Michigan Is Now A "No-Kill" Shelter State. Here's What That Means.

[catbyte]

by Michelle Spies

Euthanasia in shelters is not something we really want to have to think about. Thankfully today we’ve got some positive news in that department! The Michigan Pet Fund Alliance recently announced that their state is now a “No-Kill” state for shelter animals.

The MPFA defines “No-Kill” as a practice for animal shelters where euthanasia is only considered an “act of mercy,” “reserved only for cats and dogs that are too sick/injured to be treated or too aggressive to be suitably rehomed.”

In order to be considered a “No-Kill” state, 90% of animals taken into shelters had to have been either adopted, returned to their original families, or transferred to another shelter or rescue organization. Michigan shelters collectively reached that 90% goal in 2018.

The MPFA started tracking statistics in 2009 from annual reports animal shelters submitted to the Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development.

Initially, approximately 120,000 dogs and cats were being euthanized in Michigan shelters every year. Now, according to the MPFA, that number is now just over 13,000. That’s a difference of 107,000 animals!

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https://iheartcats.com/michigan-is-now-a-no-kill-shelter-state-heres-what-that-means/

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I'm liking my state moore and more. 13,000 is still too many, but it's progress.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. So-called "No kill" shelters routinely

pass off the animals to be euthanized to another shelter. And I see that it's actually codified in the description above.

I'd want to know how many animals are passed to shelters in a nearby state.

I admire the "no-kill" sentiment, but the reality is that there are far, far more cats and dogs than humans available to adopt.

About 15 years ago I was doing volunteer work for a shelter in my city, and they had a piece of information connected to that. It said (and I can't recall the specifics, so I'm winging it a bit here) that for all cats and dogs to be adopted, each family we need to take in seven cats and four dogs, or maybe it was three dogs and four cats. Whatever the precise number, it was well above what most families wanted to have, even assuming every family was happy to have both cats and dogs, and not a single family lived in a place that didn't allow pets.

So the question to ask is: where did those 107,000 animals go? I really doubt that every single one was adopted in the state of Michigan.

[spinbaby]

2. Ultimately the solution is spaying and neutering

I volunteer at an organization that provides low-cost spaying and neutering for cats. All it takes is one unspayed cat and before you know it there are dozens.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Yep. All shelters require their

animals be spayed or neutered before adoption.

Another problem with "no-kill" shelters is if they're full, they don't accept any new animals.

[Fla Dem]

4. I am just floored at the number of annually euthanized cats and dogs.

So happy with the initiative Michigan is taking. It would appear Delaware became the first "No Kill" state this past August. Still in Michigan 13,000 animals euthanized this past year. If every state reached that level, that's 650,000 animals in the just the US every year.

Barthe, 49, also has three cats, Hennessy, Molly and Loki. Five of her animals she got from the Brandywine Valley SPCA and one she got from the Delaware Humane Association.

Enthusiasm for saving animals like hers is one reason Delaware became the country's only no-kill state in July.

The designation came from the Best Friends Animal Society at its annual conference. The nonprofit tracks kill shelters throughout the country and hopes to have all states be no-kill by 2025. Delaware is the first to reach this status.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/08/11/delaware-officially-nations-first-no-kill-state-shelter-animals/1983112001/