Goal 1: Animals in shelters routinely receive necessary and appropriate careĪ. Considering such specific standards of care for animals in shelters is outside the scope of this general policy statement, which is aimed at providing guidance for jurisdictions seeking to implement general shelter regulations. Specific minimum standards for the care of animals in shelters vary significantly among the jurisdictions that have enacted them. The ASPCA expects animal sheltering organizations to make every effort to find adoption or placement options for the animals in their care, while also recognizing that shelters require discretion to make the best decisions for those animals and the communities in which they live, particularly in cases involving severe behavior or medical issues or dogs deemed dangerous under applicable law. Because the interpretation of what is “adoptable” is widely variable, use of the word doesn’t lend any meaningful value to the discussion of sheltering responsibilities. On the other end of the spectrum, a very limited definition of what is adoptable could provide justification for decisions to euthanize that are not well grounded. On one end of the spectrum, any animal might be considered adoptable if it can be adopted, even if it in fact dangerous or irredeemably suffering. While it is a term commonly used within animal sheltering, the potential that it can be manipulated to justify unacceptable practices is troubling. It was challenging to consider the responsibilities of shelters regarding adoptions without using the word “adoptable”.
Taken together, these goals and policies represent the ASPCA’s desire to chart a pragmatic path that holds shelters appropriately accountable for the substantial responsibilities that come with the job of sheltering animals. In some cases, the ASPCA recommends that these policies be enacted as a matter of law in others, that the policies serve as guides for recommended action.
As discussed below, these policy statements are designed to address five major areas: animal welfare, adoption and live-release, owner returns, operational transparency, and euthanasia. Thus, while there may be disagreement with the tactics of shelter access initiatives, there are also shared interests and goals among many in animal sheltering, including, for example, setting standards which may result in increased opportunities for adoption and live-release of sheltered animals.Ĭonsidering these issues and shared interests, we outline here a set of goals and policy statements, for both public and private animal shelters, which represent positions that the ASPCA affirmatively supports. Despite this progress, there are public and private shelters whose policies and practices fail by any reasonable measure to protect the animals and people they serve. Independent of these recent initiatives, the number of animals euthanized in shelters has seen a precipitous decline in the past four decades, from around 15 million annually in the 1970’s to around 3 million currently, a drop which may be attributed to a host of factors including broader access to and acceptance of spay/neuter, progressive shelter policies, and active adoption efforts. Such measures seek to accomplish this goal in various ways by, for example, increasing disclosure requirements, mandating specific protocols for euthanasia decisions, or requiring shelters, in lieu of euthanasia, to release animals to almost any person or organization willing to take them. In general terms, “shelter access” refers to various legal measures, proposed or enacted, which attempt to strictly limit the circumstances in which animals in the care of shelters may be euthanized, in some cases seemingly without regard to considerations that appropriately underlie euthanasia decisions, such as public safety and animal health or welfare. Many of the goals and policies outlined here relate to a set of topics that are commonly known as “shelter access” issues. This Position Statement sets forth the ASPCA’s views concerning the responsibilities of animal shelters –both those recommended as best practices and those that are or should be mandated by law.
0 kommentar(er)
