(This is what I plan to say April 23, 6:30 PM at the City Council Meeting. Please come and speak up for your cat or dog.) Thank you Mayor, City-Manager and Council, Three weeks ago, I took a stray dog who had a bite mark on her to the VCA animal hospital and spent almost $200 to get the dog shots and a check up. Without the ability to care for another dog at my home, I wanted to take the dog to our Big Bear shelter. I spoke with the staff and they explained that they would take the dog in but would not give the dog the prescribed antibiotics the VCA animal hospital next door had just given to me to give to her. With no where to go, I asked my friend Teresa who lives in Big Bear City if she could foster the dog. With open arms, she welcomed Sweat Pea. No restrictions. Assumed 100% of the risk. And was happy to give Sweat Pea her anti-biotics From there, I found Eloise Rescue to pay to spay Sweat Pea at VCA. During the surgery, we learned that Sweat Pea was newly pregnant and we decided to terminate the pregnancy due to the fact that Sweat Pea had received the rabies vaccination, other shots, and was on now on anti-biotics. Without our community involvement, this dog would have had between 6 to 8 abandoned puppies and the cycle would have begun all over again. 8 times. So, what’s the solution? Nathan Winograd of No Kill Advocacy Center asked me to read this invitation to you. Dear Mayor, City-Manager and City Council, We now have a solution to animal shelter killing and it is not difficult, expensive, or beyond practical means to achieve. No Kill is a humane, sustainable, cost-effective model that allows open admission animal control shelters to save all healthy and treatable animals. Unlike the “adopt some and kill the rest” form of animal sheltering that dominates in the United States and is responsible for the needless killing of millions of animals every year, municipal No Kill shelters are saving as much as 99% of all animals entrusted to their care. By working with people, embracing lifesaving programs, and treating each life as precious, a shelter can transform itself. And here’s even more good news: the more animals a community shelter saves, the more money people in the community spend on those animals. A University of Denver study found that the total dollar value of additional spending and other economic impact realized by one city over a 6-year period as a result of passing a No Kill ordinance was over $150,000,000. Saving lives not only makes ethical sense; it makes dollars and cents. The No Kill Advocacy Center has helped numerous communities in their transition to No Kill and they can help ours, too. Please do not hesitate to contact them: https://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org Thank you.