Frequently Asked Questions - convince
Killing animals in shelters has been the standard for over 100 years now, and it's ingrained deeply in many people's minds, especially in animal welfare. Even though everyone loves the idea of a No Kill community, they find it incompatible with the way things work now. They're absolutely right! The reason No Kill can succeed is because many things will change for Indianapolis to become a No-Kill community!
Change is inherently worrisome to many people. Some people's jobs depend on the continuation of apathy and the killing of animals. While this may be surprising, institutional animal sheltering in many communities has almost nothing to do with animal welfare. Claiming that a "humane" death is better than being alive is an absurd argument.
The road to becoming a No Kill community isn't magic or junk science. It's been done successfully in various communities from the enormous San Francisco, to Reno, NV, to Tompkins Co, NY, to Charlottesville, VA...all very different, with different animal problems, but a single proven solution, the No Kill Equation!
The transformation into a No-Kill community involves a change in philosophy. Part of this change mandates that effort be directed to increase adoption of animals from shelters that would have killed, including off-site adoption, more public-friendly adoption hours and settings, more reliance on foster care and rescue groups. Shelter intake is reduced by promoting more low- or no-cost spay/neuter resources and providing resource to enable people to keep, rather than abandon or surrender animals.
Make no mistake -- this is not easy. It requires a lot of work from many individuals and organizations. It's a transformative process of ideas, thoughts, policies and systems within the animal welfare community.
The short answer is that you commit to stopping the killing animals. It's a transformation of ideals, and a process, not a quick fix gimmick. Fortunately, the process has been pioneered and proven in other cities. Now it is documented by Nathan Winograd, the nation's most recognized name in no kill, in what he calls the No Kill Equation.
When the commitment is made to stop killing animals, the energy and creativity of the communities goes into making it work...finding any means possible to save a life. Taking an animals life is only done as a very last resort, and only on a small percentage of critically ill, injured or vicious animals.
Making a community into a No Kill community is no more costly than a killing community. Impounding, housing, killing and disposing of the bodies of animals isn't inexpensive. By IACC's own estimates, it costs $88 to impound, house and either place for adoption of kill a stray animal (no estimate is available for owner surrendered animals). Nationally, the average cost for the housing and killing is about $100 per animal.
Animal welfare in a large city like Indianapolis is composed of many facets. Because people have been desiring solutions for decades that allow animals to live, literally dozens of private animal welfare organizations have been created. Most people recognize the name of the Humane Society of Indianapolis, but don't realize there are many others who have been working very effectively to fill-in some very large gaps in the current animal welfare world. We maintain a list of organizations that play a role in the Indianapolis animal welfare world. These organizations already provide some essential pieces of the No Kill Equation. Our list is a partial list, as there are dozens of other organizations that fill very specialized niches too. An exhaustive list of Indiana animal welfare organizations can be found at the impressive Indiana-PAW Super Database.
Consider that the taxpayers of Indianapolis are already funding a very large system that handles and kills tens of thousands of animals per year. Why is it hard to imagine that the same effort and tax money could not simply fund a system that saves tens of thousands of animals per year?
