Letter from a shelter manager

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7 responses to “Letter from a shelter manager”

1. Anonymous

   November 11, 2009

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   I like what Nathan Winograd, Executive Director of the Tompkins County SPCA said in his "Diary of a No-Kill Shelter" regarding his view on what constituted a successful shelter. Below is what he told the SPCA staff when he joined them:

   "Success is defined by how many animals go gome alive, period. Of course, we want to make sure they are going into responsible, loving homes – anything less would mean that they would come right back, taking us further away from, not closer to, our goals But finding homes, I emphasised, was the bottom line. And everyone would be measured by results. The rest would fall into place: community support, new resources, and the programs that follow. To get the results, we needed the desire to succeed, the creativity to come up with solutions, and the flexibility to implement them.".

   "Volunteers who work with animals do so out of sheer love. They do not bring home a paycheck. So if a volunteer says, "I can't do it," I can accept that from them. But staff members are paid to save lives. If a paid member of staff throws up their hands and says, "There is nothing that can be done," I may as well eliminate their position and use the money that goes for their salary in a more constructive manner … like hiring temoorary boarding space at a kennel. So .. what are we going to do with the litter of new puppies that just came in and the kennels are full without simply deciding who was going to be killed, that doesn't involve killing any animals?"

   Yeah, the answer is:
   1) Stop the killing;
   2) Stop the killing;
   3) Stop the killing.
   1)

2. Anonymous

   November 11, 2009

   Nathan Winograd, executive director of Tompkins County SPCA says:

   "Is each life precious as every shelter tells us? Only if we believe that at the end of the day, every death of a healthy, treatable sick or injured animal or feral cat is a profound failure. And only if the shelter director acknowledges that the responsibility for the death is his or her failure alone."

   "We did it not with a big shelter, not with buckets of cash, but with a simple, firm commitment to stop the killing and the flexibility to see it through."

3. Anonymous

   November 11, 2009

   They went from excuses to answers, from blaming to solving. Nathan Winograd spent his first 2 months at the TC SPCA apologising for the past actions of the organisation and for how poorly people were treated.

   He said, "People want to save lives. What they don't want to do is help you kill animals."

4. Anonymous

   November 12, 2009

   Sorry I just realised that the 1st set of comments did not get published because it was too long. Here is the resubmission, and my apologies for the now-out-of- sequence inconvenience:
   ————————————————
   My, Kahyein, contrast the above shelter manager's words with those of Nathan Winograd, Executive Director of Tompkins County SPCA, a remarkable, very talented and innovative No-Kill Director:

   Like so many shelters with animal control contracts, the Tompkins County SPCA had relied on the fiction that the only solution to pet overpopulation is the "blue [euthanising] solution."

   Staff would shake their heads and continue to blame "irresponsible owners" for the fact that so many animals would go out the door in barrels rather than in the loving arms of families.

   We created this fiction that there are too many animals and not enough homes. That is the fiction, the lie, which animal shelters have been using to insulate themselves.

   Like so many other shelters, the TC SPCA never once saw the killing as its own failure to find solutions, meet its real mandate to be an animal welfare organisation, or live up to the very real but often ignored shelter credo that "every life is precious." But a new Board of Directors had decided to make a change.

   "The only true limitation to how many or how few lives are saved is the shelter leadership. The biggest stumbling blocks to no-kill are the dinosaurs who have been in this movement for a long time," he says.

5. NoKill

   November 13, 2009

   From the No-Kill Sheltering Newsletter September/October 2006:
   ——————————————
   THE IDEAL ANIMAL SHELTER DIRECTOR

   In the current world of animal sheltering, hiring a director to take a shelter or animal control facility in a new, life-affirming direction requires organisations to broaden the field of candidates. To find the right person, a shelter must recruit for success. And that not only means avoiding candidates with multi-year sheltering experience – which too often means an over-reliance on killing – but rethinking our entire approach to shelter leadership.

   In an era which has historically been dominated by reactionary policies, "sheltering experience" often brings a mindset of "how we have always done it". In other words, it brings an over-reliance on KILLING.

   Too many shelters insist on multi-year experience running shelters or animal control facilities. Unfortunately, this can bring set methods and short-sightedness that prevent innovation in lifesaving, good public relations and increasing community support. It also shrinks the pool of pro-No Kill and qualified applicants, many of whom would otherwise bring a fresh perspective and innovation to shelter operations. It does not take long to learn the basics of running an animal shelter.

6. NoKill

   November 13, 2009

   — continue —

   The information needed to obtain No Kill success is readily available to any director serious about saving lives. If a shelter director failed to create No Kill in their previous community, why should it be believed that he or she will succeed elsewhere? If a shelter director presides over the killing of the majority of shelter animals in their current occupation, why would their performance be different in a new community? Humane societies, SPCAs and animal control agencies throughout the country need to stop rewarding failure by hiring directors who have not had lifesaving success elsewhere.

   To eliminate recycling directors who continue to fail, job descriptions should eliminate the requirement of specific "shelter experience", seeking instead SKILLS (accountability, working in a team environment, leadership, financial responsibility, management, bottom line results) that can be transferred to the shelter environment.

7. NoKill

   November 13, 2009

   — continue —

   Moreover, because the shelter belongs to – and is paid for by – the community, a citizens committee made up of local animal welfare groups and rescue groups (whose interest is first and foremost saving lives) should be created to meet potential candidates and offer their opinion as to the candidate's fitness for the position.

   And, finally, once hired, they should be held to the one result that matters – how many animals go home alive.