Best Friends Blog
 

West Valley City, Utah, announces intention to go no-kill

February 15, 2012 - By Julie Castle - ( 7 Comments )

West Valley City, Utah — yes, the name is quite nondescript, but the city boasts a population of nearly 130,000 and is nestled smack in the middle of the Salt Lake Valley. Haven’t heard of it? Maybe this will jog your memory. Last year, the shelter received the dubious distinction of gassing Andrea the cat. Twice. Remarkably, she lived. The media picked up on the story and ran with it. The idea of a sweet cat like Andrea being gassed was horrifying to all of us — Andrea’s story was already sensational without one bit of exaggeration.

The plight of Andrea is no different from any of the other millions of pets killed in America’s shelter system each year. She was a stray in a municipal shelter and her time was up. Our heart goes out to all of the animals, but feeling sorry for a situation isn’t going to change it.

Enough is enough!

Enter the young, forward-thinking Corey Rushton …

Recognizing the need for a serious difference in his community, Councilmember Rushton is determined to change things for West Valley’s animals.

Last night, key members of the Best Friends team, along with numerous volunteers and representatives of the rescue community, were out in full force to support West Valley City’s no-kill proclamation led by Councilmember Rushton.

Positive change

Making positive changes in Utah is something Best Friends Animal Society has been committed to and working on since we established our Sanctuary in Southern Utah in 1984. In 2000, Best Friends launched No More Homeless Pets in Utah, a statewide initiative to end the killing of healthy, adoptable pets in Utah’s 56 municipal shelters. Over the past 11 years, we’ve saved over 130,000 homeless pets and fixed over 110,000 more.

By inspiring collaboration and sharing lifesaving programs and resources with other animal welfare organizations, No More Homeless Pets in Utah is dedicated to saving more animals each year. The goal? A statewide 90 percent save rate of homeless pets in the Beehive state annually.

Councilman Rushton shares our vision for the West Valley City Animal Shelter. He acknowledges the gas chamber is an outdated method for killing homeless pets, but he sees the bigger-picture problem and wants to do something serious about it. He wants to attain a no-kill shelter classification for the shelter. We’re right there with him.

A new era

The West Valley no-kill proclamation represents a new era in animal welfare. More and more municipalities across the country are proactively seeking out the most cutting-edge programs and ideas, and not only are they implementing them, in some cases they are paying for them. From Los Angeles, California; to Jacksonville, Florida; to San Antonio, Texas; to West Valley City, Utah, our government officials are figuring out how our taxpayer dollars can best be put toward saving lives rather than killing lives.

Best Friends is looking forward to helping West Valley City implement positive changes right away — from community cat programs to foster and adoption programs — to help the shelter achieve no-kill status. Animals will have the time they need to find new families, and affordable, accessible spay/neuter programs will reduce shelter impounds. Working together, we can stop the killing of adoptable animals in West Valley.

To our animal welfare peers, elected officials, and animal-loving colleagues of West Valley: “Welcome friends! Now let’s get to work!”

 

Julie Castle
Senior Director, Communications

 

For more on Councilmember Rushton’s proclamation, visit his blog.

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  • Kym

    I think this is awesome news.  I wish every shelter in our nation could be like Best Friends.  I have volunteered there before and I am so impressed with them.  

    There has always been one big question in my mind with kill shelters..  I have just never understood why this nation spends so much money on running animal shelters and the expenses associated with killing animals.  Wouldn’t it be far more economical for shelters to offer FREE neuter and spay services ALL the time?  All we hear is the campaigns to encourage people to do fix their pets.  Those campaigns have to cost a lot also.  Obviously not everyone can afford these services and so the problem just keeps magnifying.  If the services were free, wouldn’t people be more likely to take care of their own pets AND the strays they come across?  After time, wouldn’t this BIG issue become a small issue and in the long run SAVE money?  I just don’t understand why this basic concept could not work.  I know there is always another side to any issue so I would like to hear that argument.   What would the negatives be to our government investing in free spay/neuter services offered in the shelters for anyone.  There will always be people that prefer to take their pet to their own vet and pay.  But for those that can’t, couldn’t this be the solution?   Can anyone explain to me why it woudn’t work.

  • http://www.blueglass.com Jordan Kasteler

    “No Kill” causes more suffering!
    http://www.peta.org/about/why-peta/no-kill-shelters.aspx

  • Orion_phxaz

    That’s ridiculous.  Sir, you are on the wrong website to be proclaiming that kind of nonsense.

  • JOY DANTINE

    Mr Corey Rushton,welcome to WVCAS obo ALL animal caregivers. 

  • Sarah

    Awesome! The strides Best Friends makes DAILY never ceases to amaze me.  Best Friends is one of the best proactive organizations in the nation!!

  • Doodle Bean

     Hi Kym,  Sadly, it takes a few pennies to kill an animal and many dollars to spay and neuter an animal.  The reality is that the money saved by spaying and neutering every single animal in the U.S. would be a small fraction of the cost of the procedures –even if you had vet students do them. 

    Another facet of the problem is that governments have more humans in
    need to take care of than they have funding, so animals take a backseat.  Another facet of the problem is that governments have more humans in
    need to take care of than they have funding, so animals take a backseat.

    That’s why it takes special champions and legislation to get towns and cities such as West Valley City to change their animal policies – it’s an economic cost which competes with other needs and which just may blow the govenrment’s budget.

    BTW, this isn’t an ‘argument’ but is reality.
     

  • Research WhatYouSupport

    PETA is dishonest with the public about what they stand for. The No Kill Equation demands transparency, accountability and hard work, which is part of the reason PETA is against it.

    Webpage by former members exposes what PETA doesn’t want the public (and celebrities) to know about them and their leader, and why they former members now support No Kill, http://www.nokillnow.com/PETAIngridNewkirkResign.htm

    “The objective of no-kill is to prevent filling animal pounds to capacity.  How this is accomplished encompasses everything that the no-kill movement is about.” http://www.nokillnow.com