No Kill Ventura County Alliance

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NKVCA MISSION STATEMENT

NO KILL VENTURA COUNTY is a coalition of animal welfare organizations and individuals who advocate to end the killing of all shelter animals.

07/06/2024
February 21, 2024,Today I'm going to tell you about Mia, a one and a half year old dog at Ventura County Animal Shelter ...
21/02/2024

February 21, 2024,
Today I'm going to tell you about Mia, a one and a half year old dog at Ventura County Animal Shelter in Camarillo who is scheduled to be killed at 11 a.m. All the rescues and volunteers are pleading with elected officials like myself who are appointed as VCAS Commissioners to contact the shelter and request that her ex*****on be delayed for at least three days to give the rescue groups time to save her.

To be continued later today whenever I have pockets of time.

24/12/2023

December, 2023
Thank you, Debbie Shaver, for your excellent letter in the VC Star

BE CHANGE FOR PET OVERPOPULATION

Pet overpopulation in Ventura County cost the county millions of dollars a year with no end in sight.

The approach being used to combat the overpopulation has been proven to be ineffective. Funds need to be directed towards prevention, rather than high salaries and administration bloat.

Solutions have always been there, which is investing in affordable and free, low-cost spay and neuter.

Money for prevention will trickle down to less kittens and puppies being born in the first place, filling up shelters and rescue groups year after year. Ventura County Animals Services will soon be hiring a new director.

The changes that are needed start with a new director whose focus will be on solving the overpopulation problem, rather than continuing the “business as usual” policy.

In addition, and urgently needed, are changes in policies that are exasperating the overpopulation crisis. One such policy doing the most damage is the “managed intake” policy, meaning kittens, cats and dogs are turned away due to being “at capacity.”

Friendly, adoptable, unaltered cats and kittens are returned to the streets resulting in more kittens being born and putting more strain on the lack of spay and neuter appointments.

This is misleading the public and dishonest as VCAS is an “Open Admission” shelter.

We don’t need more highly paid administrators who are not interested in solving the problem. We need well-paid veterinarians to do high-volume spay and neuter, so that less kittens and puppies are born in the first place. It is time for this heavily funded taxpayer shelter to alleviate this crisis rather than to keep kicking the can down the road.

Ventura County, be the change for pet overpopulation.

Debbie Shaver, Camarillo

07/05/2023

I received a request from a shelter reform advocate for studies and information to stop their local pound from using temperament tests to claim dogs are “unadoptable” and kill them, as well as information for what shelters should do instead. The fact is that it the shelter’s own socialization,...

Please help support this dedicated group of volunteers who work endless hours to prevent the birth of thousands of unwan...
27/01/2023

Please help support this dedicated group of volunteers who work endless hours to prevent the birth of thousands of unwanted kittens.

Hi I’m creating this fundraiser to raise funds to continue TNR ef… Madison McLaughlin needs your support for Need funds to continue trapping and transporting

Every kill shelter in in the US should post these photos on their front door for the people who are surrendering their d...
11/03/2022

Every kill shelter in in the US should post these photos on their front door for the people who are surrendering their dog because they've outgrown it or they're moving and can't take it with....people in Ukraine are literally carrying 90 lb dogs through hell and high water to save them and not leave them behind🐾💓🐾🇺🇦🐾
I know there are pets that are displaced and in need of rescue, some people were killed and their pets are on the streets. There are rescues trying to help, if any of you want to post links below I will keep this post public to help support them 🐾

A new study finds that shelter managers and senior staff tend toward regressive views about dog welfare and may not be c...
10/03/2022

A new study finds that shelter managers and senior staff tend toward regressive views about dog welfare and may not be committed to keeping shelter dogs healthy and happy.

Petting cats in the shelter can save their lives. Another example of how simple enrichment practices are vitally importa...
27/01/2022

Petting cats in the shelter can save their lives. Another example of how simple enrichment practices are vitally important for the lives of shelter animals.

A study of shelter cats finds that cats who are gently petted and talked to by humans have a markedly lower chance of getting an upper respiratory infection. Cats who were not stroked and talked to gently were over two times more likely to get sick (due to stress) than cats who were.

