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Guardianship,
Not Ownership, For Pets
Source
NAIA policy statements: Pets and the community
Pet ‘overpopulation’
During much of the last half century, shelters
struggled with a severe surplus animal problem. Supply outstripped
demand as unwanted litters and untrained, unsocialized pets were
surrendered by owners who failed to prevent pregnancies or were
unsuccessful in bonding with their pets. That problem, widely called
pet overpopulation, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in most
parts of the US.
The number of dogs entering shelters has declined
dramatically in the past 15 years. However, the number of cats,
specifically feral cats entering shelters, is on the rise.
Anti-breeding campaigners obscure the progress made in reducing the
number of dogs killed in shelters by combining dog and cat numbers
and by implying that they are all former pets that are now dumped
and dying because no one wants them. They neglect to note that a
large number of these animals are either surrendered by their owners
for euthanasia because they are old and sick, seriously injured, or
dangerously aggressive; that many of the dogs euthanized are
unidentified, unclaimed strays that are too old, sick, injured or
aggressive to be placed in new homes; and many of the cats
euthanized are feral animals that were never owned but were trapped
and impounded because they have become nuisances.
NAIA believes that dog and cat shelter intakes
and euthanasias should be considered separately and that plans to
reduce the number of shelter deaths of each species should be
formulated to address these individual differences.
For example, while shelters in some parts of the
country may have a surplus of puppies, those puppies are generally
adopted, not euthanized. Studies have shown that the vast majority
of dogs entering shelters are unwanted by their current owners or
are unidentified strays that are not reclaimed by their owners.
Therefore, NAIA believes that intervention before owners become
frustrated and dogs become community nuisances is the key to
reducing shelter surrenders and death. A combination of educational
programs provided by shelters, dog clubs, veterinarians, and other
dog professionals and strict enforcement of animal control and
nuisance laws will go a long way towards the goal.
Many cats entering shelters have been trapped as
feral animals. Although feral kittens can adjust to life as house
pets if caught young enough, adult feral cats do not adjust to
living indoors as pets, so it is misleading to include these cats in
any estimate of the numbers of pets dying in shelters. Instead of
incarceration and death, a number of communities have instituted
programs in which the cats are trapped, vaccinated, and sterilized,
then released back into the environment where they often aid in
rodent control on farms and urban areas.
NAIA opposes laws that target these problems by
attempting to restrict or ban breeding or penalize responsible
owners of intact dogs and cats. Instead NAIA recommends that those
who would like to further reduce the number of shelter deaths urge
community leaders to study local pet population dynamics to identify
where the problems lie, mobilize shelters and dog and cat fanciers
to devise and implement solutions, and insist on strict enforcement
of animal control and nuisance laws.
Suggested reading:
Pet Guardian Laws
Many owners
consider their pets to be part of their families. As a result, they
use family terms to describe their relationship with the animals
that share their lives. Some owners consider themselves 'pet
parents' and treat their animals as children. The latest American
Pet Products Manufacturers Association survey shows that 62% of
American households own at least one pet and 47% own more than one.
These pet owners spend an estimated $30 billion annually on their
dogs, cats, fish, birds, rodents and reptiles because they love
their animals and want to provide the best possible care for them.
Advocates of
rights for animals have seized on this closeness between people and
their pets to initiate a campaign to undermine pet ownership. They
claim that making owners into guardians will result in better
treatment for animals. However, their campaign rhetoric tells a
different story: here they admit that they intend to use their
effort as a wedge to end the ownership of pets.
In their own words:
"Our goal: to convince people to rescue and adopt
instead of buying or selling animals, to disavow the language and
concept of animal ownership." - Eliot Katz, In Defense of Animals
" ... If people had companion animals in their
homes, those animals would have to be refugees from the animal
shelters and the streets. You would have a protective relationship
with them just as you would with an orphaned child. ..." -Ingrid
Newkirk, PETA vice-president, quoted in The Harper's Forum Book,
Jack Hitt, ed., 1989, p.223.
US law is based on ownership of property,
including animals. Property rights protect owners and their pets
from unwarranted seizure by authorities and allow owners to make
decisions about pet care, training, breeding, housing, and other
matters.
