02/12/2024
We support Manvel /On the Rise for Paws 👍🏻👍🏻
We hope you show your support to those amazing volunteers and advocates as they fight for the lives of animals. ❤️
Here's a brief summary of Feb 5th City Council Meeting discussion among the officials and the representative from Houston Humane Society (HHS):
1️⃣ The discussions and concerns revolve around approximately 102 cats and dogs annually.
2️⃣ Numerous Council Members have publicly voiced their affection for animals, with some actively participating in rescues to remove animals from the streets, as observed by animal advocates and the public. 👍
3️⃣ With officials expressing significant compassion, advocates anticipated a resolute commitment from both officials and staff to denounce the act of euthanizing healthy animals. For many Americans, euthanizing healthy, treatable, and manageable animals is deemed an unacceptable course of action.
5️⃣ During the Houston Humane Society presentation given by one of their dog behavior employees, we learned the 6 reasons why HHS put animals down.
•feral tendency
•dog aggression
•cat aggression
•resource guarding
•humane aggression
•multi diagnoses of the above-mentioned conditions.
👎 We agreed on human agression when it's unprovoked. However, according to HHS regulations, numerous dogs could potentially be considered candidates for euthanasia. While, canine and feline behavioral science has made significant strides in recent decades, becoming a widespread practice across the nation, it's perplexing that HHS continues to penalize dogs for exhibiting natural behavior.
📍Rehabilitating large dog breeds with behavioral issues constitutes a program with significant costs. Given the ample resources at the disposal of HHS, there is an expectation for a more inclusive and knowledgeable approach towards understanding animal behavior and working with them.
5️⃣ Despite numerous residents offering assistance to the MPD and the ACO in developing a local lifesaving program, it appears that officials did not explore the abundant resources available during the discussion that lasted over 90 minutes. Several officials showed great interests to position HHS as a leading choice, seemingly not knowing or overlooking the historical mission's inconsistency, as highlighted by data.
6️⃣ Comparing the Houston Humane Society to the Alvin Adoption Center yields an unfair and inaccurate assessment. The Houston Humane Society, being a well-funded private shelter, boasts assets valued at $27 million and has received close to $6 million in donations to care for approximately 3300 animals as of 2022. In contrast, the Alvin Adoption Center operates as a public shelter with limited resources. Public shelters are primarily tasked with housing animals, providing essential medical care, and diligently working to rehome animals responsibly and swiftly. It's crucial to acknowledge that private and public shelters adhere to distinct operational models and have disparate budgetary allocations, rendering comparisons for decision-making purposes inappropriate.
✅ The data from both the current HHS and the Houston Mayor's Task Force present intriguing insights. HHS, originally aspiring to function as a no-kill facility, received 14,078 animals in 2004. However, in 2022, the intake plummeted to 3,304 animals after the abandonment of the no-kill philosophy in 1980. History
✅ During the 90-minute discussion between the officials and the HHS employee, specific percentages regarding adoption rates, animals put down, and those returned to their owners were neither disclosed by the HHS employee nor inquired about by the officials.
7️⃣ Policies, procedures, and solutions are typically crafted to tackle commonplace situations and not necessarily cater to the exceptional and extreme ones. While it's critical to recognize that distinctive circumstances outside the purview of standard practices, specific discussions are necessary but shouldn’t be used as a benchmark for policy formation to guide day to day decision making process. That said, we have several reminders for all officials and stakeholders.
E.g. Giving examples of Animal Control randomly taking 10 dogs all at once while intake is projected to be 100 over 365 days is not based on commonplace.
8️⃣ It appears that several Manvel officials require training on effective and compassionate sheltering practices and practical solutions to utilize their empathy in aiding the animals in Manvel.
✅ Definitions such as “kill” vs. “euthanize” and “aggressive” dogs need to be properly explained.
✅ There is a big difference between the two words “kill” and “euthanize. No kill supports humane euthanasia of animals that are irremediably suffering but not the killing of healthy, treatable, manageable animals. It is crucial to distinguish between the terms "kill" and "euthanize.
Again, no kill advocates support the compassionate euthanasia of animals that are incurably suffering, without resorting to the euthanasia of healthy, treatable animals.
✅ Not all reactive dogs are truly aggressive dogs.
🎯🎯Our ultimate advice, animal lovers and officials who are passionate animal lovers should adopt virtues like empathy, and outside the box thinking to connect with advocates. Animal advocates aim to improve the system for animals and promote a harmonious co-existence between animals and humans through innovative solutions.
Thank you for visiting our page! We have more information to share. We look forward to your return as we continue to work together for animal advocacy.
