Richmond Shows National Leadership in Saving Animals' Lives

"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." --

Arthur Schopenhauer, 19th-century German philosopher. No healthy homeless animal has died for the lack of a home in the City of Richmond since 2005. It is an accomplishment of which few cities in the United States can boast.

In fact, when the Richmond SPCA and our partner, Richmond Animal Care and Control (RAC&C), received the Lifesaving Award from Maddie's Fund on May 1, it was only the fourth time that this national award had been given. Maddie's Fund, a California foundation supporting humane organizations that are making their communities no-kill, gave us the award for having saved the life of every healthy homeless animal in Richmond for at least two calendar years.

For decades in this country, we accepted the notion that taking the lives of healthy homeless animals was a necessary evil due to the fact that there were more of them than available homes. Our inaccurate use of the word "euthanasia" in reference to taking the lives of perfectly healthy and well-behaved dogs and cats revealed our fundamental discomfort with the reality of what was happening.

In 2000, when the Richmond SPCA first announced our decision to become a no-kill organization, we were aggressively criticized for supposedly foisting the "dirty work" of killing off on public agencies. It was as if we were somehow derelict in our duties if we did not take the lives of the animals in our care. Implicit in this criticism was the assumption that you could not change the existing paradigm to end the killing of homeless animals.

But, we believed that the paradigm could be changed and we were tenacious in doing so. Along with a small group of other U.S. communities, we have now shown that a more compassionate and moral approach can succeed. Two things are required: Certain essential programs and services must be made broadly accessible to citizens, and public and private animal welfare agencies must possess an absolute resolve that killing will no longer be accepted as their approach to managing the shelter pet population.

In 2002, the Richmond SPCA and RAC&C began working under a public/private partnership that had taken several years to put in place due to considerable local opposition. At that time, we ceased providing overlapping services.

RAC&C focused on its essential law enforcement, public safety, and educational roles. The Richmond SPCA became a no-kill organization that provided those programmatic tools that a city must have to stop relying on killing to manage its homeless pet population. Those programs and services that we began in 2002 we continue to provide today on a considerably expanded basis.

The Richmond SPCA's spay/neuter clinic performs more than 13,000 surgeries every year and more than half of them are provided to the pets of low-income families for free. People who are not low-income may have their pets spayed and neutered in our clinic for a very low cost.

We provide free spaying and neutering for feral cats who are being cared for by volunteers under a trap, neuter, and return program. An array of pet-retention services are offered under our Project Safety Net to help pets stay in the homes they have, including free behavioral assistance, low-cost temporary housing, and wellness clinics for the pets of low-income families.

Our extensive foster care programs allow us to expand our capacity during peak times of the year, and our creative adoption programs encourage people to adopt a homeless pet rather than buy a pet from a breeder.

The confirmation is in the numbers. In 1999, more than 11,000 homeless dogs and cats were received at either the Richmond SPCA or RAC&C -- and 52 percent of them lost their lives. In 2008, about 7,000 homeless dogs and cats were received at one of the two agencies and 19 percent of them were euthanized. None of those were healthy animals.

There are significant challenges still ahead of us. We intend to save the life of every treatable sick or injured homeless animal in Richmond. We have made significant progress toward that goal by saving many of them in 2008. We are eager to work with Henrico County and Chesterfield County in similar partnerships in the near future so as to end the loss of life of healthy and treatable orphaned pets community-wide. We began such a relationship with Hanover County in 2008 and are already seeing a profound decline in the loss of companion animal lives there.

While there is more to be done, what we have accomplished in Richmond for orphaned pets is momentous. It has been a remarkable act of mutual determination on the part of the Richmond SPCA and RAC&C to end the killing -- and a testament to the wonderful compassion of our citizens who have helped us by changing old ways.

Together, we have made Richmond a national example of compassion and innovation.

Robin Starr is chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. Contact her at rstarr@richmondspca.org. Complete statistics on homeless animals cared for by the Richmond SPCA or RAC&C are available at www.richmondspca.org by clicking on About Us and then on Statistics.