The study also has enormous implications for the lives of cats deemed “feral.” Cats who are labeled “feral,” “unsocial,” “fractious,” or “aggressive” are virtually all killed unless the shelter embraces neuter and release/return to field. The study found that while 18% of the cats they tested would have been deemed “feral” due to “aggression” when they started (and thus killed), none of the cats responded that way after day six. This is also true of cats who could not be touched when they arrived and were stroked “mechanically” with a fake hand.

The conclusion: Shelters that do not have a “mental health” component (touch, talk, play through volunteers) in concert with a “physical health” component (vaccination on intake and other medical care, cleaning/disinfection) are working at cross purposes.

More importantly, this study underscores how it is often the shelter’s own policies that cost cats their lives. Shelters which do not allow cats to be touched, do not allow volunteers to socialize cats, and want to reduce holding periods in order to kill cats more quickly are not operating in the best interests of cats: http://bit.ly/2wXb3kq.

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Do good things for animals. Tell people about it. Ask for their help. That's a recipe for saving lives: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA8.

"There is no such thing as an animal who is irremediably psychologically suffering. There is no such thing as an animal ...
26/01/2022

"There is no such thing as an animal who is irremediably psychologically suffering. There is no such thing as an animal who is so traumatized that he wants to die.**"

The No Kill Advocacy Center defines “irremediable suffering” as an animal who has “a poor or grave prognosis for being able to live without severe, unremitting physical pain even with prompt, necessary, and comprehensive veterinary care,” such as an animal in multiple organ system failure. B...

25/01/2022

The No Kill Advocacy Center defines “irremediable suffering” as an animal who has “a poor or grave prognosis for being able to live without severe, unremitting physical pain even with prompt, necessary, and comprehensive veterinary care,” such as an animal in multiple organ system failure. But some “animal welfare” organizations have suggested that the definition is too narrow as it does not allow for mental suffering.

Several years ago, for example, the ASPCA authored legislation in New York which would have allowed shelters to kill animals, with no holding period of any kind, if those animals were deemed to be in “psychological pain.” There were no standards on how a shelter would make that determination, no objective measures on how it should be applied, no mandatory training or credentials on the part of the staff to do so.

Under the ASPCA-sponsored bill, if any two shelter employees believed that an animal was in “psychological pain,” that animal could have been killed immediately, before the animal’s family came to look for him; indeed, before anyone in his family even knew he was missing. In essence, this bill was designed to allow for the killing of animals by people unqualified to make such a determination, based on unenforceable, unknowable, and completely subjective criteria. Since then, others have tried to do similar things in other states.

But even if the ASPCA bill and subsequent ones had strict criteria, such as mandated training of personnel, tested tools and evaluation strategies, the involvement of people who understand the science of animal behavior and have an in depth knowledge of the data — would that change the primary defect? Can dogs, cats, and other animals be so traumatized that they should not be — would not want to be — alive? In short, is there such a thing as “irremediable psychological suffering”?

No.

There is no such thing as an animal who is irremediably psychologically suffering. There is no such thing as an animal who is so traumatized that he wants to die.

My Substack article explains why: https://bit.ly/3FUcscE.

"SOME SHELTER EVALUATIONS ARE WRONG 84% OF THE TIME"SOME SHELTERS USE FAULTY EVALUATIONS AS AN EXCUSE TO KILL DOGS.
19/01/2022

"SOME SHELTER EVALUATIONS ARE WRONG 84% OF THE TIME"
SOME SHELTERS USE FAULTY EVALUATIONS AS AN EXCUSE TO KILL DOGS.

I received a request from a shelter reform advocate for studies and information to stop their local pound from using temperament tests to claim dogs are “unadoptable” and kill them, as well as information for what shelters should do instead. The fact is that it the shelter’s own socialization,...

Animal Services that work for the community and  with the community make a huge difference in peoples lives.
11/01/2022

Animal Services that work for the community and with the community make a huge difference in peoples lives.

VCAS is so short staffed the volunteers are doing staff work.
08/01/2022

VCAS is so short staffed the volunteers are doing staff work.

A full shelter, a bare-bones staff, and fewer people coming to adopt add up to a perfect storm for pets who end up in the shelter.

