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Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Rockwall City Council mandates “no kill” status
The city council has made saving the lives of animals official business in Rockwall.
Emma is typical of the cats saved by Rockwall Pets volunteers. She went to a foster home, then was adopted during a fee-waived promotion sponsored by the nonprofit group.
The Rockwall City Council voted unanimously Monday night to make Rockwall a No Kill community. It’s the culmination of a volunteer-driven campaign by Rockwall Pets, an independent nonprofit, to stop the killing of healthy and adoptable animals at the city shelter. Following meetings between Rockwall Pets board members and city management, the issue was sent to the city council.
The council directed city staff to maintain a minimum 90% live outcome rate at the city’s open-admission municipal shelter. The city must now adopt, return to owner, or save the lives of at least 90% of the animals it takes in. The No Kill Advocacy Center established what has become the industry standard, allowing a maximum euthanasia rate of 10% for animals who are gravely ill or irredeemably aggressive.
Using marketing, community relations, and off-site adoption strategies, the volunteers of Rockwall Pets came close to achieving the No Kill goal singlehandedly this year. The live outcome rate for the Rockwall Animal Adoption Center was 86% during April and May, when the nonprofit scrambled to adopt out pets from the suddenly full facility. The city council noted this effort during a discussion period preceding its historic vote.
“I see the 90 percent, but I’m wondering why not 100 percent?” asked councilman David White, getting into the spirit of the discussion. “I wish that extra 10 percent could be cute little Yorkies.”
RockwallPets.com
Hunter is now a certified drug detecting dog after volunteers scrambled to save him when shelter staff threatened euthanasia.
It may take as long as two or three months to retool Rockwall Animal Services to meet the council directive. In the meantime, councilwoman Margo Nielsen asked city staff to present a revised euthanasia selection protocol at the next council meeting. Rockwall Pets hopes this overhauled procedure, coupled with ongoing efforts from volunteers, will begin saving more lives immediately.
“Everyone at Rockwall Pets appreciates the Rockwall City Council for their dedication in making our town the best place to live for people and their pets,” said Rockwall Pets board member Pam Kitkoski. “We're so proud that we have the second city council in Texas to create a No Kill community.”
The Austin City Council was the first in Texas to mandate a No Kill initiative with its vote in March 2010. After launching its 34-point No Kill Implementation Plan, Austin has a year-to-date live outcome rate of 90%, and 93% of its animals were saved during July. As a comparison, Rockwall has year-to-date live outcomes of 77%, with 83% of its animals saved during July.
Volunteers organized by Rockwall Pets have made a huge difference. Just three years ago, prior to volunteer involvement, the city was killing more than half the animals that entered the shelter. Rockwall Animal Services reported live outcomes of only 46% in 2008.
RockwallPets.com
The practice of killing healthy, adoptable dogs like Maverick for minor behavioral issues are a thing of the past in Rockwall following Monday night’s city council vote.
The No Kill initiative kicked into high gear when Rockwall Pets incorporated as a nonprofit in late May. The organization began collecting donations, planning to rehabilitate sick and injured animals. When the shelter suffered a large influx of cats and kittens during June, Rockwall Pets saved the lives of numerous adult cats by sponsoring an impromptu fee-waived adoption program.
The group’s current promotion is “Summer of Love: 60s Power!” which encourages the adoption of pets who’ve spent more than 60 days at the Rockwall shelter.
“We’re so happy we decided to begin taking donations, because all those funds go directly to help the animals,” Kitkoski said. “Most donations to the city shelter are used to buy equipment and other things, and that money must be approved by the city council before it’s spent. At Rockwall Pets we use our donated funds to save lives immediately.”
Following its vote Monday night, the city council has made saving the lives of animals official business in Rockwall.
Source: RockwallPets.com
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Pop icon Peter Max exhibits paintings at the Crescent Hotel this summer
unlisted, humbleness is a word according to a few dictionaries, but I agree that humility is better.
Pop icon Peter Max exhibits paintings at the Crescent Hotel this summer
"humbleness"??????
Um, Mr. Means (reporter), your fourth-grade English teacher is going to smack yo
teannamarcia, anonymous:
Good things happen when caring people get involved.
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manny, anonymous:
good on you Rockwall!
