This is a great book, I would highly recommend it to anyone that truly believes in a no kill nation!
The people who are giving this book a one star review just don't get it. I *have* worked in an open admission animal shelter, and I have worked as an a veterinary technician for over 20 years. I *know* Nathan is right. 16 million households added a new pet to their home in 2006--yet 4 million pets were killed in shelters. Why? When over 4 times the number of homes are available than there are animals available? Because shelters are: Dirty; Noisy; Open at inconvienient hours; Are more interested in punishing pet owners than in helping them. Sure, an open admission shelter will probably never have zero euthanasia, but there is no excuse for the high rates of euthanasia that are the current reality. Why do puppy mills exist? Why are there hundreds of thousands of puppies smuggled over the Mexican border every year for sale to American citizens? Because there is a market out there--people want pets. A few years ago a good friend of mine wanted a small breed puppy and spent three months scouring shelters in an 80 mile radius during the spring and summer months. A couple times she almost found one--but it was adopted before she could claim it for herself. She finally went to a local Chihuahua breeder to get a dog.
If shelters really were interested in saving animals, well over 90% of healthy adoptable dogs would find homes. Many more cats would be saved then euthanized. However, as long as they continue using the excuse of an "overpopualtion crisis" to justify being lazy and careless, No Kill sheltering will continue to be out of reach.
An incredibly important book
All us who have devoted our lives to animals are devastated by the fact that so many animals without homes are killed in shelters. We want to take them all into our homes to save them but that, of course, is not possible. Nathan Winograd is one of us and he has spent his life in working out the best ways to deal with this dilemma. He knows what will work to turn this country into a No Kill nation and he has a proven track record of doing just that. There is no pet "over-population" problem but there is a pet relinquishment problem and Winograd has very practical and extremely effective solutions to deal with it. His goals are definitely achievable.
Unfortunately, we have a heated cultural war going on with short-sighted "animal rights" adherents attacking all breeders, accusing us of being the source of the problem and proposing counter-productive legislation. For the last three years, I have spent all of my free time in fighting off proposed mandatory neutering legislation (MSN) in California. The person spear-heading these laws got a similar law passed in Los Angeles which has resulted in a skyrocketing number of animals being killed in shelters there. Everywhere MSN laws have passed has resulted in more animals being abandoned to a horrible death in shelters. Winograd knows that the MSN tactic is counter-productive and offers MUCH better solutions. Read this book if you want to know how we can save all those unfortunate shelter animals!
And yes, for the record, I am an "evil breeder". I have devoted 40 years to preserving an ancient rare breed and I will NOT make any apologies for that. I also have rescued many, many, many homeless animals and found them "forever homes". I could rescue even more if I didn't have to spend so much of my time fighting legislation proposed by people who should read Winograd's book and change their tactics to ones which will really work to save animals.
Thank you, Nathan, for your wonderful book.