PIT BULLS adopted again in Denver with the repeal of Denver's cruel and barbaric BSL that cost thousands of dogs their l...
05/01/2022

PIT BULLS adopted again in Denver with the repeal of Denver's cruel and barbaric BSL that cost thousands of dogs their lives just for looking a certain way.

This is Gumdrop. He was the first so-called “pit bull” to be adopted in Denver in 30 years after the ban was repealed. But he wasn’t the last. “The Denver Animal Shelter found homes for 100 pit bulls in 2021, enough to make the newly legalized dogs the second-most adopted breed at the shelter”: https://bit.ly/32RwDui.

That is indeed good news and a no-brainer. First, because 50% of dogs labeled as pit bulls lack DNA breed signatures of breeds commonly classified as pit bulls: https://goo.gl/R423Yq.

Second, because it wouldn’t matter if they did. Dogs targeted for breed discriminatory laws are not more likely to bite, do not bite harder, and such bans do not result in fewer dog bites or bite-related hospitalization rates: https://goo.gl/pbLDWW.

And third, because enforcement of bans is expensive with no measurable impact on public safety; costing Denver taxpayers $100,000,000.

But most important of all, it stops these dogs from dying simply for the way they look, ending the specter of an officer coming to the door, taking a dog off a couch, driving them to the pound, killing them, and discarding their lifeless bodies in a garbage bag. “When a city has a breed-specific ban, good dogs die. It’s that simple.”

Onward and upward…

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Do good things for animals. Tell people about it. Ask for their help. That's a recipe for saving lives: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA8.

10.5 million lives could be saved if housing rental restrictions were lifted!
05/12/2021

10.5 million lives could be saved if housing rental restrictions were lifted!

An eye-opening new report shows we could solve pet homelessness and transform animal sheltering, just by expanding pet-inclusive housing.

VCAS has turned it's back on it's volunteersNO KILL ADVOCACY CENTER.Volunteers are not only a dedicated army of compassi...
01/12/2021

VCAS has turned it's back on it's volunteers

NO KILL ADVOCACY CENTER.
Volunteers are not only a dedicated army of compassion, they are the backbone of every successful No Kill effort in the country. A well-functioning animal shelter continually recruits volunteer to help socialize animals in the shelter, to help clean cages and kennels, to assist in making introductions between animals and potential adopters and to then facilitate those adoptions, and so much more.
Collectively, the contributions of volunteers translate not only into an efficient and effectively run shelter, but two more added benefits. First, happier animals, and animals who are happy are less stressed, stay healthy or if they are sick or suffered trauma, recover more quickly.
Second, happy, committed volunteers also create a more welcoming environment for the visiting public by ensuring clean facilities and good customer service, both of which lead to more visitors and visitors who stay longer, resulting in more and quicker adoptions.
There is nothing a volunteer who is valued and feels valued won’t do for a shelter if they know that staff is as committed to the animals as they are. At the shelter formerly run by No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd, volunteers staffed offsite adoption events, took photographs of animals for adoption, cleaned cages, socialized animals, fostered animals, bathed and groomed animals, did TNR, canvassed neighborhoods to get animals back home, did graphic design, led training sessions, even did carpentry, painting, and other shelter maintenance and repair, and so much more. Volunteer veterinarians provided medical care. Volunteer behaviorists provided rehabilitation and training. Volunteer lawyers wrote legislation, drafted contracts, and even defended the shelter in court.
A shelter that turns its back on volunteers is turning its back on the animals.
Learn more about volunteers and the other programs and services of the No Kill Equation: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA

Volunteers are not only a dedicated army of compassion, they are the backbone of every successful No Kill effort in the country. A well-functioning animal shelter continually recruits volunteer to help socialize animals in the shelter, to help clean cages and kennels, to assist in making introductions between animals and potential adopters and to then facilitate those adoptions, and so much more.

Collectively, the contributions of volunteers translate not only into an efficient and effectively run shelter, but two more added benefits. First, happier animals, and animals who are happy are less stressed, stay healthy or if they are sick or suffered trauma, recover more quickly.

Second, happy, committed volunteers also create a more welcoming environment for the visiting public by ensuring clean facilities and good customer service, both of which lead to more visitors and visitors who stay longer, resulting in more and quicker adoptions.

