Winograd and Clinton use them as servants to clean up after the breeders?
Was able to see some stats from Austin Pets Alive the other day from a person that came on one of the sites against no kill nation Winograd etc. to challenge them. When I mentioned that Austin Pets Alive never posts stats they were immediately posted in the Maddies Fund format. As expected EU rates were very low. On a 1600 intake only about 4 animals. However death in kennels was a tad under 200 resulting in a "death rate" of near 20%. I am sorry to be vague but once I mentioned that fact the stats were immediately delegated! Yep Austin is no kill alright. Just transfer them to your local "rescue" group that lets them die in the kennels and you are home free!!! Too sad.
Austin Pets Alive was sending dogs to hoarders to die too, weren't they? Those animals don't get tabulated in their stats.
Well, I am sad to announce that as of today June 7 the Austin Animal Shelter has Officially become limited admission. In a soberly written announcement on the official Austin City Web Site www.austintexas.gov/news it was announced by the Shelter that they will no longer be taking in animals due to very heavy intake from not only Austin but surrounding areas too. They are currently over capacity by some 100kennels. Adoption fees have been eliminated. They have reacehd out to rescues (where is Austin Pets Alive?) but there are not enough rescues to help and the resuces are full also. So much for CAPA. I am not sad for the insanity of no kill. But I am sad because for Austin to take this dramatic public step must mean the conditions in the shelter are horrendous. Congratualtions Austin for at least admitting you have too many animals and dealing with it!
Kern County Animal control to break laws again by refusing to take stray feral cats commencing July 1. http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/columnists/lois-henry/x1028020367/LOIS-HENRY-Dont-freak-out-over-new-feral-cat-policy
Well this is probably old news to some but as of July 7 Austin posted on the City Animal Services Web Page the following headline. "Find a Home For Your Pet, do Not Bring it Here". In the following paragraps they announced they would not accept owner turn ins for the first time in history.
I would say that we can now officially move no kills "flagship shelter" Austin into the "limited admission" shelter category!
Additionally a review of a video of Ms. Smith's 2014 budget proposal reveals that "we have not adequately staffed to maintain our no kill status" I think she said the same thing in 2013. So what happened to no kill and no cost?
Well it looks like to me the "flagship" No Kill shelter is not only expensive with future costs unknown but clearly on the rise. Where does it end? Who knows. And it is now limited admission!
On a bright note there does seem to be a new found interest in spay and neuter, duh, and narry a word of "no pet overpopulation". Double duh!
I used to volunteer during college at Austin Animal Shelter right before it became no-kill and when it was still at Town Lake. They were doing really well back then, with a great volunteer and foster program. They were very passionate about the animals at their shelter and also did a good amount of community outreach. So it sucks to hear that they're still sipping on Winograd's No-Kill Kool-Aid. Dude is incredibly shady, I don't know if he's just a bumbling idiot with good intentions or a sleaze ball salesman vying for money and attention. Everything on his blog is so outlandish, he might as well be screaming, "I have no credible facts, so I am preying on your fragile animal-loving emotions until you pay me for my miracle-cure." His attempt at professionalism is pretty hilarious, I wish more researchers wrote blogs that expose the truth they uncovered regarding how their fellow researchers are murderers, undiagnosed mental patients, nefarious zealots, and part of a top-secret network of domestic terrorists, No surprise nepotism didn't help Winograd earn a fruitful law career after Stanford, which makes sense, considering his main argument for no-kill is "Did you ever think about not killing animals?"
So congrats Nathan, now Austin Animal Shelter is falling apart, begging for help to reduce their 2-dogs-to-a-run and kitty city population boom and for converting them from a smoothly operating shelter and into a hot mess that's too overcrowded to function (which is a myth you guys!). So I hope AAS is prepared to endure the feeding frenzy when their No-Kill buddies start fighting to one-up each other for the most outrageous way to throw them under the bus now that they're limited admission. Maybe if you actually tried Austin, instead of being so lazy, all those trustworthy adopters would help you to adopt your way out from the hundreds of Nanny Dogs, chihuahuas, feral cats, and heartworm positive seniors animals you're knee deep in.
While people are kicking you while you're down, try not to worry about all that public dissent involving their safety because Holy Dog Nathan is omnipotent and knows that all those adopted pit bull and large dog mixes have nothing to do with your city's steadily increasing rate of dog bites and maulings. I mean, would Petey or Sgt. Stubby or a Nanny Dog ever be a danger to the public?
So Austin, stop whining about things that don't exist. Start believing and stop asking questions about the No-Kill Equation. Remember, Nathan is alway there for you, as long as you pay for his round-trip flight, luxury suite hotel room, five star dinners, Duck Boat Tour, and write a blank check in donation to Nathan for his private consultation to save your shelter.
APA has imported dogs from outside of Austin. Have you noted that on the Nathan Winograd blog he says that was not right and that is the reason they were having problems. In short, it seems that the no kill philosophy does not encourage importation of animals.
Post a Comment