Guest Column By Teresa Lynn Chargrin
Every kind person longs for the day when no more cats and dogs must be euthanized for lack of good homes, but as Springfield Police Chief Joseph Daly points out, the Delco SPCA’s arbitrary decision to become a “no-kill” shelter is as ludicrous as if he had said, “I’m not going to arrest anybody and Springfield is going to become a no-crime township.” Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy to stop crime and end animal overpopulation and homelessness?
Wishful thinking won’t solve Delaware County’s homeless animal crisis. By closing its doors to the animals it should be helping, the Delco SPCA is essentially guaranteeing that many cats and dogs will suffer far worse fates than a peaceful death. To prevent horrible suffering and cruelty to animals, it is critical that shelters never turn away animals in need, even when doing so means making difficult decisions.
On July 1, when the Delco SPCA ends its community animal control services, nearly 50 municipalities will reportedly be left with nowhere to house approximately 7,000 lost and homeless cats and dogs every year.
On the street, homeless and lost animals starve. They suffer and die from painful injuries. They contract and spread painful illnesses such as rabies. They cause automobile accidents. They form packs, fight for territory and often become aggressive and attack humans. They are hit by cars and abused by cruel people. And all the while, they continue to reproduce, creating even more homeless animals.
When cages fill up at the Delco SPCA or citizens bring in animals who are not considered “adoptable,” needy animals will be turned away and left in the hands of people who don’t want them or can’t care for them. Thousands of cats and dogs will be abandoned in foreclosed homes, dumped on the street to fend for themselves or condemned to a miserable life at the end of a chain in someone’s backyard.
PETA’s files are bursting with reports of animals who were neglected and abused by people who didn’t want or like them — sometimes after no-kill shelters turned them away. For example, one Pennsylvania man tried to surrender his dog at a no-kill shelter but was told the shelter was full and he would have to make an appointment and come back in two weeks — so he intentionally ran over the dog with his truck instead. Shelter workers, who wouldn’t help the dog before he died, collected his broken remains.
After a West Virginia no-kill shelter turned away some kittens, they were run over in the shelter’s parking lot. One was crushed to death and another was so badly injured that shelter staff had to euthanize her.
No one can wave a magic wand to solve this problem. We must face the facts: Animal shelters can try to make themselves feel better — or look better — by refusing to euthanize animals, but in doing so, they force numerous cats and dogs to languish endlessly in cages, and they leave countless other sick, starving and abused animals on the street to face a slow and painful death.
The only humane way for a community to become “no-kill” is for it first to become “no-birth.” That means passing mandatory spay-and-neuter laws, ending the sale of animals by pet shops and breeders, educating citizens about the need to spay and neuter their animal companions and implementing rigorous owner-responsibility requirements. In the meantime, euthanizing animals who have no hope of finding a good home is a kindness. Turning our backs on them is cruelty.
Teresa Lynn Chagrin is an Animal Care and Control Specialist with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
I never thought I would ever agree with someone from PETA, but I think this ariticle makes a lot of sense for animal lovers out there and is a great political lesson. Sometimes in the world of politics our best intentions cause more harm than good.
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