Nathan, since the pandemic I have literally devoted my life to helping shelter animals. I do everything I possibly can--fostering, posting, volunteering. I'd foster two at a time if I didn't have dogs and cats of my own. And the situation gets worse by the day, as your article explains. \Everyone loves to blame it on the people who "never stayed home before and got bored, so they went to the shelter for a companion--then they went back to work, so goodbye companionship." Your explanation makes more sense albeit more nefarious.
But what I'd like you to help me figure is, what can we do about this? I tried contacting Gavin Newsom last April, begging him to consider a regulatory body to oversee the obviously corrupt shelter panorama (some are still keeping pandemic hours) and attaching data of 7 local shelters, all of which were known for abuse and/or unnecessary killing; he ignored me & when I begged to talk to a staff member, who might take it seriously, the person I spoke to stated it was not the Governor's bailiwick because shelters are run by cities/counties, yada yada yada. Not a moment of consideration of what was happening.
Do you have any suggestions? Please if you can think of anything that could help, I would be so grateful. I think the biggest accomplishment would be to get it to all the local newspapers, right away, and I intend to do that. What do you think of a petition on Change.Org? I know there must be more we can do.
Please feel free to reach out to the women who spearheaded reform in those other cities, as they can also be a source of encouragement and guidance.
As to state-level reform, the legislative landscape in California is very difficult because of one-party rule. Given the immense opposition by the regressive “shelter” establishment and their allies, including Best Friends, the ASPCA, the National Animal Control Association, and others, and the legislature's deferral to their (admittedly false) “expertise,” substantive bills are being killed in committee. A substantive bill is not likely to pass, especially if there are any costs associated with it. For example, our efforts to pass a simple bill requiring pre-killing notification using free shelter management software or software already used by local pounds died in committee last year. Even though there were no real costs and documented savings, the California Animal Welfare Association, an industry lobbying group, and their allies falsely put the cost at over $100 million annually and it quickly died without a hearing.
Nathan, since the pandemic I have literally devoted my life to helping shelter animals. I do everything I possibly can--fostering, posting, volunteering. I'd foster two at a time if I didn't have dogs and cats of my own. And the situation gets worse by the day, as your article explains. \Everyone loves to blame it on the people who "never stayed home before and got bored, so they went to the shelter for a companion--then they went back to work, so goodbye companionship." Your explanation makes more sense albeit more nefarious.
But what I'd like you to help me figure is, what can we do about this? I tried contacting Gavin Newsom last April, begging him to consider a regulatory body to oversee the obviously corrupt shelter panorama (some are still keeping pandemic hours) and attaching data of 7 local shelters, all of which were known for abuse and/or unnecessary killing; he ignored me & when I begged to talk to a staff member, who might take it seriously, the person I spoke to stated it was not the Governor's bailiwick because shelters are run by cities/counties, yada yada yada. Not a moment of consideration of what was happening.
Do you have any suggestions? Please if you can think of anything that could help, I would be so grateful. I think the biggest accomplishment would be to get it to all the local newspapers, right away, and I intend to do that. What do you think of a petition on Change.Org? I know there must be more we can do.
Start local, with the 30 free guides from The No Kill Advocacy Center: https://nokilladvocacycenter.org/toolkit.
Here are additional resources:
- An article (and book) discussing how to successfully reform a shelter, using the case study of a pound in Alabama: https://www.nathanwinograd.com/saving-lives-in-rocket-city/
- An article (and book) discussing similar success in reforming a different shelter: https://www.nathanwinograd.com/nevertheless-they-persisted/
Please feel free to reach out to the women who spearheaded reform in those other cities, as they can also be a source of encouragement and guidance.
As to state-level reform, the legislative landscape in California is very difficult because of one-party rule. Given the immense opposition by the regressive “shelter” establishment and their allies, including Best Friends, the ASPCA, the National Animal Control Association, and others, and the legislature's deferral to their (admittedly false) “expertise,” substantive bills are being killed in committee. A substantive bill is not likely to pass, especially if there are any costs associated with it. For example, our efforts to pass a simple bill requiring pre-killing notification using free shelter management software or software already used by local pounds died in committee last year. Even though there were no real costs and documented savings, the California Animal Welfare Association, an industry lobbying group, and their allies falsely put the cost at over $100 million annually and it quickly died without a hearing.