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Advocates press for no-kill policy at county shelters.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

Lane County animal shelters kill dogs and cats at twice the rate necessary to relieve the animals' suffering and remove vicious dogs from the streets, say animal welfare activists who promote a drastic reduction in killing.

The government-run Lane County Animal Regulation Authority and the nonprofit Greenhill Humane Society killed about 3,400 dogs and cats by lethal injection last year, shelter statistics show. This amounts to 52 percent of the cats and 16 percent of the dogs that passed through the shelter doors.

"We're required to take stray animals in. We sometimes have to euthanize healthy, adoptable animals to make room," said Mike Wellington, who oversees the government shelter. "We just don't have enough adopters, and we don't have enough space to hold the animals longer."

Today, in cities across the nation, animal welfare advocates are challenging the idea that shelters have to kill friendly, reasonably healthy dogs and cats or else be overrun with animals.

They say a shelter running at peak efficiency can find homes for almost all stray and abandoned animals. They also say that rallying a community around a "no-kill" ideal brings manifold increases in enthusiasm, volunteers and dollars to the shelters.

"We can become a no-kill community," said Diana Robertson, who's spearheading the Lane County effort. "We need people to set a high standard for the shelters and to help out at the shelters."

No-kill movement

The drive to no-kill shelters began in 1994, after Richard Avanzino, the director of...

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