by Ruth Steinberger
Founder, Spay FIRST
A dear friend once shared the adage, attributed to Herman Wouk, “When in danger, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout.”
Never has a better example of this adage been seen than in the current movement by so-called shelter management experts to support a return to intact release of shelter pets as a first response to challenges in sheltering during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A subtitle could be, “How to make a bad thing worse.”
Herodotus with pyramid of cats.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Intact release is a cruel anachronism”
A March 2020 public statement from the shelter medicine program at the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine, supporting the intact release of shelter animals during the COVID-19 outbreak, is consistent with the frenetic no-kill dogma calling for shelter euthanasia to be avoided no matter what the outcome for the live animal(s) and the communities.
Using intact release to save lives is a cruel anachronism, a practice which throughout the 20th century demonstrably led to more puppy and kitten births, and ultimately, to more deaths of homeless animals, whether in shelter euthanasia rooms, out on the streets, or at the hands of nuisance wildlife trappers, who mostly operate with no public accountability whatever.
Only after California in 1990 became the first state to mandate dog and cat sterilization before adoption from shelters did achieving “no kill” animal control even begin to look to anyone as more than a pipe dream.
(Beth Clifton collage)
“Time to question priorities”
After the University of Wisconsin shelter medicine program issued their statement, support for intact release during the COVID-19 time of “social distancing” was echoed by National Animal Care & Control Association (NACA), the University of Florida shelter medicine program, and now by the American SPCA.
(See COVID-19: India feeds stray dogs; ASPCA says “don’t fix them”)
It is time to question the priorities of those who purport to speak for the voiceless.
The University of Wisconsin shelter medicine program statement proposes that in order to avoid shelter euthanasias, shelters should return to the use of sterilization contracts, a paperwork trail proven for decades to not work.
Spay/neuter is not an elective surgery for safeguarding the lives of shelter pets.
Puppies dumped at humane society. (Beth Clifton collage)
“One homeless dog or cat becomes five”
At this time of year most female cats who have been outdoors are pregnant. Intact release, allowing those cats to become pregnant again within a matter of weeks or even days, is a cruel choice.
As Spay FIRST! board member Patty Epstein put it, “Intact release is not just kicking the can down the road. It’s creating a potentially explosive situation, where one homeless dog or cat becomes five and the problem becomes much larger––and much sadder.”
The University of Wisconsin shelter medicine program statement notes that necessary surgeries may include spaying an animal to treat a pyometra (a serious uterine infection). Apparently the umbrella of care encompassing shelter medicine no longer deems preventing litters to be a compelling enough need to first put forth plans for safe check-in, protective gear, etc., in order to safely perform spay/neuters for shelter animals.
This information should have been the first strike in efforts to save lives during the COVID-19 outbreak. Spay/neuter can, and in fact is, being done where shelter and clinic management has the will to find ways to work around the difficulties.
Tossing unwanted puppies and kittens into dumpsters is among the consequences of not doing s/n before adoption.
(From surveillance video.)
“Bizarre spectacle that will compound tragedy”
“Experts” lining up to support intact release is a bizarre spectacle that will compound the tragedies caused by COVID 19.
The impact on animals is an unfortunate sidebar in any economic downturn. The economic impact of COVID-19 is already being felt. If followed, this foolhardy response to the COVID-19 pandemic will add financial burdens, staffing burdens, and unintended litters to shelters nationwide, with consequences that will continue to be felt for many years.
If the half million unwanted litters estimated by ANIMALS 24-7 are indeed born within the next few months, from as many as a million female dogs and cats who will be rehomed intact because of this proposed protocol, much of the U.S. will not absorb the 2.5 to 3.5 million excess puppies and kittens through local adoptions.
If adoptions equaled even the current much lower numbers of intakes, every small town and every neighboring town in the South would not be clamoring for adoption “transport” opportunities. Think of what the extras will mean.
Jeff Young
“Terrible choice” ––Dr. Jeff
Jeff Young, DVM, the star of the reality television show Dr. Jeff: Rocky Mountain Vet, noted for decades before that as a top-notch spay/neuter surgeon and longtime leader promoting high volume, low-cost spay/neuter, was asked about the advocacy for shelters to use intact release as a frontline response to COVID-19.
Said Young, “We know that spay/neuter contracts don’t work. People do not return with the pets. Enforcement is virtually impossible.
“Cities are closed down,” Young continued. “Where is the city protocol for supporting and following up on these contracts supposed to come from? Or are the contracts just empty sheets of paper they will hand people and hope for the best?
“A spay/neuter contract is a terrible choice,” Young said.
Young noted the recession of 2008 in which hundreds of thousands of pets became homeless, adding, “This will compound an economic tragedy that follows a health-related tragedy. People who propose this are sitting in an ivory tower, coming up with their own version of reality. What are they thinking?”
Ruth Steinberger & friend.
It is time to ask who is actually speaking for the animals, not just seeking to improve so-called ‘live release’ numbers at any and all cost.
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Ruth Steinberger decades ago relocated from Philadelphia to Oklahoma as a reporter covering Native American affairs, but soon found a different calling as founder of Spay FIRST, a pioneer both in extending spay/neuter services to remote reservations and in developing and validating non-surgical dog and cat contraceptive methods.
