Skip to main content

I only give to No Kill organizations


I would never tell anyone how they should donate their hard earned money. But, I can't resist blogging about an incident that happened here at the Lynchburg Humane Society.

A nice woman came in to our facility with an arm full of towels, papers and some food. She approached our counter with her checkbook out and asked if we were No Kill. When the front desk staff member said no, but we are working towards becoming No Kill. The woman loudly said, "well, I only give to No Kill organizations." She closed up her checkbook and left.

That got me thinking. Why wouldn't you give to an organization that was in the process of becoming No Kill. This is the time when those types of organizations need the support from the community the most. It is expensive to create a No Kill community. It is much easier to raise funds when you are No Kill but why not get on the wagon early to help bring about these types of efforts?

Unfortunately, this person didn't allow us to explain anything to her but maybe there are others out there feeling the same way.

The funny thing is that many No Kill organizations are private groups that don't kill their animals but the community they are in or service, is far from No Kill. You have to look at what is happening to save ALL the animals in their county or city.

The Lynchburg Humane Society is a private humane society that provides pound services so we are both in this community. We take in all lost pets from the city of Lynchburg and owned animals from city and county residents. We don't get to pick and choose the animals we end up with. When we say that 83% of the animals make it out of our facility alive, that means for the entire city of Lynchburg.

To better illustrate my point lets look at Henrico County, Virginia. There are a few rescue No Kill groups in that area that service this community yet, only 49% of the animals are making it out alive from their local animal control facility.

And just so others don't get upset, I am not bashing no kill rescue organizations. They do great work and many work collaboratively with their local pounds. I was a part of a No Kill organization that limited it's intake, that was working with animals control towards a No Kill city in Richmond, VA.

I just think you should judge organizations on the work they do, not how they "classify" themselves. What are they doing for the animals in their community?

So, we aren't No Kill but I feel we are doing great work with very limited resources and we need the community's continued help to be able to reach our goal where no savable animals are killed in Lynchburg.

How do we do it? We really need to increase adoptions, donations, volunteer help, altered animals and foster home providers. We need everyone to give us a boost so we can save more animals and make Lynchburg a No Kill Community.


If you would like to see how other counties are doing in your area, please go to the following link and select the year you want the stats for and the organization's name. (note: Amherst Animal Control's numbers are not up on the site due to a glitch in the system. You may call them directly if you wish to know their numbers)

http://www.virginia.gov/vdacs_ar/cgi-bin/Vdacs_search.cgi

Comments

  1. AnonymousSeptember 30, 2010 at 8:10 PM

    Hey guys,
    I totally agree with you. Nobody knows what you guys go through on a daily basis for the animals. Yes, a no kill shelter would be great but, what happens to the animals when they are not saved by you? They die or stay in the homes that may abuse them and do whatever to the animals. At LHS these animals are given a fighting chance. They are not left on the street. I adopted my dog Beretta from LHS. I would like to thank them for giving my buddy a fighting chance. LHS needs volunteers badly. Not just money. I volunteer there and would love to see you there. This would help people with a better understanding of how hard it is to become a no kill shelter. We are working very hard to reach our goal. We need support from our community to obtain this goal. Please understand our every effort to save animals. The shelter workers become very close to the animals. It is very hard when they have to put an animal down. It is not a very easy thing. Please help the LHS reach our goal!!!!! I love the staff and lives saved by LHS

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousOctober 1, 2010 at 12:09 AM

    In response to Margie MacCormick Ion's comment:
    The article does not state that "the woman bellied up at the counter with her checkbook", as you report in your comment. However, the article states that "she approached our counter with her checkbook out and asked if we were No Kill." If you are going to complain about the way someone is portrayed, then make sure you read carefully first. People, let's not look for ways to be offended, but rather assume positive intent and consider overall tone. The Society's goal was to communicate a need and educate the community. Thank you to those who give so much of their time and energy to save the animals!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IS LHS UNDER ATTACK?

In 2013 the Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS) ended the year with a 92% save rate for the animals in our care, the highest year end figure since we began down the path to No Kill.   We were able to reduce the number of cats we took in by 294, compared to 2012, due primarily, we believe, to our spay/neuter efforts.   YOU made this possible.    We believe the Lynchburg Humane Society is about to be embroiled in a controversial attack by another humane organization because of all the great work we are doing.   We want our community and our supporters to know why and to be informed about this controversy because without you we could not do what we are doing.   You all are partners in our efforts.     This is long so please hang in there and read it in its entirety because there is important information throughout that you probably don’t know.    In April PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent us a letter askin...
49 comments
Read more

They know what they know so don’t give them the facts.

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more...
15 comments
Read more

When the tables turn

It is not unknown for people to be scared of dogs. Animal shelters throughout history were built on that fear. Dog catchers were employed to capture packs of nuisance dogs that were roaming and pestering communities. Pounds were built on the edge of towns near the dump to remove stray dogs from towns and in most cases, destroy them to prevent public endangerment.   Fast forward to now and shelters are referred to as centers, instead of strays we say adoptable, we don’t say animals we say pets, and dogs are family members. Getting a dog without a home into a family is a community effort and #adoptdontshop is a movement.  So how strange it is that the COVID-19 pandemic has made us fear being too close to people and has increased our desire for pets?  People want to foster or adopt pets, now more than ever! At the Lynchburg Humane Society’s Center for Pets there has been an increase of 85% more pets in foster care than at this time last year. The Lynchburg Humane...
Post a Comment
Read more