In April 2012 a group of animal advocates attend the April meeting of the Board of Directors for the Clermont County Humane Society (CCHS), the organization contracted by the Board of County Commissioners to perform canine animal control and shelter services for the lost and homeless animals of Clermont County. Prior to the meeting, Board members for the CCHS had been provided information about th
e 11 programs of the No Kill Equation to ensure familiarity with other progressive communities that have successfully implemented these programs and were saving over 90% (the definition of No Kill) of all their open admission shelter animals. Less than 10% in those No Kill communities were either truly vicious dogs or animals that were irremediably ill with no hope of recovery. At the April Board Meeting, this group of animal advocates volunteered to assist the CCHS in bringing these 11 life-saving programs to Clermont County to save more animals. A follow-up meeting was scheduled the following week and attended by a sub-group from both organizations. At which time the animal advocates requested the opportunity to pull puppies and kittens from the Humane Society’s euthanasia list (animals scheduled to die due to lack of time or space in the open admission shelter). The President of the CCHS stated the Board would have to vote on the request at their next meeting the end of May, acknowledging that Kitten Season had begun and would definitely bring a large volume of kittens into the shelter during those 30 days between the April and May Board Meetings. CCHS 2011 statistics reported killing 92% of all the kitten and cats and 65% of all the puppies and dogs, which could possibly equate to 100 kittens and puppies dying while waiting for the May Board Meeting. After the May meeting of the Board for the CCHS, the animal advocates received a simple reply from the President of the CCHS – “We’ll get back to you if we need additional information.” This was the birth of the No Kill Initiative in Clermont County. The “humane” organization paid by the County and trusted by its residents to provide care and shelter for their lost and homeless pets had lost their way. At the 2nd Meeting in April, the CCHS Board President confirmed to the sub-group attendees that the existing shelter leadership viewed euthanasia as “saving” the animals being killed from the possibility of a possible bad life in the future. Clermont Pets Alive (CPA) is a program of Pet Alliance, Inc., a 501(c)(3) organization founded in 2006 by Anita Barron to create programs supporting animal advocates and the homeless animals.
• Pet Alliance launched Spay Ohio (www.SpayOhio.org) in 2008 to ensure cost is never a barrier to the sterilization of companion pets for every resident of Ohio. Spay Ohio serves thousands of residents monthly through its online network of low-cost spay/neuter options.
• In 2009 Pet Alliance began a low-cost microchip program which offered microchips for only $20.00 for community pets through participating vets in the community. A microchip is a lost pet’s only permanent lifeline home.
• Millions of healthy and treatable animals are needlessly euthanized each and every year due to outdated thinking and restrictive shelter policies in most counties in America. These counties fail to embrace overwhelming evidence that it is possible to save 90% or more of the animals entering their shelters by adopting a few simple programs. Over 100 progressive communities in the United States have already achieved a Save Rate over 90% by implementing the 11 programs of the No Kill Equation.
• In 2011, Pet Alliance launched Great Shelters to educate people in every community on the policies, procedure and kill statistics at their county shelter so they can make an educated choice to assist in implementing the Life Saving Programs or insist that changes are made to accommodate the implementation of these programs. Clermont Pets Alive began accepting cats and kittens into their foster-based rescue efforts because their kill-rate at the shelter was an alarming 92% in 2011. Organizational meetings began drawing supporters and additional volunteers to assist in spreading the word at local events and hosting off-site adoption events at local businesses but it soon became clear good deeds was insufficient to warm the hearts of the CCHS. In September 2012, CPA partnered with Fix Clermont (a program of Ohio Votes for Animals, a 501(c)(4) organization formed to affect political change for companion pets) to end the killing at the County’s open-admission shelter. Fix Clermont began working through the Clermont County Administrator, Steve Rabolt, to influence the terms of the 2013 contract the Board of County Commissioners would eventually approve with the CCHS. In April 2013 the CCHS and the Board of County Commissioners finally approved terms for the 2013 contract year. The 2013 contract requires the CCHS to remain open 8 hours a week after normal working hours and stay open until at least 7:00 PM one evening per week. The shelter had been operating 11:30 AM – 4:00 PM Monday – Saturday, only 4 ½ hours a week when a working family could come to reclaim or adopt a lost or homeless pet. Dogs without a license are required by state law to be held for 3 days before being killed. The new 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM Wednesday hours for the CCHS, give unlicensed dogs (who enter the shelter on Monday) hope of being returned to their guardians before their 3 day hold period expires.
2. The CCHS is required to provide a euthanasia list to the County OR ITS AGENT within 24 hours of the scheduled killing. The CCHS is required to delay euthanasia an additional 24 hours for dogs selected by the agent for rescue and must provide those dogs selected to the agent at NO COST. The Request for Proposal to Clermont County Animal Rescue organizations interested in pursuing a contractual relationship with the Board of County Commissioners was released on June 12th with a July 5th deadline. CPA was the ONLY organization to submit a response to the County's request for a K-9 Designee to rescue dogs from the euthanasia list at the County's Animal Shelter. Cats are excluded from the agreement because they are not considered property under Ohio law. On October 2nd 2013, Clermont Pets Alive! was awarded the K-9 Designee contract by the Board of County Commissioners as their K-9 Designee through the end of 2014. CPA received the first euthanasia list on October 19th, rescuing 2 dogs. since that time CPA has been able to rescue EVERY dog placed on the euthanasia list and on Wednesday, November 13th received the 1st official cat euthanasia list from the Clermont County Humane Society - rescuing the 5 cats on the list PLUS an additional 6 cats made available at the shelter. The work to successfully implement all 11 programs of the No Kill Equation is in its infancy. The 200+ open-admission shelters across the United States representing over 300 towns and cities that have achieved No Kill status (saving over 90% of all animals entering their open admission shelter) were only able to do so through the generous support of volunteers and businesses in their communities. Individuals and rescues interested in supporting Clermont's No Kill Initiative can enroll online at www.ClermontPetsAlive.org. Clermont County will achieve No Kill and CPA will share the tools and programs with other counties within the Cincinnati tri-state to help the Greater Cincinnati area become the first No Kill Region (encompassing multiple counties in the Tri-State area) that are achieving Save Rates of at least 90% in their open admission shelters. It is a matter of “WHEN” (not if) communities will achieve 90% Save Rates. The very lives of the current shelter animals are dependent on animal advocates in every community to ACTING NOW! The No Kill Solution is known (and already proven to work in over 100 communities), now the DECISION must be chosen to act on this information in order to save the open admission shelter animals in a community. Clermont Pets Alive has DECIDED that NOW is the time to implement the No Kill Equation’s Life-Saving programs and stop the needless killing of homeless animals simply because the current leadership is resistant to change (even in the face of irrefutable evidence that the programs WILL save more lives).
