Austin Animal Center, live up to your reputation as the leader in lifesaving. Stop threatening and killing healthy and treatable dogs.

Austin Animal Center leaders have made their careers as No Kill leaders. Last week, Austin Animal Center management, Austin Pets Alive, Best Friends, and others gathered for the American Pets Alive conference. They screened The Champions, about Best Friends' participation in the rescue and rehabilitation of the Vick dogs. Attendees heard about how Austin Pets Alive! is "saving the last ten percent," dogs with behavior issues, and they heard about Austin Animal Center's euthanasia protocol that ensures that animals are only euthanized when there are no other options.

And then there's the reality.

Austin Animal Center regularly asks Austin Pets Alive! to save dogs with behavior issues and those whose behavior in the shelter is fine but who are reported to have a history of injury to people or other animals. When the issue is the history, the records are often sketchy, lacking in documentation, and riddled with inconsistencies that are never resolved. APA saves many and "declines" some. When APA declines, Austin Animal Center automatically puts those animals on its "high risk list" (AKA euth list or kill list). Some of these dogs are killed. When they are saved, saving these dogs depends almost entirely on staff and volunteer advocacy, and it often depends on volunteers working under deadline to place the dog.

This is not No Kill leadership. This is emotional blackmail from management to volunteers (and some staff): advocate and find placement, or we'll kill this dog. It's incredibly hard on the staff and volunteers who care about these dogs, it is destructive to morale, and it's unnecessary.

Austin Animal Center has done an amazing job improving lifesaving and reducing killing. They're now saving around 98%.

Now it's time to stop this primitive, regressive practice of threatening the lives of healthy and treatable dogs, do away with the deadlines and work with volunteers and staff to save EVERY healthy and treatable animal.