DawnWatch: People magazine asks, “Should strays be killed?” — Nov 6 , 2006 edition
October 31st, 2006 11:39 pm by Kelly Garbato———- Forwarded message ———-
From: DawnWatch – news [at] dawnwatch.com
Date: Oct 31, 2006 11:11 AM
Subject: DawnWatch: People magazine asks, “Should strays be killed?” — Nov 6 , 2006 edition
The current, November 6, edition of People Magazine includes an article by Bill Hewitt, headed, “Should Strays Be Killed?” (p99)
The subtitle is “No-kill animal shelters are catching on, but some critics — including PETA — say they can lead to greater cruelty.”
It opens with a discussion of Maddie’s Pet Adoption Center in San Francisco. Then we are told that the no-kill movement is taking off, with New York and Houston both making plans to follow San Francisco’s lead and head towards a system under which “no healthy or treatable animal would be euthanized simply because it didn’t have a home.”
We read about PETA’s resistance to no-kill:
“Although the movement has gathered steam, it has also come in for a fair amount of criticism, with some of the harshest coming from a startling source. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the hard-line animal-rights group, has argued that euthanasia is the most humane way to deal with unwanted animals. ‘It’s not a popular position, because to the average person, no-kill does sound like such a good idea,’ says Daphna Nachminovitch, the director of PETA’s domestic-animal department. ‘But it’s a sad sham.’”
We read, however:
“In New York, which received a $15 million pledge from Maddie’s Fund, the efforts are bearing fruit. Four years ago 76 percent of the animals entering the New York shelter system were euthanized; this year it will be less than 50 percent, largely by promoting adoption and spaying and neutering. ‘This is doable,’ says Jane Hoffman, president of the Mayor’s Alliance for New York City’s Animals. ‘And we’re doing it in one of the most difficult cities in America.’”
The article points out some of the concerns over no-kill, such as that older animals who are not adopted just get warehoused. HSUS’s Kim Intino says:
“If they’re not being adopted and they’re not being euthanized, they’re just sitting there. I’ve visited shelters where the animals have been there upwards of a year or more.”
The piece, however, begins and ends with the tale of a husky who is dog aggressive when on leash, spent five months at the San Francisco no-kill shelter, and finally got adopted by a family with 17 acres of land.
Rich Avanzino of Maddie’s Fund is quoted: “Everybody deserves a chance.”
The lead photo is of Avanzino holding a black cat, with the quote: “Sometimes it takes a while to find a loving home.”
Other photos are of a too crowded “no kill sanctuary in Idaho” which looked like somebody’s house, with about six cats lounging on the kitchen counter. We see a close-up photo of a cat with an eye infection, with the caption: “‘It was worse that death,’ says Dr. Jeff Rosenthal of conditions at the sanctuary.” The photos People Magazine printed do not support the quote.
The article is not on the web, but if you are in the US it is easy to find at your local store, so check it out. Regardless of your stance on no-kill, it opens the door for letters thanking this widely circulated magazine for covering the issue of homeless pets. And it presents a great opportunity to discuss the importance of spay-neuter and to sing the praises of adoption. Please write.
People magazine takes letters at Editor [at] people.com
Always include your full name, address, and daytime phone number when sending a letter to the editor. Remember that shorter letters are more likely to be published. And please be sure not to use any comments or phrases from me or from any other alerts about the article in your letters. Editors are looking for original responses from their readers.
Yours and the animals’,
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at www.DawnWatch.com. To unsubscribe, go to www.dawnwatch.com/cgi-bin/dada/dawnwatch_unsubscribe.cgi. You are encouraged to forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts but please do so unedited — leave DawnWatch in the title and include this tag line.)
—————————————-
Tagged: animals animal+rights action+alerts dawnwatch no-kill+shelters animal+shelters no-kill animal+adoption dogs cats canines felines PETA Maddie’s+Fund
