Support Responsible, Open-Admission Sheltering Policies in Long Beach!

Long Beach city leaders are being pressured by some to implement “no-kill” policies at the city’s animal shelter. When shelters give in to pressure to “go no-kill” before they’ve eradicated the breeding and selling of animals in their communities, the results are often far worse for animals than a peaceful end through euthanasia. Dangerous “no-kill” policies include failing to screen and follow up with adopters adequately, handing animals over to anyone who will take them (including hoarders posing as “rescues”), re-abandoning homeless cats on the streets, refusing to accept stray and surrendered animals, requiring people to pay fees or get on long waiting lists in order to turn in animals, and more. These tactics may make shelters’ statistics look appealing, but they leave animals who desperately need help in grave danger.

Animals turned away from shelters don’t magically vanish. They’re often abandoned on the street, cruelly killed, neglected by people who can’t—or won’t—care for them, or given away to unscreened individuals, many of whom intend them serious harm. Alarming examples include those of a cat in Santa Rosa, California, who was strangled to death by his or her owners when they were faced with a waiting list and a $150 surrender fee and a dog who was “seen running around frantically in traffic” after his owners abandoned him when they were turned away from a “shelter” in Selma, California. Examples like these abound nationwide.

Please call or e-mail your council member today and let him or her know that you support open-admission policies at the Long Beach Animal Shelter. And please join us at the Mayor’s Animal Care Visioning Task Force meeting on Tuesday, April 16.

Where:
Long Beach City Hall, Council Chambers, 333 W. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach, CA 90802 (A parking structure is located at the intersection of W. Broadway and Chestnut Avenue.)

When:
Tuesday, April 16, 3:30 p.m.

A public comment period will allow speakers three minutes to share important information. Find talking points here and a sample statement below.

Sample Statement

I’m a Long Beach resident, and I’m concerned about the pressure being placed on the city shelter to implement policies that are designed to make statistics look appealing but endanger animals who depend on us for protection. I support open-admission shelter policies and urge city leaders to concentrate on the source of this complex problem: breeding. We can prevent animals from ending up homeless and needing to be sheltered in the first place by better enforcing Long Beach’s progressive ordinances requiring that animal guardians have their animal companions spayed or neutered and licensed.

Thank you.