Lakeside area leads nation in animal welfare

(This article was published in the neighborsgo section of the January 3, 2014 edition of the Dallas Morning News. It was written by Rockwall Pets Executive Director Michael Kitkoski.)

Communities surrounding Lake Ray Hubbard continued to be national leaders in animal shelter reform during 2013. The No Kill advocacy that Rockwall Pets began in 2010 is beginning to pay off in a big way. Nearly 2,000 additional shelter pets were adopted in Rockwall County during 2013 compared to four years ago. During that same period, the number of pets killed in animal shelters nationwide fell from around four million per year to 2.7 million, according to the Humane Society of the United States. That’s an improvement of over 25 percent in a brief time.

How is our area leading the way? After Rockwall Pets worked with city officials, Rockwall joined Seagoville in establishing our area’s first No Kill municipal shelters in 2011. Carl Alsabrook, the city manager in Royse City, jumped on board in 2012. Rockwall County killed nearly 60% of every animal in its care five years ago, but now saves the lives of over 95%. (The term “No Kill” means returning “euthanasia” to its dictionary definition. Gravely ill and overly aggressive pets should be euthanized. Killing healthy and treatable pets is just that: killing.)

We spent much of 2013 working with the Rowlett and Dallas shelters. With some urging from its citizens and government officials, the Rowlett shelter is poised to join the ranks of area No Kill shelters during 2014. Of the nearly 500 shelter pets rescued by Rockwall Pets last year, about 100 came from Rowlett.

How did we get here? Everyone at Rockwall Pets believes it’s time for our animal shelters to reflect our values as Americans. According to Forbes magazine, Americans spent over $50 billion on our pets during 2011. That’s more than we spend on videos, music and video games combined. We Americans obviously love our pets.

Animal sheltering began in the late 1800s when Americans used animals as working stock. Many animals were worked literally to death while others were routinely rounded up and killed. Following World War II, Americans began keeping pets in our new suburban backyards. Then, as the year 2000 approached, many of us began inviting our dogs and cats to sleep with us. During those 150 years, pets went from our barnyards to our backyards to our bedrooms, yet our animal shelters never changed.

During the 1970s, shelters began blaming the “irresponsible public” for what they called “pet overpopulation.” But 2.7 million pets died in shelters last year even though 17 million American families were looking to adopt. That’s a marketing problem, not pet overpopulation. And I believe that most of us are good people. The HSUS estimates that 83% of owned dogs and 91% of owned cats have been spayed or neutered compared to around 10% in the 1970s. That’s what I call a responsible public.

That’s why our dream is to spread our No Kill mission from Lake Ray Hubbard to all of north Texas. It’s time our animal shelters shared the compassionate values of pet-loving Americans.