NAIA strongly supports laws that preserve our
right to own pets, recognize acceptable animal care practices based
on sound veterinary science, clearly define animal cruelty and
neglect, and hold animal owners fully accountable for animal welfare
violations.
NAIA's position is that pets are best protected
and cared for by those who own them and therefore strongly opposes
concepts and policies that allow others to make those decisions.
NAIA also believes that replacing 'pet owner' with 'pet guardian'
will
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clog the courts with frivolous cases brought by
animal rights extremists on behalf of dogs, cats and other pets.
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harm animals by creating confusion about who is
responsible for their care.
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make veterinary care so expensive that many
animals will not receive it or will be prematurely euthanized.
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lead to increasingly restrictive animal care
laws and regulations.
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limit the right of individuals to buy and sell
pets as they choose.
Suggested reading:
Animal shelters
Animal shelters fall into three general
categories: Humane societies, private shelters, and animal control
agencies. Like other animal interests and industries, shelters fall
within a continuum of philosophies, policies, and missions. Some
promote a no-kill philosophy even while dickering with others
about the meaning of “no-kill.” Some build fund-raising efforts
around the numbers of animals they kill rather than the number they
save. Some have such strict adoption policies that almost no one can
qualify to get a pet, and others will sell a pet to anyone with the
adoption fee and a leash.
Publicly funded animal control agencies also
operate under a range of policies, but because they are charged by
law with protecting the community from dogs that are nuisances or
dangerous and because they do no fund-raising around humane issues,
they are often denigrated as animal killers. However, many animal
control agencies employ exemplary policies and practices that
responsibly increase pet adoptions and provide community education
about responsible pet ownership.
Some humane societies solve their money
problems by contracting to fulfill animal control services for their
communities even though such agreements cause confusion among staff
and volunteers and open them to criticism for conflict of interest
between their function as animal caretakers and their
responsibilities as law enforcement authorities. Some shelters
decline to become government partners in animal control, and others
that have signed such contracts in the past are giving them up.
No-kill shelters are not all the same. Some use
reason and common sense when writing policies that determine the
adoptability of animals, and others will not euthanize an animal no
matter how much it is suffering or how dangerous it might be. Some
provide treatment to animals with mild illnesses and controllable
chronic illnesses, fix traumatic but repairable injuries, provide
socialization and training for unruly dogs, bring malnourished dogs
back to health, and euthanize those animals that cannot be
rehabilitated by reasonable efforts to treat medical or behavioral
problems. Some release vicious dogs to the public regardless of the
risks to public safety and spend thousands of dollars to save an
animal when death would be a release from chronic pain and
suffering. Some no-kill shelters aggressively market adoptable
animals, and others have such strict adoption requirements that few
people can qualify for a new pet.
Animal control shelters, including those operated
by private humane societies, are sometimes forced to use narrower
criteria for assessing adoptability than private shelters because
their mandate is set by government statutes, ordinances, regulations
and policies rather than by a mission statement. Accordingly, and
because (unlike private shelters and SPCAs) animal control agencies
generally accept all dogs and cats that are brought to them and are
required by law to keep them regardless of their adoptability for a
specified period of time, crowding may force animal control agencies
to euthanize adoptable animals or ones with milder health or
behavior problems such as ear mites, kennel cough, skin lesions,
excessive barking, or destructive chewing, in order to free up space
for more adoptable animals.
NAIA supports animal shelters and animal control
agencies that
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Provide temporary shelter for dogs and cats
impounded under animal control laws or surrendered by owners who
can no longer care for their pets;
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Set reasonable policies for rehabilitating
animals and placing them in new homes,
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Educate the public about responsible pet care
and training,
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Conduct adoption programs that parallel the
placement efforts of responsible breeders, and
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Are willing to take back any animal that does
not work in its new home.
NAIA urges all shelters, public and private, to
scan for microchips in incoming dogs, implant chips in adopted dogs,
provide basic training and socialization for dogs before adoption,
work with rescues and breeders to match prospective owners to a dog
that fits their lifestyles and meets their needs, and coordinate
training efforts with local training clubs and businesses.
