Plan B: No Kill Revolution

Screenshot from video below.

“It was like the sun had been behind a cloud for years and it came out.” (shelter worker/manager above who changed how they did things)

I visited the ASPCA website to see what they were discussing and noticed that they had appointed a long term senior employee Matthew E. Bershadker as their new President and CEO. I decided to see what people thought of this appointment and perhaps predictably quickly ended up at Nathan Winograd’s website where Mr Winograd criticises the short-sightedness of the appointment.

You may have heard of Nathan Winograd. He is the no kill advocate. He believes that all animal shelters in the USA can be true no kill and not pay lip service to it. He believes it takes someone who can think out of the box to achieve change away from the systematic, routine of mass euthanasia. He believes that there is enough good will amongst the American people to accommodate and re-home all the unwanted animals. It just takes some imagination and a Plan B to make it work.

Nathan’s criticisim of the new President and CEO of ASPCA is that he is a company man who lacks the vision necessary to lead this large organisation, with $150m yearly funding through donations, to one that is more keenly focused on no kill and less focused on commercial success. Fund raising is essential, of course, but that is a system that can be set up and run like clockwork. The challenge is preserving the lives of shelter animals.

“Empty suits” is the phrase Nathan uses to describe unimaginative company-style managers. He labels Mr. Bershadker an empty suit with a bias towards inertia. He is disappointed with the appointment.

I don’t know enough about the ASPCA to comment. However, you don’t need to know much to recongnise the madness of killing millions of unwanted cats and dogs in America which is a nation of animal lovers by and large. What Nathan Winograd says is that it does not have to happen. There need not be an acceptance of it. Some shelters have changed and others are asking how they did it.

Mr Winograd was involved in the making of the excellent video on this page. It charts the career of the founder of the ASPCA, Henry Bergh, and how the organization has diverged from is founding principles. I’d recommend that it is watched to the end.

”I hate to think what will befall this Society when I am gone.” – Henry Bergh

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Comments

Plan B: No Kill Revolution — 4 Comments

Sigh... on June 3, 2013 at 8:48 am said:
Your psychotic and delusional “No-Kill” religion (conceived of, based on, and fueled by your own relentless insecurities and fear of death) is the DIRECT CAUSE of the most heinous, widespread, and longest lasting animal abuse in the history of humanity. But you REFUSE to accept the FACT that YOU are causing it.
There’s far worse things than death. Anyone need only read the following link if they think saving more unwanted animals’ lives is going to give them a life worth living.
notesfromadogwalker.com/2012/07/21/how-i-failed-as-a-rescuer-lessons-from-a-sanctuary/
What do you think happens in EVERY town or county that enacts “no kill” policies? As soon as those shelters are full (from the influx of unwanted pets from surrounding towns, counties, and states; from people dumping their unwanted pets into the nearest “no kill” zones; because they don’t have either the money, balls, nor strength of heart enough to do the right thing and have their unwanted animal euthanized), then people just start dumping them everywhere. Back to square one, with even MORE animals suffering to death.
When are you people going to finally wake-up from your psychotic bliss of self-induced ignorance?
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- Michael on June 3, 2013 at 10:33 am said:
  Sigh…more sighs and Woody please stop ranting. No Kill is possible and it has been proved it is possible. TNR can work if carried out over the long term and consistently. Better cat ownership is a possibility and we don’t to kill cats in large numbers. You are in a minority Woody and you are extremely tiresome.
  You have had your say on this matter thanks to my generosity. If you make another comment it has to be extremely polite otherwise it goes in the bin (trash can).
  It is you who is psychotic and delusional but because you are psychotic and delusional you don’t realise you are psychotic and delusional 😉
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Sigh... on June 3, 2013 at 6:33 am said:
Mr. Wino-grad must be in a financial mess if he can’t even do simple math to balance his checkbook.
He would have realized that you can’t cram 150 million (and exponentially growing) excess cats into the homes that already house the 86 million cats. All cat-lickers’ homes are already filled to the brim with cats. Many of them facing cat-hoarding criminal charges for animal-abuse when found out.
“Psychotic” and “Delusional” would be a good words to describe him (and anyone who believes him or believes like him).
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- Michael on June 3, 2013 at 6:47 am said:
  Thanks for the first comment on this page even if it is a bit cruel. You use the language of Mr Woodsman. I think you are wrong as there are cat shelters were genuine no kill takes place. No cats are killed at these shelters. As I understand Winograd’s theory it is possible to stop killing cats if animal rescue organisations and shelters think out of the box and tap into the enormous capacity of Americans to absorb the unwanted cats.
  Of course, the supply side problem also needs to be tackled. Why can’t the shelters do something in respect of that too? Why can’t they set up courses and seminars to educate people to neuter their cats promptly and to be better and more responsible cat owners?
  And also the commercial aspects of killing cats at shelters need to be dealt with. Dead cats are a resource and shelters should not be treating euthanised cats as a commercial resource.
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