There is nothing a volunteer who is valued and feels valued won’t do for a shelter if they know that staff is as committed to the animals as they are. At the shelter formerly run by No Kill Advocacy Center director Nathan Winograd, volunteers staffed offsite adoption events, took photographs of animals for adoption, cleaned cages, socialized animals, fostered animals, bathed and groomed animals, did TNR, canvassed neighborhoods to get animals back home, did graphic design, led training sessions, even did carpentry, painting, and other shelter maintenance and repair, and so much more. Volunteer veterinarians provided medical care. Volunteer behaviorists provided rehabilitation and training. Volunteer lawyers wrote legislation, drafted contracts, and even defended the shelter in court.

A shelter that turns its back on volunteers is turning its back on the animals.

Learn more about volunteers and the other programs and services of the No Kill Equation: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA8.

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Do you believe in second chances? Millions of shelter animals are betting their life on it. Please remember them this holiday season by making a gift to The No Kill Advocacy Center: nokilladvocacycenter.org/support-us.html.

30/11/2021

Twitter Facebook by Debbie Shaver The story of a cat colony starts with one female cat. She can have up to four litters a year with an average of four kittens. The fact is, 80% of kittens born in the United States are born outdoors. These kittens come from colonies of cats called “community cats.....

What Ventura County management needs to understand is that NOT killing animals in our county pound SAVES the county mone...
25/11/2021

What Ventura County management needs to understand is that NOT killing animals in our county pound SAVES the county money.
In 1998, the California legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill to reduce killing in “shelters.” Among the many provisions to achieve that goal was a prohibition against killing animals non-profit rescue organizations and other shelters were willing to save: http://bit.ly/2R4VoJu. Despite the opposition of virtually every regressive pound in California: https://bit.ly/2X37Xfh, the bill overwhelmingly passed. It made no sense to elected officials that “shelter” bureaucrats were killing animals, at taxpayer expense, who had an immediate place to go.
The law has been an unqualified success. The rescue rights provision has resulted in a nearly 700% increase in lifesaving — from 12,526 animals a year before the law went into effect to 99,783. That increase corresponds with an annual cost savings of $3,497,283 for killing and destruction of remains. (These savings do not include additional savings related to cost of care): http://bit.ly/2FGibpW.
This year, New York State is expected to take up a similar measure. The Shelter Animal Rescue Act (SARA) would also make it illegal for “shelters” to kill animals if qualified rescue organizations are willing to save them. Opposition from killing pounds and their enablers, — like the regressive ASPCA which is based in New York: https://bit.ly/3FGTZ3z — is expected to make passing the common-sense bill a challenge.
A prior survey found that roughly 25,000 animals are killed in New York who rescue groups are ready, willing, and able to save, but are prevented from doing so by vindictive, uncaring, and regressive pound managers. This not only takes an enormous toll on the lives of animals, it takes a toll on rescuers.
As a society, we owe a particular debt of gratitude to people who voluntarily offer a helping hand to the needy and that includes our nation’s homeless animals. Animal rescuers are compassionate people who open their hearts and homes to provide a safety-net for animals others may have abandoned and whom our dysfunctional shelters betray even further by killing. These rescuers are already donating their time, their energy, their resources, and their love to make our world a better place. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their emotional well-being, too.
Stay tuned...
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Do good things for animals. Tell people about it. Ask for their help. That's a recipe for saving lives: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA8.

In 1998, the California legislature overwhelmingly passed a bill to reduce killing in “shelters.” Among the many provisions to achieve that goal was a prohibition against killing animals non-profit rescue organizations and other shelters were willing to save: http://bit.ly/2R4VoJu. Despite the opposition of virtually every regressive pound in California: https://bit.ly/2X37Xfh, the bill overwhelmingly passed. It made no sense to elected officials that “shelter” bureaucrats were killing animals, at taxpayer expense, who had an immediate place to go.

The law has been an unqualified success. The rescue rights provision has resulted in a nearly 700% increase in lifesaving — from 12,526 animals a year before the law went into effect to 99,783. That increase corresponds with an annual cost savings of $3,497,283 for killing and destruction of remains. (These savings do not include additional savings related to cost of care): http://bit.ly/2FGibpW.

