'Let’s stop killing animals in shelters and get more of them adopted out'
I have said that headline quote more times than I can count, and while it very succinctly sums up the founding principle of the no-kill movement, that headline is not mine. Credit goes to the Los Angeles Times editorial board for today’s opinion piece and the headline that says it all.
The L.A. Times is the newspaper of record for the nation’s second largest city and covers a metropolitan area with a population of over 12.5 million people. There are plenty of headline-worthy issues, many of national significance, and yet the conditions and operations at Los Angeles Animal Services merit being called out by the L.A. Times’ editorial board.
In 2012, when LA Animal Services was taking in 53,000 dogs and cats and only 56% were leaving alive, Best Friends launched the historic NKLA (No-Kill Los Angeles) initiative, a coalition of organizations including LA Animal Services with the goal of turning the city around and making Los Angeles a no-kill city. The coalition grew to include 154 local and regional rescue groups in support of LA Animal Services. By 2017 the combined save rate for dogs and cats was in the high 80% range.
In 2020 the city became the largest no-kill city in the country. The tacit understanding between the coalition and the city was that LA Animal Services would incorporate the changes encouraged by the NKLA Coalition to sustain the no-kill advantage that the efforts of 154 organizations, funded by Best Friends, had bestowed upon the city.
Sadly, that didn’t happen when the opportunity was at hand, and today, they are being called out by the Los Angeles Times editorial board under the headline: “Let’s stop killing animals in shelters and get more of them adopted out.”
I encourage you to follow the story that I began highlighting last July here, and continue to comment on my blog as the story evolves.
Read the L.A. Times editorial and sign and share this nationwide petition to support the pets of Los Angeles.
-Julie
