San Antonio Express News 6/25/2006 
 
Animal concerns have been at the forefront of our community deliberations ever since the powerful article on Animal Care Services appeared in the San Antonio Express-News more than a year ago. Since then, the phrase “no-kill” has been bantered about, as if that is a policy that our community can suddenly adopt, and poof, everything will be all better. 
 
We should work toward building a no-kill community, but let’s be clear as to what that actually means. Because the term no-kill has been uttered by many well-intentioned people, I want to explain the difference between a no-kill shelter and a no-kill community. They are not the same thing. 
 
A no-kill shelter makes a policy to not kill unwanted animals. In order to have this policy, the shelter does not accept every homeless pet that comes to its door. They turn pets away when there is no space to house them. They may also be selective in the animals they accept so as not to have to euthanize any of them. In fact, if they take in an unadoptable animal, a no-kill shelter will keep that animal for its entire life rather than euthanize it. 
 
Thankfully, they can do this wonderful work because there are shelters in the community with an open-door policy, which means a shelter accepts all unwanted animals. But open-door shelters are in the undesirable position of having to euthanize because there is not enough room to house them all. Sadly, they are portrayed as the bad guys. 
 
A “no-kill community” is different from a no-kill shelter because it actually involves euthanasia. As defined by the Maddie’s Fund, an organization dedicated to creating no-kill communities in the United States, a no-kill community is a means of “saving both healthy and treatable dogs and cats, with euthanasia reserved only for unhealthy and untreatable animals.” 
 
So officially, a no-kill community does not halt euthanasia; it reserves it only for those animals that are very sick or very dangerous. This makes a lot of sense to me, but even that definition can be hard to live by if the entire community is not on board.
 
A no-kill community means not filling up the city’s animal shelter every day, so that smart decisions can be made about an animal’s care and future. 
 
No-kill means people fostering animals when shelters are full. 
 
No-kill means everyone making a gargantuan effort to spay and neuter their pets. 
 
No-kill means implementing low-cost spay/neuter programs. 
 
No-kill means increasing adoptions at shelters. 
 
No-kill means the city authorizing trap, neuter and release programs to reduce the number of feral cats euthanized. 
 
No-kill means getting lost pets home through affordable microchipping and IDs. 
 
Is all this even possible? Our local animal control receives about 150 unwanted pets daily. Not all of these pets are healthy and adoptable, but if they were, that would mean 900 people would have to adopt a pet each week, just from this one facility, to be able to live up to the no-kill community creed. 
 
No-kill is a collaboration that requires people in the community, city officials, veterinarians and animal shelters to work together to reduce the number of unwanted animals euthanized and increase the number of animals getting adopted. 
 
I will be waiting for your letters.