This year, New York State is expected to take up a similar measure. The Shelter Animal Rescue Act (SARA) would also make it illegal for “shelters” to kill animals if qualified rescue organizations are willing to save them. Opposition from killing pounds and their enablers, — like the regressive ASPCA which is based in New York: https://bit.ly/3FGTZ3z — is expected to make passing the common-sense bill a challenge.

A prior survey found that roughly 25,000 animals are killed in New York who rescue groups are ready, willing, and able to save, but are prevented from doing so by vindictive, uncaring, and regressive pound managers. This not only takes an enormous toll on the lives of animals, it takes a toll on rescuers.

As a society, we owe a particular debt of gratitude to people who voluntarily offer a helping hand to the needy and that includes our nation’s homeless animals. Animal rescuers are compassionate people who open their hearts and homes to provide a safety-net for animals others may have abandoned and whom our dysfunctional shelters betray even further by killing. These rescuers are already donating their time, their energy, their resources, and their love to make our world a better place. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their emotional well-being, too.

Stay tuned...

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Do good things for animals. Tell people about it. Ask for their help. That's a recipe for saving lives: https://youtu.be/JCTt5JppNA8.

The shelter animals bill of rights.Our county shelter is failing in so many of these areas.Keeping animals healthy throu...
23/11/2021

The shelter animals bill of rights.
Our county shelter is failing in so many of these areas.
Keeping animals healthy through enrichment, making sure they get the vet care they need, supporting the volunteer program. Even something as basic as feeding is haphazard because of the shortage of staff. Management is failing our county animals.
https://outtathecage.org/bill-of-rights

A list of nine rights ensuring the fair treatment of shelter animals. Proposed by Jill Dyche, executive editor of Outta the Cage.

WE ARE THE GUARDIANS OF OUR COMMUNITY SHELTERS!The citizens of each community must make sure that their communities shel...
10/11/2021

WE ARE THE GUARDIANS OF OUR COMMUNITY SHELTERS!
The citizens of each community must make sure that their communities shelter is not feeding them a bunch of pretty stories to cover up incompetence, favoritism and uncaring practices.

Seattle Humane, Austin Pets Alive, Best Friends, and the broken promise of No Kill

Our Ventura County community cats are in crisis. The TNR volunteers are doing all they can. But the situation is out of ...
06/11/2021

Our Ventura County community cats are in crisis. The TNR volunteers are doing all they can. But the situation is out of control in some areas. It would be great if our county shelter and citizens could provide more support; more available spay/neuter and more volunteers.

Twitter Facebook by Debbie Shaver The story of a cat colony starts with one female cat. She can have up to four litters a year with an average of four kittens. The fact is, 80% of kittens born in the United States are born outdoors. These kittens come from colonies of cats called “community cats.....

***URGENT!!! PLEASE SHARE***OLIVER IS SET TO BE EUTHANIZED TODAY… CAN OLIVER’S LIFE BE SPARED???
03/11/2021

***URGENT!!! PLEASE SHARE***
OLIVER IS SET TO BE EUTHANIZED TODAY… CAN OLIVER’S LIFE BE SPARED???

This needs to happen in California. It would open up housing for so many large dog breeds.
31/10/2021

This needs to happen in California. It would open up housing for so many large dog breeds.

Governor Hochul signed a legislative package relating to animal welfare.

28/10/2021

The term “No Kill” is a lie whether in Arkansas or Los Angeles, it is false. And when shelter volunteers and staff are reporting that abuse and neglect is happening at shelters we all need to demand action be taken. Many law and policy makers simply do not care about animals. They care about job security, their six figure salaries, medical insurance and paid vacations. So when the system is failing and dogs are suffering and dying, their job security should also suffer. Shelters are full all across the country and little to nothing is being done to improve things and/or the conditions the animals are kept in and to label a shelter or facility “No Kill” when killing and suffering happens daily is ridiculous. The mayor of of this city has made a plea asking for volunteers to now step up and help the nearly 300 dogs affected by this “No Kill” shelter. Once again the for profit sector who stands by doing nothing now expects the nonprofit sector to clean up the mess. Their is zero accountability and people with the power to make change doing nothing continue to stay in power. That has to change. Not sure how but if everyone in animal welfare puts their agendas and egos aside and works together, it could happen.

