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JaBrenna Neff
Jennifer Courtney
The No-Kill Initiative
23rd september 2015

The No-Kill Initiative

I have chosen to write about the Best Friends animal organization. This organization does
a lot of amazing programs and it made it very hard to pick just one! I have personally worked
with this organization and I love them! They help shelters all over the nation and help push
animal right laws so they become possible! The program I am going to talk about today is their
No-Kill Initiative. In this program they help the community in many ways. They support neuter
and spay surgeries, promote adoption, and put on life saving events (such as major pet adoption
events).
Best Friends has a local program called NKUT (No Kill Utah). And within the state of
Utah many rescues and shelters got together and helped the state reach an amazing 91.6% save
rate for dogs alone last year! That made Utah a No-Kill state! I truly love this organization and I
plan on volunteering at their big adoption event on October 3rd! I love watching the dogs and
cats find their forever home and see the joy that it brings others!
I want you to picture a situation, and then I want you to experience both sides of the
situation. When I was 16, my brother bought a Staffordshire Pit-Bull Terrier named Hemi. Hemi
was a beautiful red coloring with a wide chest with a white spot in the middle, with puppy-dog
eyes that never quite stopped begging for more. More attention, more love, more toys. You
couldnt help but love her. She had earned her name because when she slept, her deep snoring
had the resonance of a muscle car engine.

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Im not sure what went through my brothers mind when he bought her; maybe he figured
she was cool, or that she was sweet. Maybe he liked the idea of owning a Pit-Bull. Whatever it
may have been that was going through his head, he got her from the website KSL and the next
day picked her up for 75 dollars. 75 dollars for a loving, lifelong companion that had no history
of harming anyone. The reason the previous owners gave him for letting her go was that the
community was scared, and they felt she was in danger there, they couldnt let her anywhere for
fear of others. Let me repeat, not for fear of what she would do, but fear of what others would do.
Im sure my brother promised them that he would take care of her, that he genuinely thought she
was a good dog. The only problem with this story is that my brother has always irrationally done
things on a whim. A practiced dog-owner he was not.
He had a girlfriend with a daughter that he was living with in a town 40 miles away from
where I lived, and he learned very quickly that apartments are not dog-friendly, so he snuck her
in and hid her. When he was caught, he was given the chance to remain at the apartment, but
wasnt allowed to keep her. It was either keep her and be homeless for a time, or reach out to my
mother and step-dad for a place for her to be.
I assume then that he told them it would be temporary, and in a way it was.They must
have fought back, but my mom has a soft heart and took her in. At this point, there was only one
place to put her, and that was outside. That also meant that I was the only one who spent any
amount of time with her, and over the two months I did, I came to know exactly what my brother
had done.
I was going to school, my parents were working; nobody stayed home. How could she
have possibly got the attention she needed? Our only option was to have her chained to a post
that was partially shaded, we had no fences around our entire property, she couldnt roam. Her

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life for 2 months was to sit in hundred degree weather on hay and dirt in partial shade with bowls
of water that attracted bugs and mice, and food that we frequently found tipped over, because she
had learned early on that I came out to feed her. So in an attempt to have me come out more
often she would do the only thing she could by tipping over her bowls. Humane isnt exactly a
word I give for a situation involving a dog that had done nothing to warrant any of this.
After two months, my brother came to get her, and promised us that he was taking her to
a better place and we wouldnt need to worry about her. He specifically named the people who
took her. But as it turns out, that was a lie. She went to a shelter. He chose to take the easy way
out, and who can blame him? We will never know what happened to her exactly. But with how
full shelters get, we will always worry that she got put down and never found her forever family.
The Very Word Shelter Has A Meaning That Involves Safety And Protection. But we
are wrong, wrong in lots of cases. Unless a shelter is No-Kill, there are no guarantees that it lives
up to its name. You see, No-Kill means that unless societys best has attempted to help an animal
with issues that make it impossible to assimilate into every-day life, unless the animal is near
death, unless it is better to just end the pain, the shelter WILL adopt out that animal. A No-Kill
shelter follows a strict 90% policy for adopting the animal out. They also have correct
spay/neuter programs which helps keep the amount of homeless dog population under control. A
No-Kill shelter means that dogs like Hemi have a chance.
In the article Thou Shalt Not Kill by Jennifer Lucich, it speaks of how many shelters
made it a goal to become an official No -Kill Shelter. And many people are willing to donate to
the cause. Maddies Cause has already donated $33 MILLION, and this is to help ALL shelters
achieve this goal.The No-Kill movement isnt moving as fast as they had originally hoped but it

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is growing. In Utah there is a group, No More Homeless Pets, that has a total of 28 groups
combined that all are No-Kill and get together to do adoption events and education classes.

In the article Effects of Phenotypic Characteristics on the Length of Stay of Dogs at

Two No Kill Animal Shelters. we learn more about two shelters in New York that are No-Kill
already. They went on and did a simple experiment, taking data from adoptions to see which age,
breeds, color, sex, and size adopt out the quickest. I have a graph below showing some of the
data they collected.

