Maddie's Fund's history-making No Kill seminar at HSUS Animal Care Expo

On Monday, I'm going to be attending the first day of the HSUS Animal Care Expo in Las Vegas, to see Maddie's Fund's day-long seminar on no-kill sheltering.

Many of the nation's most progressive shelter directors will be speaking -- including Susanne Kogut of the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, an open admission animal control no-kill shelter (which we're told don't exist, although several of them do), and Bonney Brown of the Nevada Humane Society, which along with its partner, Washoe County Regional Animal Services, has made their county one of the safest places in the nation for homeless dogs and cats; they save the lives of just a fraction under 90 percent of them county-wide. And this is the county that includes Reno, one of the regions hit hardest by the foreclosure crisis and economic downturn.

Also speaking will be Betsy Saul, founder of PetFinder.com, a website, community and searchable database of pets in shelters and rescue groups across the country. It was responsible for over a million adoptions in the last year.

I had the honor and pleasure of being asked by Maddies's Fund to help these three extraordinary leaders -- all of whom I've interviewed in the past -- and their fellow speakers prepare for this event. There are around 200 folks from the shelter world already signed up, and more expected.

So I'll be listening to those who are out there every single day in the trenches of our animal shelters and our communities doing the hard work to make a No Kill Nation a reality stand up in front of hundreds of their peers at an event presented by HSUS and tell them this: Despite everything you've heard and been told, yes, guaranteeing adoption for every treatable or healthy dog and cat in your community actually is possible.

I think that's  worth putting up with casinos, the country's worst airport, smoking allowed in public places, and the general flash and sleeze of Vegas for a day.

Comments

[Sue Cosby]

Although I had been planning to go I chose to stay home and save money for my dog's surgery this year. It would have been interesting to see if the rest of the conference maintained the same message as the one day seminar. Historically it has been a mixed bag.

You'll note that although you did say it was a seminar on "no kill sheltering" the words "no kill" are not being used. The speakers might use them but there will be nothing from HSUS using those words. The HSUS Expo is where the famous recording on the No Kill Advocacy's website came from: "We are not killing them ... and that's why I hate that term no kill.(Applause)"

Last year featured an hour+ long rant against no kill by peta and a speaker who - when asked a direct question about how many animals her shelter euthanized annually said something like "We don't talk about that. We don't make that information public. People don't understand why we euthanize so we can't share that kind of information."

[Christie]

Maddie's Fund doesn't use the "no kill" description for shelters, only communities. They are, or were, using "adoption guarantee" for individual agencies. But they definitely do, and will at this seminar, talk about No-Kill as a goal for communities -- and the entire country, which is its stated mission, to create a "No Kill Nation."

The history of distinguishing between individual organizations and entire communties is long, and it's unrelated to the greater issue you're discussing. But this is a Maddie's Fund event, AT the HSUS Expo. Which I think says a lot about where the world is going, regardless of what HSUS or anyone else intends or says at the rest of the Expo.

[Sue Cosby]

Yes I agree the world is heading in that direction and I welcome it. I am still frustrated that it takes dragging people kicking and screaming and that's probably because I've been one of the ones doing the dragging amongst my kicking colleagues. Gets tiring.

I have high hopes. I believe the end result of is inevitable. Want faster!

[pitbull friend]

Wow! Can't wait to hear about it. HSUS continues to madden me with Pacelle's blog saying all the right things about no-kill and his employees doing many of the wrong things. Eventually, though, these baby steps are going to add up.

[Gina Spadafori]

The world's worst airport? GF, it's not even close to the worst airport in the Western U.S. You're just not flying enough.