“A total of 240 dogs and 45 cats were found at the animal shelter – many of the animals were malnourished and/or injured.

The investigation into conditions at the no-kill facility was instigated after former volunteers at the shelter reported that animals were being mistreated, neglected and sometimes even physically abused by workers, reports Fox 13 News.

After investigators visited the facility and witnessed the appalling conditions, the shelter was shut down. The Mayor issued a plea for help on social media.”

FULL ARTICLE
https://animalvictory.org/petitions/director-of-no-kill-shelter-charged-with-285-counts-of-aggravated-animal-cruelty/

Humans are not the only ones who feel fear and to whom life is precious.
26/10/2021

Humans are not the only ones who feel fear and to whom life is precious.

Listen now (6 min) | What’s it like to be a dog being experimented on in a laboratory? A cat in the kill room of an animal “shelter”? A cow in a slaughterhouse? A mouse on a glue trap? A deer being hunted? A pig on a factory farm? Animals have eyes and they see with them, the way we humans see...

FINALLY!! THE PLAINTIFF IS OUR OWN SANTA PAULA ANIMAL RESCUE CENTER!!A lawsuit was filed yesterday against the County of...
06/10/2021

FINALLY!! THE PLAINTIFF IS OUR OWN SANTA PAULA ANIMAL RESCUE CENTER!!