(LOS." Graph. Effect of Phenotypic characteristics.)

No surprise, the younger ones adopt out faster, but they also state in the report that little
to no dogs lasted longer than 182 days in the shelters. So these No-Kill shelters really do work

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on giving all animals the much needed second chance. Another surprising fact is the giant breeds
got adopted out the quickest! Youd think it would be the tiny poodles or fashion breeds, but that
wasnt the case with this article. Over all the paper is an excellent read and highly recommended.
It was super interesting!
There are a bunch of reasons why No-Kill Shelters are good; on Maddies Fund website
(the very same organization who donated that large chunk of money!) it shares a bunch of
reasons on why these shelters should be supported. One reason they have on their site is because
it actually boost adoptions. Many people are now looking for No Kill shelters and will come in
just because of the No-Kill policy! It also attracts and retains more volunteers. Take it from me, a
student who has worked in the veterinary field for three years: no matter how hard you try, you
get attached to some of those animals. And coming to work and seeing the friend you loved and
put hours of work into dead or coming in and seeing they have suffered and you have no other
choice but to put them down with some dignity. Putting down all of those animals, it takes a toll.
And at a shelter it isnt better. You fall for these animals and you walk them daily, you feed them,
and then no one comes to get them..and you know their time is coming. And then it does that
baby you took pictures of and laughed at is walked down a hall and you hold them tight. You tell
them you love them and you give them all the love and kisses you can muster without breaking
down. And then they take their last breath, right there. Then you break down and you feel like a
monster. Not many humans can endure that for long. Its against our nature.
I personally have worked in clinics, shelters, sanctuaries, and rescues. And it never gets
easier, seeing innocent animals die. Having a list every day of those who ran out of time.
Perfectly healthy and happy animals killed for their space. After days, weeks, and months of
seeing this horror it kills you inside. You never forget the faces on terror. Your nightmares consist

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of grabbing the dog on the third row and bringing them to the room. Soon enough you become
numb, you literally teach yourself not to care. You have to, there is no other way to make it. But
even growing numb doesnt prevent the breaking down that happens. The crying, the screaming,
and the want to hit something. The anger and hatred for yourself. But you have to remember why
you are in the field and take the good with the bad. You get up, and do it all over again the next
day. Can you see why no-kill shelters attract volunteers? Why they are better? No human being
can be put through that every day without ill effects.
The last reason I will share is it will get the shelter more funding. Since there are so many
grants and organizations going towards to No-Kill Movement. Find out more about these reasons
and other facts of their website (http://www.maddiesfund.org/ten-reasons-to-consider-nokill.htm) In the article A Dogs Life (cover Story) we see that more and more of American
households have at least one pet. In 2008 it is estimated that we spent $43 BILLION on just our
pets alone. Pets here in America live just a good of life as their humans! It is insane what lengths
some pet owners will go to for their furbaby.
And in the last article, Rescue Me, it tells of some good ideas and steps if you are
thinking of adoption. One step they share is DON'T assume that a pet store or breeder is the best
option if you want a puppy or a specific breed...Whether you're dreaming of a Maltese or a mastiff, there are
rescue groups dedicated to nearly every breed. To find adoptable dogs and cats in your area, visit aspca.org/adopt or
petfinder.com; you can search by breed, age, and gender, and set filters to find animals that are good with children
and other pets. (Barley, Lisa. "Rescue Me." Vegetarian Times 417 (2014): 48-51. Academic Search

Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.). There

are so many reasons why you should go out and adopt versus

go to a breeder. And you may be surprised about how many purebred dogs are in shelters.
Those expensive, hundreds of dollars, cute animals find their way to the shelter too! And the
bonus is they are cheaper there, they come all vaccinated, sometimes even micro chipped, and

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usually spayed or neutered. If you do the math...all of that being done and knowing you saved
another life, not only does it save you big bucks but it gives you the warm fuzzy feeling of doing
something good. So dont shop, adopt!
I want you to understand that this is a necessary part of our culture, which denounces
ignorance and is constantly blaring opinions and arguments, misguided as some are. And if you
want to learn more about Best Friends Animal Society or any of their other programs or a rescue
near you, please visit bestfriends.org! Do it and save a life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:
http://bestfriends.org/our-work/no-kill-initiatives
http://www.maddiesfund.org/ten-reasons-to-consider-no-kill.htm
Articles:
Lucich, Jennifer. "Thou Shalt Not Kill." E: The Environmental
Magazine 16.3 (2005): 14-16. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.
Brown, William P., Janelle P. Davidson, and Marion E. Zuefle.
"Effects Of Phenotypic Characteristics On The Length Of Stay Of Dogs At Two No
Kill Animal Shelters." Journal Of Applied Animal Welfare Science 16.1 (2013): 2-18.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.
Sturtevant, Andy. "A Dog's Life. (Cover Story)." Publishers Weekly
255.35 (2008): 23-25. Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.

Barley, Lisa. "Rescue Me." Vegetarian Times 417 (2014): 48-51.

Academic Search Premier. Web. 19 Sept. 2015.