NAIA recognizes the value of cooperative programs
between shelters and prisons both for training and socializing dogs
to prepare them for new homes and for teaching skills to nonviolent
inmates.
NAIA also supports animal control agencies that
make the tough decision to euthanize a dog in the interest of public
safety, especially when the decision is made in the face of vocal
opposition from activists intent upon vilifying the agency and
second-guessing its policies and judgment. NAIA believes that local
governments should adequately fund animal control agencies so that
they are able to put policies in place that will enhance public
safety and provide humane treatment for the dogs in their care.
Although few studies about the numbers of animals
entering shelters and the numbers of healthy animals euthanized in
shelters have been done and those that are available depend on a
limited number of survey responses, all indications are that fewer
dogs are entering animal shelters, more of the dogs that are
entering shelters are leaving for new homes, and there is actually a
shortage of puppies and small dogs in some areas of the country.
However, activists who oppose dog breeding claim that there is still
a huge overpopulation of dogs and cats in the US, that euthanasia in
shelters is increasing, and that dog breeders are somehow to blame
for the shelter deaths. These activists promote mandatory spay and
neuter laws and other restrictions on breeding as the solution to
“overpopulation” and conduct annual drives to convince owners that
every intact pet will be responsible for thousands more dogs or cats
in its fertile lifetime.
NAIA recognizes that responsible pet owners and
breeders do not contribute to shelter dog intakes and deaths and
supports the rights of dog and cat owners to make their own
decisions about pet sterilization and breeding. NAIA opposes
mandatory sterilization of pets but encourages owners to voluntarily
take steps to prevent accidental litters and to leave breeding to
those who can make the personal and financial sacrifices necessary
to make informed, responsible breeding decisions.
Private pet placement programs
Breed rescue programs have undoubtedly resulted
in fewer shelter deaths because they rescue purebred dogs and cats
from shelters and provide an option for owners forced to surrender a
pet. NAIA applauds those breed-specific organizations that provide
temporary homes and care for dogs and cats in need, offer transport
to new homes, and help owners through the initial bonding with a new
pet.
NAIA does not support the so-called rescue groups
that justify taking animals from their lawful owners in the name of
humane rescue. Such individuals and groups often consider themselves
above the law and steal animals from owners whose practices they
dislike. NAIA opposes illegal activities and supports due process
for pet owners who are targeted by such activities.
NAIA also recognizes that some people who conduct
private animal welfare programs may become inundated with animals
because they lose their perspective. These people take any animal
that comes to their door, may have difficulty in placing animals
because they find fault with many potential adopters, and may
ultimately end up unable to properly care for the animals they have.
NAIA believes that such people should be held to the same standards
of care that other animal owners must attain, not excused because
they are ‘rescuing’ unwanted pets. At the same time, they should
also be treated with compassion, not imprisoned or assessed maximum
fines.
Breed specific legislation
NAIA supports reasonable laws to protect the
public from dangerous dogs and opposes breed-specific legislation in
any form. Breed-specific laws target good dogs and responsible
animal owners along with the bad.
Unfortunately, sensational media coverage and
misleading claims of canine super strength and cunning of some
breeds of dogs, especially the bull-and-terrier breeds and
crossbreeds, have manipulated public opinion. These factors often
lead to limits on breeding and owning certain types of dogs despite
the fact that many individual dogs fitting the description are
beloved family pets or valuable working partners. Restrictions from
outright bans to requirements for confinement, insurance, and spay
and neuter often follow incidents in which a breed and its crosses
are implicated in aggressive incidents or dog fighting or other
criminal activity. Such limits cause the death of many well-behaved
pets and rob law-abiding pet owners of their rights to choose a
breed or mix and responsibly own or maintain a pet or working dog
without government interference.
NAIA supports nuisance ordinances and dangerous
dog laws to protect the community against unruly or dangerous dogs
and irresponsible dog owners. NAIA supports sentences for violation
of dog confinement and nuisance laws that include mandatory
attendance at a basic obedience training class.
AKC dog obedience clubs have provided such classes for the
general public for decades and, together with private trainers, they
represent a well-established community resource for courts dealing
with dog-related offenses.
Suggested reading:
Be sure to see these additional NAIA policy statements
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