LanCo shelter goes "no kill," critics say growing trend harms pets
The Humane League of Lancaster County announced today that it will become a "no kill" facility in February, joining a trend led by the Delaware County SPCA which stopped its open admission policy last year.
LanCo shelter goes "no kill," critics say growing trend harms pets
Amy Worden, Inquirer Staff Writer
The Humane League of Lancaster County announced today that it will become a "no kill" facility in February, joining a trend led by the Delaware County SPCA which stopped its open admission policy earlier this year.
Sounds like great news right?
No, say animal welfare advocates who argue that closing a shelter's doors to stray cats and dogs will mean more animals roaming the streets and more animal abuse. In an email to its supporters the league said it will cancel all municipal contracts by the end of January.
The league blamed the high costs of running the shelter for its decision, and pledged to "continue protecting the welfare of our community's pets."
But advocates say the shelter's decision gives the community - which includes the city of Lancaster and the state's largest concentration of licensed and unlicensed commercial dog breeders - virtually no notice to find alternatives and will create a "pick and choose" policy for unwanted pets.
"When people hear no kill, they think it's a good thing, it's not a good thing," said Tom Hickey, a member of the state Dog Law Advisory Board. "They are selectively picking which dogs live. Where are the dogs that don’t fit the criteria, namely pit bulls and puppy mill survivors that need extensive rehabilitation, going to go?
Hickey, who worked on trying to find alternatives in Delaware County, said the short notice is "totally unacceptable."
"I can speak from experience, I just did this in Delaware County. Townships don’t know what to do," he said.
Only eight of 52 municipalities in Lancaster County are still contracting with the league, after the local governments rejected paying the fee.
Under the definition of "no kill," the league said "healthy, treatable pets will not be euthanized due to lack of space or other resources." It also said it would take in animals for a fee, but did not say how much it would cost.
Hickey said he feared the decision could lead to animal euthanasia factories, like Triangle Animal Control in Pittsburgh, which until it was closed this month by the Department of Agriculture and its owners cited for cruelty, contracted with some 60 municipalities to take in stray animals, but held them for only 48 hours and offered no adoption services.
In its 2010 decision the Delaware County SPCA gave the community a year's notice that it would become no kill facility and later extended the transition by six months after county officials failed to come up with an alternative.
Delaware County now contracts with Chester County to provide animal control services.
"This means no one will have anywhere to go with these animals," Connie Kondravy, co-founder of the Organization for Responsible Care of Animals, told the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal. "It's going to be like animals running in the streets. It's absolutely insane. I've been in this business 30 years, and I never thought I'd see this day."Lancaster County continues to have a pet overpopulation problem, she said.
"When you have a no-kill shelter, someone else is going to have to kill," she said. "If somebody doesn't step up to the plate, people are just going to be dumping animals right and left."
Kondravy predicted the Humane League will become a "little boutique shelter."
The league said it will try to accommodate as many animals that it can and that creating a "no-kill" community will require "strong licensing laws, spay/neuter initiatives and animal control programs" on the local, county and state levels.
"Pet owners will need to take responsibility for their pets, and pet lovers will need to support life-saving programs throughout the community," the league said.
This is very sad. There is really no such thing as a no-kill shelter. They just get to pick and choose. And if they make a wrong choice and an animal turns out to be too agressive to adopt out, what do they do? They euthanize. Many animals will freeze on the streets this winter.— ngardner- now if only ALL "shelters" would follow suit.. the idea that someone HAS TO KILL is wrong.. the word "euthanize " means mercy killing for sick and injured animals.. what shelters do is KILL for things like "space". It makes me ill to read statements like Connies.. she is obviously part of the problem.. not of the solution.. KILLING IS NOT NECESSARY..— Alice in LALA LAND
- I wish shelters did not have to kill, but there are times that they must. How else can you deal with a dog that has been crushed by a car but is still alive? How else can you deal with a dog that has been trained to be aggressive to everyone, such as some fighting dogs? How else can you deal with a dog that has rabies?
Yes, killing dogs because a shelter lacks space is horrible, but the basic problem is that no-kill shelters often become specialty adoption centers, leaving other rescues and kennels to take on the burden of care for the less likely to be adopted dogs.
— uglyhutch - The fact is that animal control belongs to the government. That they continue to rely on private groups funded by donors to do their dirty work is shameful. When those groups want to stop killing animals they are condemned and that should be unacceptable to any animal lover. All the people that work in shelters and volunteer their time care deeply about animals and want to help save them, not kill them. Once the government has the duty of animal control in their laps, which is where it belongs by law, they may actually start to care about making citizens more responsible pet owners. Laws aren't enforced in this state and shelters are left to deal with problems and aren't properly reimbursed for their animal control contracts. I support any private group for doing what is right for animals by refusing to kill!— Rescue Only
- Hey, Tom Hickey, where is the money supposed to come from for animal control? How about you figure out an answer to that one, and then these shelters would be willing to continue offering the service!— keersf
- Hey, Tom Hickey, where is the money supposed to come from for animal control? How about you figure out an answer to that one, and then these shelters would be willing to continue offering the service!— keersf
- Obviously Alice is very much still in LaLa Land. What do you *think* is going to happen to all the strays Lanc. Co. is not going to take anymore? Do you REALLY think shelter workers WANT to kill animals? Are the unwanted and stray animals going to fall down a rabbit hole and magically find themselves wanted or 'un-lost'? NO! The strays will be shipped to another place where THEY will have to step up the killing because now THEY have no space. And the Lanc. Co. shelter will sit there taking in only the easily adopted, becoming nothing more than a glorified pet shop; no longer a philanthropic organization like its founders intended. And frantic owners of lost dogs will have to look further and further away from home to find their pets, IF they can find them at all! Some dog wardens are already taking strays 75-100 miles from where they were found for lack of open admission shelters. I have lost my respect for any shelter that pulls this stunt because they want the warm-fuzzies for themselves, and don't care enough about animals anymore to do what the ANIMALS need, which is to be provided shelter so they aren't dumped on the street. This shows that Lanc. Co. has no respect for the other shelters who will now have to take up their slack. And don't try to BS me. I've been the kennel manager at an open admission shelter, and I have been the one to decide which one of ten big, plain black dogs dies so that the next big, plain black dog gets a roof over his/her head and a chance for a real home.— Canine Professional
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