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jackiestabler, anonymous:
That is so awesome and the community should be proud to call Rockwall their home...WONDERFUL
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nkau, anonymous:
http://sbcounty.granicus.com/MediaPla... so glad to see that NKAC is finally following suit with Best Friends and Bill Bruce, in a system that works!
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jerifontenot, anonymous:
Excellent! Garland Pawsibillities is a great group. Garland is a large city and I'm sure if the council got behind them, they could achieve this also I wish Rowlett would follow instead of citing lack of manpower and funding as every excuse.
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savannah142, anonymous:
So awesome. We need to band together and figure out how to make this a reality across Texas.
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as, anonymous:
Rockwall didn't vote to become a "No Kill". A new policy to reach a 90% adoption rate was instituted.
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LindaSaffell, anonymous:
Fine work, Council! Good for you for realizing that good metrics make a big difference and that you can expect people to work hard to SAVE animals. I'm stuck in Maryland and I am considering moving 'cause our legislators can't seem to THINK.
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Alex Bentley, staff:
as, you may have missed this line in the second paragraph: "The No Kill Advocacy Center established what has become the industry standard, allowing a maximum euthanasia rate of 10% for animals who are gravely ill or irredeemably aggressive."
That means, according to Michael Kitkoski of Rockwall Pets, who submitted this release to us, that 90% is in essence no-kill. I can't claim to be an expert in this area, but I would imagine that a true no-kill policy (i.e. 100% of pets are saved, no matter what) is an unrealistic dream at this time, and therefore the advocates have defined "no-kill" as 90%.
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mfb1973, anonymous:
Exciting what the community pulled together to do. I work at a shelter where we are the only one in 5,200 miles, with no rescues in the area. How does Rockwall handle situations when they are full and have to turn away owner give-up pets to avoid people taking things into their own hands (something people in our area a vocally willing to do)? Are there other shelters or rescues in the area? Does Rockwall receive any government funding? Thank you!
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abbekit, anonymous:
mfb1973, the Rockwall Shelter is a municipal open admission shelter so the shelter itself is run by the city. They are required to accept any animal within its jurisdiction. That is why Rockwall Pets began an aggressive adoption program. The shelter now has dozens of foster homes and a number of transfer partners (vet clinics, boarding facilities, Petco) where dogs and cats can be placed rather than the shelter having to kill if they get too full. Rockwall Pets is a non-profit (run by a few volunteers) who not only work to get these pets adopted quickly but also raise funds to help with adoption fees and medical issues. It takes caring individuals to make this happen, not just official rescue groups. Anyone can help.
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And I will not let what I cannot do interfere with what I can do." - Edward Everett Hale
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sweet161900, anonymous:
are your dogs and cats spayed or neutered before adoption? You are to be commended for aggressively searching for approved homes. -what is your capacity for holding dogs? Do you send the dogs that are not adopted to a vet for euthanasia so you don't have to do it at the shelter?
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abbekit, anonymous:
Pets at the Rockwall shelter are spayed/neutered, have first round of shots including rabies, and microchipped. The shelter has 42 dog kennels, 18 cat kennels. Plus now a network of foster homes and transfer partners including Petco, boarding facilities and vet clinics where adoptable pets are kept.
A local vet does come to the shelter weekly to do spay/neuter surgery and give shots at the shelter clinic but does not do the euthanasia. That is done by the shelter staff. However they are no longer allowed to kill animals just because they are "not adopted". In fact in recent years they have not been like other shelters with a timed kill list, animals stay up for adoption until they find new homes which can be for several months.
We do our best to keep the animals socialized with volunteers walking them, playing with them in the large shelter yard or cat playroom, and taking them to offsite adoption events and not just letting them languish in kennels for months.
No doubt it is a work in progress. And Rockwall Pets, as a non-profit animal support group, is working to make the shelter better by encouraging a city review from top to bottom.
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Tangers, anonymous:
My question is directed to the person stating this was a directive toward an "policy" so is this "press release" from a government or an optimisic rescue.
Rockwall didn't vote to become a "No Kill". A new policy to reach a 90% adoption rate was instituted.
I cannot find anything online to indicate a government mandate. I did see several animals on Craigslist from Austin that were on a Euth list, so that doesn't match with no kill either.
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What do you think?