A lawsuit was filed yesterday against the County of Los Angeles and Marcia Mayeda, its director, for killing dogs despite rescue groups and other shelters ready, willing, and able to save them. Doing so is illegal in California.
In 1998, the California legislature overwhelming passed a bill to reduce killing in California “shelters.” Among the many provisions to achieve that goal was a prohibition against killing animals non-profit rescue organizations and other shelters were willing to save: http://bit.ly/2R4VoJu. Despite the opposition of virtually every regressive pound in California, including the County of Los Angeles: https://bit.ly/2X37Xfh, the bill overwhelmingly passed and was signed into law by then Governor Pete Wilson. It made no sense to senators and assembly members that bureaucrats were killing animals, at taxpayer expense, who had an immediate place to go.
The legislature also put in place exceptions to the provision of which the most relevant in the lawsuit are dogs who have a history of biting people and those who are irremediably suffering. In Los Angeles County, which had previously determined that most animals, including those with highly treatable conditions such as cats with diarrhea and conjunctivitis, were “irremediably suffering,” a lawsuit by The No Kill Advocacy Center, my organization, on this issue resulted in a judicial determination that irremediable suffering is a dog or cat with a medical condition that is so severe that the animal is not able to live without severe, unremitting pain despite prompt and necessary veterinary care.
The law does not allow pounds to kill dogs (cats, or other animals) they determine to have “behavior” problems. In fact, the legislature considered giving pound employees that power but rejected it for primarily two reasons. First, it would create an exception that swallows the rule. Vindictive employees could simply determine animals had behavior issues and exempt them from rescue in order to retaliate against rescuers who expose inhumane conditions, eviscerating both the intent of the law to end the killing of healthy and treatable animals and eliminating the whistleblower protections of the rescue rights provision: https://bit.ly/39ur4Bx.
Prior to enactment of the law, regressive pounds like Los Angeles County and others punished rescuers by firing them or killing the animals they wanted to save for exposing cruelty and other inhumane conditions. In one case involving a Southern California pound, a manager killed a mother cat and kittens as a show of vindictive force:
“I went to the shelter because I was told they had a mother cat and four kittens that they had scheduled to be killed even though they were healthy. When I arrived to pick up the cat and kittens, the shelter manager asked to see me. She told me that a member of our rescue group wrote a letter complaining about the shelter to the Board of Supervisors and that they didn’t appreciate it. She told me I could therefore only have one kitten. I begged her to let me take them all, but she said that I couldn’t. She told me to pick one and she was going to euthanize the rest, including the mother cat. I didn’t know what to do. And so I picked. My hand was shaking as I filled out the paperwork. After I got the kitten, I went outside and sat in the car. Then I threw up all over myself”: https://bit.ly/39ur4Bx.
In another case, this time involving the pound at the center of the current lawsuit, when a rescuer went public about neglectful staff allowing a dog in its custody to die of starvation (“marked emaciation”) and pneumonia, Mayeda’s team fired the rescuer. (The No Kill Advocacy Center sued and the court ordered her reinstated: http://bit.ly/2Rlva6J.)
Second, since the right of rescue was non-discretionary, it released shelters from liability for dogs who were transferred to rescue groups. By allowing shelters to determine which dogs were free of alleged behavior problems, the shelter would be certifying the safety of the dogs, thus maintaining liability. Legislators rejected the latter scenario on public policy grounds.
As a law professor involved in the drafting of the law further noted, “[I]t is important to point out that rescuers who provide foster care for animals can more easily and accurately assess animals’ behavior than can most institutional shelter employees. Animals in foster care have a longer time to adjust than they do in shelter environments, and they can receive attention that they do not normally receive in shelter environments. Rescue groups often have among their members (or ready access to) behavior specialists who can provide better evaluation and rehabilitation options for dogs than can most shelters at this time in history. In the case of animals with true behavioral problems that make them less suitable for most adoption opportunities, rescue groups work collaboratively to seek the best possible circumstances for each animal”: https://bit.ly/302bOKV.
A subsequent study by an attorney at one of the largest law firms in the country also found no evidence that the rescue rights law was putting the public at risk. To the contrary, it found ample evidence that while it was saving a lot of dogs, it was not doing so: https://bit.ly/3myK8Fb.
Indeed, the law — when followed — has been an unqualified success. The rescue rights provision has resulted in a nearly 700% increase in lifesaving — from 12,526 animals a year before the law went into effect to 99,783. That increase corresponds with an annual cost savings of $3,497,283 for killing and destruction of remains (these savings do not include additional savings related to cost of care): http://bit.ly/2FGibpW.
But directors like Mayeda have decided to stop following the law and animals are being put to death. According to the Petition for Writ of Mandate, at the Agoura pound, which is part of the County of Los Angeles system overseen by Mayeda and where one of the plaintiffs has been denied the ability to save animals, staff has killed “64% of its impounded animals over the last 12 months, in contrast to adopting out only 21% of the animals it had admitted in the same time period.”
But while animals pay the ultimate price, they are not the only ones who suffer. Rescuers — including the staff and volunteers at Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center and Lucky Pup Dog Rescue (the plaintiffs in the case) — do, too.
As a society, we owe a particular debt of gratitude to people who voluntarily offer a helping hand to the needy and that includes our nation’s homeless animals. Animal rescuers are compassionate people who open their hearts and homes to provide a safety-net for animals others may have abandoned and whom our dysfunctional shelters betray even further by killing. These rescuers are already donating their time, their energy, their resources, and their love to make our world a better place. They shouldn’t have to sacrifice their emotional well-being, too.
According the law at the heart of the current case, it is illegal for Mayeda and her team to force them to do so. The case is Santa Paula Animal Rescue Center vs. County of Los Angeles. A copy of the Petition for Writ of Mandate is here: https://bit.ly/3uLgYGp.
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No Kill Ventura County Alliance

No Kill Ventura County Alliance is an advocacy and education group that consists of Ventura County Animal Rescues, volunteers, animal trainers and individual animal advocates. Our mission is to support our local Ventura County Shelters in maintaining true No Kill status.

Based upon the best performing municipal shelters, we know that 95 to 99 percent of all animals can be saved by using progressive and cost-effective programs and services like targeted high-volume, low-cost spay/neuter, proactive adoptions, a population-based foster care network, trap neuter and release programs for community cats, large scale transfers and transports, progressive intake diversion and return-to-owner policies, aggressive disease prevention and make ready protocols, advanced behavior training and enrichment for large adult dogs, ongoing audits and benchmarks for measuring success, and, most importantly, leadership committed to a lifesaving culture.

Maintaining a true No Kill shelter takes the support of our whole community. NKVCA will advocate for resources and support from our local city and county government and the public. Our shelters and rescues need adopters, volunteers, foster homes and financial support from the cities they serve.