Please help us continue speaking truth to power:
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We need to open up spay/neuter – now!
Thank you Ruth Steinberger and Dr Jeff for always summing up the facts.
The ivory tower decrees now supporting intact release are also responsible for shelters closing their doors to intakes in order to make the no-kill equation work, leaving animals on the street or given away free (and yes intact) on Facebook and wherever. These same ivory tower experts come up with absurd statistics to validate not screening homes (even asking if people who lived in a rental are permitted to have pets is out) and for using a waiting list for a pet to enter a shelter, even if the animal is at risk of abandonment. They’ve created standards that cannot get any lower (yes, for a hungry animal, being refused shelter entry things cannot get lower) and they call it success when shelters lower numbers by limiting intake.
The no-kill agenda cares about absolutely nothing other than the immediate numbers. The animals and their future well being and safety do not matter.
Again thank you Ruth and Dr Jeff
The irony of this in light of all of us who have worked, and are working, so hard, every day, to achieve our goal of universal spay/neuter and loving homes for every cat and kitten, and other animals, is particularly painful, on top of the human toll this virus and our collective reaction to it will take. I have been a supporter for years of a small independent organization working to TNR and adopt in Sayreville, New Jersey, in some very tough neighborhoods. They have worked what amounts to miracles for the cats there, raising money for the cats through their eBay sales of jewelry, quilts and other collectibles. Now, sales have plummeted, donations are way down, and it is kitten season.
whiskersrescue. I don’t know if you will allow me to share their URL, but hope you will. Thank
you. https://www.ebay.com/str/whiskersrescue
Thank you for caring about the ones who have no voice!
I’m despondent here in Tennessee – we network with about 100 s/n clinics and assistance programs and were making progress. Most of our 95 counties don’t have animal control or shelters – and most that do still release intact pets and it’s not working!
Even private vets now are not doing s/n – and my small county s/n assistance program will be set back YEARS – only 11,000 people in Jackson County, Tennessee.
Just one household has 6 female and 2 male cats – she’s already paid $60 to get them all done (with free rabies) and now I can’t get them in anywhere…and there will NOT be anyone lined up to help me with 6 litters of kittens –
Our unwanted pets have NO shelter options…and rescues only focus on those facing humane shelter euthanasia.
I’m really concerned about the future – s/n is not an elective procedure when it’s the only weapon in our battle against homelessness…
No shelter, no animal control, no veterinarian in our county. And we are not alone in TN or many other rural areas in the USA.
Thanks for being a strong voice of sanity in these insane times!
Thank you so much for sharing this comment.
In the no-kill equation there is no urgency to spay/neuter as we can “save them all.” The no-kill movement is based on the presumption that unwanted animals have options, they don’t really need sheltering, that the animals’ best interests are considered each time and that each pet in an unwanted litter will be placed in a loving home. Dream on.
Julie, your words are the truth for most rural areas of most of the middle third of this country— all the way from the Mexican border in the south to the Canadian border in the north…there are “dog pounds” serving many small rural towns but few county shelters and that includes the second most populous state of Texas. For example, no access to sheltering is the case for between 49 and 51 percent of Oklahoma households and it is the same for Kansas, Nebraska, and both Dakotas as well. To suggest that the unwanted animals are either counted, or that they count at all, is wrong. Spay/neuter is indeed our only weapon in the battle against suffering for millions of animals in rural and underserved areas of the globe. This is an important dialog to keep going and to bring spay/neuter back to the forefront.
The low cost spay/neuter clinic in my area is closed due to COVID-19.
That’s tragic and the closure of many services, combined with job losses, will place many more animals on the street.
Some spay neuter clinics have continued surgeries as spay neuter is indeed essential where there are outdoor or free roaming animals. Hopefully more spay neuter clinics will consider safe check-in, with clients not entering the building and check in staff using masks and gloves.
My county shelter still does intact release with a contract. Yes, even long before COVID 19, they were doing this. I think a conversation I overheard at the gym right before public places were closed down sums up the results perfectly:
A woman who is a shelter employee recognized another who had adopted a dog this past winter. She asked how the dog is doing. The adopter spoke about the dog, said her family is enjoying him, etc. Then the shelter worker asked if the dog had been neutered yet. The woman looked uncomfortable and admitted he had not. The worker asked who the woman’s vet is. More hemming and hawing, and the woman admitted she doesn’t really have a vet, but rather just used the mobile vaccination clinic that comes to Petco every once in a while– which most assuredly does not do surgeries.
So there you go. I think it’s safe to say this dog will probably never be fixed, that there are many others like him, and will likely contribute to more dogs entering the shelter system.
My husband had a dermatology appointment today. Not an “elective procedure” just a checkup. He was the only one in the office aside from the doctor and asst. People followed safety guidelines. Why not have s/n surgeries using safety guidelines? The outcomes from halting all these hundreds of thousands of surgeries across the country will be awful for many years to come and will undo all the work done by so many for the last three decades. Will the NoKillers still be saying Save them All?