The word ‘murder’ is so unpleasant, that when it comes to the approximate 12 million healthy cats and dogs being snuffed out every year, society has a convenient euphemism for the act: euthanasia. Webster’s Dictionary defines euthanasia as ‘the intentional causing of a painless and easy death to a patient suffering from an incurable or painful disease.’ Many animals are put down for sickness, injury or posing a danger, but the majority are murdered (let’s call it for what it is) because there are not enough shelter facilities or homes.
According to the gut wrenching stories of animal control workers doing the murdering, workers swear the animals know their terrible fate. Worse, animals suffer agonizing deaths when being crudely gassed with carbon monoxide still used in some facilities. Recently in Georgia, eyewitnesses described the horror of watching dogs and cats who cried out in terror and ran around frantically inside the gas chambers while they were slowly suffocating.
Because there is something so fundamentally wrong with this, cities around the country are trying desperately to go ‘no kill’ and stop the madness. Reno is joining the cause, saying yes to ‘no kill’ with the Nevada Humane Society (NHS) taking the lead.
‘All life is precious and we have a responsibility to do better for healthy or treatable homeless animals than death,’ says Bonney Brown, NHS’s Executive Director. ‘As a community, Washoe County is already doing quite well,’ she says. ‘Last year the community – all the organizations helping animals – saved roughly 65 percent of the animals coming into Washoe County Animal Services or NHS. Our goal is to get that number up over 90 percent.’
How will Reno accomplish this? NHS’s Board of Directors began the process by hiring a consultant from No Kill Solutions (nokillsolutions.com), which resulted in a nation wide search for an Executive Director and Brown’s subsequent hiring. Further consultant recommendations are forthcoming. In the meantime, Brown’s first priority is to involve the community. ‘Actually, our goal is not just for NHS to be no kill, but to create a no kill community; to provide a safety net for every homeless dog or cat in Washoe County. This is not something that will just happen inside the walls of Nevada Humane Society’s shelter. It’s a community-wide goal,’ she says.
To galvanize the community, NHS is working with Washoe Animal Control and several rescue groups to implement programs where volunteers can really make a difference in achieving the no kill goal. The group will ramp up all of their programs where even more volunteers will walk dogs, groom and play with cats, provide foster homes, trap feral cats for spay/neuter, staff events and off-site adoptions, design posters or help with administrative work. They are also hoping to dramatically increase adoptions, and spaying and neutering, in the community. The coalition will continue to encourage the community to adopt (versus buy) animals.
Even Truckee’s Humane Society (HSTT), which has been a no kill organization from its beginnings, has pitched in by bringing back animals from Reno’s euthanasia lists and preparing them for adoption. Stephanie Hiemstra, HSTT Executive Director, says, ‘We see so many wonderful animals in Reno that are euthanized daily simply because there is no place for them to go. The overpopulation problem in this country is such a tragic epidemic and we are excited about NHS’s commitment to become no kill.’
NHS shares a new facility with Washoe County Animal Services, where up to 500 animals, including Guinea pigs and reptiles are awaiting their forever homes. They are open daily from 10 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. and on Wednesdays and Saturdays until 6:30 p.m.
Contact: Nevada Humane Society, located at 2825 Longley Lane, Reno, 775-283-5463, or nevadahumanesociety.org.
