Economic Benefits of No Kill Animal Control - Winograd

Today Nathan Winograd of the No Kill Advocacy Center posted on the website a new document titled “Dollars & Sense: The Economic Benefits of No Kill Animal Control” and I listened to him speak about it on Animal Wise Radio this morning; you can listen to the podcast when posted.

I have researched information about animal protection issues for over a decade with a focus on facts, statistics, formulas, model programs, best practices, how-to’s, research, studies, surveys and reports (still a challenging task! still in short supply!) I always hope to find citation sources but they are most often missing. I am very appreciative of the materials Nathan Winograd and the No Kill Advocacy Center have provided over the years. But for others’ convenience, below are the sources for the study or survey statements in the Economic Benefits document. If I missed existing source citations, apologies and I can correct this post. Just a note that it took quite a bit of effort to find the source documents even though I am very familiar with the subject material!

In the Economic Benefits document:

Page 3 In a national survey 96% of Americans said we have a moral obligation to protect animals etc
The above statement appears to refer to the 2006 Kindness Index of Best Friends Animal Society.

Page 4 Disproving Pet Overpopulation

Think there are “too many animals and not enough homes”? Think again...
Nationally, roughly four million animals are killed in shelters every year. Of these, roughly 95% of all shelter animals are healthy and treatable. The remainder consists of hopelessly ill or injured animals and vicious dogs whose prognosis for rehabilitation is poor or grave. That would put the number of savable animals at roughly 3.8 million.At the same time, over 23 million Americans will get a new pet every year, and 17 million of those households have not decided where they will get that animal and can be influenced to adopt from a shelter.

The above section refers to Maddie’s Fund research:
The Shelter Pet Project By the Numbers


Page 5

National multi-state study found no correlation between per capita funding and save rates

This info is on this No Kill Advocacy Center webpage: No Kill Advocacy Center > Shelter Reform > Projects Campaigns then download pdf: Cost of Saving Lives (Funding 09)

The above 3-page study IS included the No Kill 101 / No Kill Primer that readers of The Economic Benefits are referred to.


Page 7
California Hayden law

In 1998, California passed a law making it illegal for public (and private) shelters to kill animals when qualified rescue groups were willing to save them.

. . .

A separate analysis found that the number of animals saved, rather than killed, jumped by roughly 4,000 per year in just one of 58 California counties.

The above info is found in Hayden Report, January 2011, Jennifer Wang


Page 7

The source document for statements about the New York State Rescue Access Survey are found in: New York State Rescue Access Survey

I cannot locate a source document for the 2011 Florida Rescue Access Survey statements, only this press release and content on the Florida Animal Rescue website which outline its results:

Report: Florida Survey Shows Animals Needlessly Killed; Rescue Access Law Introduced
PR Newswire
MIAMI, Nov. 11, 2011

and on FloridaRescueAct.com

Florida Survey Shows Animals Needlessly Killed; Rescue Access Law Introduced!
"Florida Animal Rescue Act, SB 818/HB 597, would make it illegal for a shelter to kill an animal when a qualified non-profit rescue organization is willing to save that animal."
A statewide survey of rescue groups across Florida State found that 63% of non-profit animal rescue groups have had at least one Florida state shelter refuse to work collaboratively with them and then turn around and kill the very animals they were willing to save. The most common reason given was shelters either having a policy of not working with rescue groups or being openly hostile to doing so.
It makes no sense to kill animals in the face of cost-effective alternatives, nor does it make sense that taxpayers are spending money to kill animals when non-profit organizations are willing and able to save them at private expense. California's "rescue access" law saves tens of thousands of animals every year at no cost to the public.
The same survey also found that 45% of respondents are afraid to complain about inhumane conditions or practices at Florida shelters because if they did complain, they would not be allowed to rescue animals, thus allowing those inhumane conditions to continue.
In addition, 81% of rescue groups that have tried to work with more than one shelter said that different shelters have different rescue access policies, with more than half of those respondents saying that criteria for saving animals changes depending on what staff is on duty or whether staff changes. This creates inefficiency and limits the number of animals who can and should be saved.

Page 9 Reducing births: research on spay/neuter

Reducing Births: Research shows that investment in spay/neuter programs not only provides immediate public health and public relations benefits but also long-term financial savings to a jurisdiction as well.

I have requested the source(s) for the above statement.

Update April 2, 2011 - The No Kill Advocacy Center replied:
"We relied on several sources: A 2003 paper by the International City County Management Association, a Stanford University fellowship study (Ward, L, The Role of Low-Cost Spay/Neuter Clinics in the Control of Stray and Unwated Animals, 1984), a 1994 NSAL study that showed low-cost neutering doubled the number of individuals who get their animals sterilized, a summary of the low-income spay/neuter clinics in Los Angeles, California in the 1970s, and more recently, a study out of Austin and New Hampshire for cats: http://bit.ly/H90Y1e."
The latter url goes to http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10888700903579903#preview ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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