The Richmond SPCA says a No Kill Virginia is ’imminent’; it isn’t
This and other news for the week ending April 18, 2025
In other news: Writer, channeling PETA, claims No Kill harms animals; it doesn’t. Shelter reformer wins lawsuit against ex-President of the Board of Animal Services Commissioners. Jell-O launches vegan versions of its iconic desserts. Another week, another pet food recall. A dysfunctional pound is looking for someone new to run the shelter. A rescue group told a dog’s foster parent that he went to a new home, when they had the dog killed. The FDA wants drug makers to phase out animal testing.
These are some of the stories making headlines in animal protection:
Declaring victory before victory has been achieved
In an OpEd, the CEO of the Richmond SPCA claims that Virginia becoming a No Kill state is “an imminent reality. We are on the cusp of guaranteeing a future where every healthy and treatable animal in Virginia’s shelters finds a home.” In a state with PETA and regressive pounds like the Danville Humane Society, this is not honest.
Like it has done for decades, PETA continues to engage in mass killing. In 2024, its staff killed roughly eight out of ten cats, nearly 900 dogs, and 96% of other animal companions, such as rabbits. That’s an average of six animals every day for the entire year. Similarly, the Danville pound killed nearly 70% of all dogs and over 70% of all cats. It also killed 45% of other animals, like rabbits. Healthy and treatable animals entering these facilities do not stand a chance, regardless of the collective statewide total.
There are other reasons. Some Virginia pounds have adopted Human Animal Support Services, telling finders of stray, lost, and abandoned animals to leave them or re-release animals back onto the streets. This ignores animals’ right to rescue, puts them in harm’s way, and renders their deaths invisible.
Moreover, the Richmond SPCA only reports a combined statewide placement rate, which it claims “was 86% – just 4% shy of the nationally-recognized no-kill benchmark of 90%.” The combined placement obscures lower placement rates for individual species. It also double-counts placements, artificially inflating the percentage. For example, if a shelter transfers an animal to another shelter in Virginia and that shelter then adopts out the animal, that should only count as one adoption. The Richmond SPCA analysis counts it as two (once for the transfer and again for the adoption by the second shelter).
Looking at pounds and public shelters and removing in-state transfers to avoid double-counting, only 74% of cats were placed, 81.5% of dogs, and 86.5% of rabbits and other animals. There’s still plenty of animals losing their lives before the Commonwealth can legitimately claim it has achieved — or will “imminently” achieve — No Kill.
Finally, while 90% is certainly worth striving for, it decidedly does not count as No Kill. As I wrote in The No Kill Companion,
Some organizations have argued that “shelters can euthanize up to 10 percent of their animals for reasons of health and temperament, and still be considered ‘no-kill,’” … that argument does not withstand scrutiny. The guideline that about 10% of animals who enter shelters are irremediably suffering was promulgated in 2008 with a minimal data set — less than a handful of communities with placement rates between 92% and 95% — and when many illnesses, like parvovirus, had a poor to grave prognosis for recovery. Even then, placement rates exceeded 90%.
Today, these once-fatal diseases have a good to excellent prognosis. Additionally, understanding of and the ability of shelters to rehabilitate dogs once considered dangerous has vastly improved. As a result, communities across the country are successfully placing 99% of animals. By current veterinary and behavior standards, roughly 1% of animals entering shelters are dangerous dogs and irremediably suffering animals. A shelter must place 100% of healthy and treatable animals or 99% of all animals it takes in.
You cannot judge today’s outcomes by yesterday’s standards.
Claiming to have achieved No Kill statewide in the face of city pounds, like the one in Danville, and death cults, like PETA, is not just dishonest. It can lead to animals losing their lives when people mistakenly believe that it is now safe to surrender an animal to a pound, even though some of those pounds kill seven out of 10 cats and dogs.
The No Kill movement was never about bragging rights; about elevating oneself, one’s group, one’s state over the animals. It was supposed to be first and foremost about those animals; about ending their killing unless they were truly irremediably suffering, which, despite the Richmond SPCA’s claim, is not an “imminent reality” in Virginia. (Though, it can be.)
Writer, channeling PETA, claims a No Kill Virginia would harm animals; it wouldn’t.