No-Kill Advocacy

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What is "No-Kill"?

Thousands of cats are euthanized in shelters across the country every year — not because they were suffering, but because there wasn't enough space, money, or time. No-kill is a refusal to accept that as inevitable.

No-kill doesn't just mean we don't euthanize healthy cats. It means we've made a deep commitment to finding creative, compassionate solutions for every animal in our care, including the ones other shelters might give up on.

A senior cat with diabetes. A shy, skittish tabby who needs weeks to warm up. A kitten born with a cleft palate. These are the cats that no-kill was made for. Our team works tirelessly to match each one with the right medical care, the right foster home, and ultimately, the right forever family.

We follow the industry standard that a no-kill shelter maintains a live outcome rate of 90% or higher. We're proud to consistently exceed that and we're always working to do better.

We know the work is harder this way. It takes more resources, more creativity, and more patience to honor every life. But we also know that every cat who leaves here healthy and loved is proof that a different way is possible.

11 Tenets of No-Kill

1. TNR Program
Not only should we alter our companion animals; we should work to alter the stray and community cats in our cities and towns. Lowering the number of unwanted puppies and kittens being born helps lower the number of cats and dogs needing placement, or roaming freely without a human guardian.

2. High-Volume, Low-Cost Spay/Neuter
Early surgeries that sterilize cats and dogs will prevent accidental pregnancies and, like TNR, helps lower the number of unwanted litters. The Hermitage contracts with Arizona Spay and Neuter, and we keep a listing of other early surgery clinics in the area that can help.

3. Rescue Groups
Placing animals for adoption, or transferring them from a kill shelter to a rescue group not only frees kennel space, but gives that cat or dog a second chance at finding their forever home. Reputable rescue groups should not be denied the chance to pull a cat or dog from a county shelter.

4. Foster Care
Caring for very young kittens or puppies, sick but treatable animals, or animals who need behavior modification is something many municipal shelters cannot do. For this reason, and so many more, foster care is a resource that should never be forgotten. Foster parents can care for “bottle babies”, helping orphaned puppies and kittens become strong and healthy enough for adoption; they can work with dogs and cats who need behavioral training, and they can help socialize very shy or frightened animals. These foster parents are an extension of the shelter walls, and without them too many adoptable animals are destroyed at county shelters.

5. Comprehensive Adoption Programs
While it might stand to reason that adoptions are a necessary part of animal rescue; too many rescues can forget this in their mission to save the animals and care for them. We here at The Hermitage consider adoption to be just as important as rescue; we want every cat in our care to have a loving family. We know that adoptions mean happy families and kitties—and we know that adoption is a very important part of spreading the message of No-Kill throughout Arizona.

6. Pet Retention
There are many reasons people relinquish their pets; one of the most common is behavioral problems, like urinating outside the litter box (for cats). Other reasons include moving, or financial difficulties that make it hard or impossible to continue to feed their animals. The Hermitage has long advocated for education of pet parents on behavioral issues. We are willing to work with pet parents and regularly offer tips and advice on a myriad of cat-related issues. To help in financial difficulties, we instituted our Food for People’s Pets Program. We never want anyone to have to relinquish their pets because they can’t afford cat or dog food; we can help.

7. Medical and Behavior Programs
Working hand-in-hand with number 6, many times small changes are needed to cause large differences in “pet troubles”. We also pay attention to the cats in our care, making sure they are healthy, happy, stimulated and socialized. Until we find their forever homes, we want them to be as healthy and happy as they can be—if our cats become ill, we treat them.

8. Public Relations/Community Development
Not only do we want to increase our adoptions, we want to introduce ourselves to our donors, and meet new volunteers! Without a community of no-kill supporters behind us, we can’t do it ourselves—and we know this. We also want to promote transparency in all of our work; whether it’s the number of cats we’ve rescued, and the shelters they transferred from, to the number of adoptions we’ve had in the past year. We want our supporters and our community at-large, to know they can trust us, and that our work is good.

9. Volunteers
Our volunteers help us hold the shelter together. In so many ways, they are an addition of our staff, our shelter and our mission. Our volunteers make the difference, here and at other no-kill shelters.

10. Proactive Redemptions
Many shelters don’t or can’t take the time to reunite lost pets with their families. One way to prevent untimely deaths is to do just this. The Hermitage always recommends that families with lost pets contact Pima Animal Care Center and the Humane Society, as well as watching online for “found” pets. Please see our link for Lost and Found on our Resources page for more information.

11. A Compassionate Director
Last, but certainly not least, a no-kill shelter needs an executive dedicated to the hard work of pushing for a no-kill approach in everything the shelter does. Not only is it important that the executive work with the shelter staff, but s/he must be willing to speak out in public, even if it is unpopular in the community. A director who is compassionate, not only to the animals in the shelter’s care, but the staffers, can create a work-place that supports the mental, physical emotional needs of all involved.

 

These 11 Tenets are adapted from the No-Kill Advocacy Center’s publication, “No Kill 101”. You can find out more about their mission at www.nokilladvocacycenter.org or on their Facebook page: facebook.com/nokilladvocacycenter.

The No-Kill Advocacy Center was founded in Oakland, California to raise awareness, and to offer guidelines to reduce and eliminate this threat to the companion animals in our shelters and communities.