Investigation Reveals Shelter Workers Turning Animals Away, Referring to Shelters Forced to Euthanize
For Immediate Release:
April 8, 2013
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
Norfolk, Va. -- The Peninsula Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), Web of Life, Norfolk SPCA, and Portsmouth Humane Society are among the more than two dozen animal shelters that practice or advocate "no-kill" policies across the country caught in a new PETA video exposé turning animals away and referring them to the very shelters and city pounds that the "no-kill" community condemns for having to euthanize animals.
"We're full. We're a no-kill. If it doesn't get adopted, it lives its life out here. … [I]t may be here for 10 years. … You know, animal control will take it," says a Web of Life worker in PETA's video, which is the first exposé of its kind. A Peninsula SPCA worker says, "We can put you on a waiting list. … If we don't have space, we can't take them." A Norfolk SPCA worker says, "You would need to go to the Norfolk Animal Care Center on Raby Road, because we can't intake any as of right now, but they can" and repeatedly refers to a months-long waiting list. And a worker at the Portsmouth Humane Society—despite the fact that the organization imported Chihuahuas from California just weeks earlier and claims to "never turn away an animal that comes to our doors"—says, "We're completely full. That's why we have appointments. We have over 100 dogs."
"It's stunning that shelters that tout 'no-kill' policies direct people to the very facilities that they publicly condemn," says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. "Contrary to what 'no-kill' advocates would like everyone to believe, there is a huge crisis of homeless animals with nowhere to go, and until people adopt instead of buy and spay or neuter instead of breed, euthanasia is unavoidable."
PETA is asking every shelter in the video to adopt a five-point plan to reduce the homeless-animal problem in their communities:
- Stop charging fees, keeping waiting lists, and requiring appointments, and if there is no room, transport the animals to a reputable open-admission shelter to prevent them from being harmed or abandoned on the streets, as has happened in Detroit and other cities facing tough economic times.
- Spay or neuter all animals before release.
- Offer no-cost to low-cost spay-and-neuter assistance.
- Lobby to ban all pet shop sales of dogs and cats.
- Put standards in place to avoid "bouncing" adoptions that make figures look good but do nothing to solve the overpopulation crisis.
In addition to turning animals away, "no-kill" policies have another dire effect on homeless dogs and cats: As the popularity of these policies grows, cases of hoarding are skyrocketing. It is now estimated that "rescues" make up 25 percent of the 6,000 new hoarding cases reported in the U.S. each year.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.