Animal Shelter's No-Kill Policy Vs. CA's Increased Euthanizations
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(Photo courtesy of Creative Commons).
With recent controversy surrounding animal protection in California shelters, the non-profit ARC is a small spot of hope. The one-year-old center has a no-kill policy for all of its animals.
The policy is one that is hard to come by in the state, especially with the pending repeal by Gov. Jerry Brown on the Hayden law stating that an animal must have six days in the shelter before being euthanized. If the repeal were to take effect, animal shelters would only have to keep an animal for three days before euthanizing them.
Alex Ieakyrklund, a full-time volunteer and managing director at ARC said that the repeal of the Hayden law won’t have a major impact because it’s not something that was implemented well in the first place due to minimal regulation, but is still a negative policy.
“Jerry Brown’s repeal is not a good thing because it gives animal shelters the permission to euthanize quickly and it will be legal and acceptable,” Ieakyrklund said.
The center’s ultimate goal is to imitate a human hospital when treating animals and pets.
“What human hospitals do first is stabilize," she said. "They don’t do that in animal hospitals. If the owner can’t pay for a procedure, the first suggestion by veterinarians is to euthanize. But here, we treat first, payment comes later.”
She said that the best payment here at the shelter is just knowing that an animal that was otherwise going to die is alive and loved.
Gov. Brown justified the repeal by claiming that it will save the state $46 million annually.
Dr. Salah Seleh, the owner of the ARC, said that medical costs are the most expensive aspect of a shelter. Together with Ieakyrklund, they have formed partnerships with local rescue organizations to lower the cost of medical treatments of animals in order to save money.
ARC partners with numerous organizations such as Stray Cat Alliance and Adopt a Chow. Their adoption rates for dogs are considered extremely high.
These organizations, as well as public figures like former Sen. Tom Hayden, have voiced opposition against repealing the law.
A petition of more than 45,000 signatures was delivered to the governor’s office Thursday, in hopes of influencing his decision.
Hayden, in a video message to Gov. Brown, attempted to convince the governor to reflect on his own life before going through with the repeal.
“I urge you to look at your dog before you allow this bill that protects animal to die,” Hayden said.
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Reach contributor Sammi Wong here.
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You may want to post this on your bulletin board. I’d prefer to remain anonymous but I wanted to share this because it may bring comfort to someone. I read it and I thought if it’s our love that goes on then our pets are certainly in heaven.–
Love---
Think about love. Think about the kindness of love, the comfort of love, the acceptance and warmth of love, the simplicity and generosity and forgiveness of love. Think about the gentleness of love, the patience of love, the compassion of love. Think about the refuge and relief of love. Think about love.---
That, I believe, is God. Love itself, perfect, eternal and infinite, flowing among all of us, shared as our birthright, our love uniting us and living on within God. There is nothing to fear. It's love itself that is the God we seek, here within all of us and living on forever. Love has always been here.---
The rest, I believe, is nature. Our bodies and our minds, the self we identify as soul, heredity and upbringing, all part of nature. There is no evil, only nature, a broad scape from marvels of beauty to tragic aberrations, all nature, all fleeting. All of nature shares the same preoccupations at its own level...we seek food, continuation of our species, pleasure, safety, status and territory. Those are the things of nature and the joys they give us are the gifts of nature.---
But our greatest days are made of love, in hours of unbearable loss, it's love that comforts us. We thrive on it, we long for it. With love, we do what we would have thought impossible, through love we make the miracles that others are praying for. It's through our own love that God comes into the world.---
Our prayers have already been answered. We have been given love, it is already here for us. Hunger and sickness, sadness and loneliness, fear and cruelty...what we can't overcome with love, we can comfort with love so that none suffer alone and abandoned.---
This, I believe, is our purpose. To free our love from the fearful cautions of nature, to let love dissolve the divisions that separate us, to look for love in every other being and find God. With love, we live as in heaven.---
Think about love often, nurture love within yourself, give over some time of your days to meditate on love, to pray that we will have more love. Think about love and pray that one day we will all have the love we need for all the world.---
This is not a religion and there is no need for money, preachers, books, or buildings. The truth is in love itself and the only outward sign of love is love. This is for you, offered in hope that it will help. The person who wrote this is an ordinary person of unexceptional virtue who will say nothing further.---
loveisthegodweseek.org
If LA wants less euthanasia, I suggest that there be incentives for landlords to allow pets in their apartments. There are large number of renters whom would like a dog or cat, but most landlords do not allow pets. Just my two cents...
While repealing any portion of the Hayden law is a terrible idea, and one that will result in injured animals not receiving needed medical care, and animals being killed, ARC is not an "L.A. animal shelter"!!!!!!!!! It is a vet's office where they board animals, and Alexia Krykland has been convicted of animal cruelty in the past. See below L.A. Times article:
Animal shelter workers charged in neglect - Los Angeles Times
"Alexia Tyraki-Kyrkland, 39, and Gloria Ramos, also 39, face 13 counts of cruelty to animals. The women are executives with Noah's Ark Animal Rescue, a home for dogs and ...
articles.latimes.com/2006/dec/05/local/ me-briefs5.4 - Cached "
This person is wrong. LAAS' goal may be to go no-kill but it has never achieved it and it won't unless it targets minority animal owners responsible for a large percentage of animals left in the shelter. This may not be a popular statement but it's true.
Why are people supporting the Hayden when it is paying shelters to euthanize? The Hayden allows for puppies and kittens under 8 weeks to be euthanized as unadoptable. So 45,000 people support the suffering and death caused by the Hayden, that's disgusting.