San Francisco is close to becoming the first large no-kill city in the United States. But there is still much work left to be done to get to that point. Three members of the city’s Commission of Animal Control and Welfare recently presented what they call “One Possible Road Map to No Kill in San Francisco.” Though most agree their plan contains some good ideas, many say it’s still lacking some key components.

When the commission began exploring the idea of making the city by the bay a no-kill community, it sought the advice of a number of animal welfare organizations, including Best Friends Animal Society.

Focus on Felines

Gregory Castle, Best Friends co-founder and interim chief executive officer, traveled to San Francisco’s City Hall this summer to speak to the commission. “It would be easy for them to become a no-kill community with some commitment,” Castle says. “They have a very high save rate — about 85 percent. There are a lot of people who feel that if they just did a few things right now, they could become the biggest city in the U.S. to become no-kill.”

Castle told the commission there are some key things that must be in place if San Francisco wants to reach the goal of becoming no-kill community. Agencies and organizations, including Animal Care and Control, government agencies, the San Francisco SPCA, veterinarians, rescues, and other no-kill organizations — must form a coalition and work together toward the same goal. And one of those organizations must be willing to step up and take leadership of the group effort, providing coordination, motivation and direction, Castle says. He says the coalition must tap all available resources, and that there is money available from foundations such as Maddie’s Fund that is currently not being used to save lives in the San Francisco community. And if San Francisco and other cities across the nation are ever to reach the goal of No More Homeless Pets, they must keep those pets from entering shelters in the first place, Castle says. That means having programs that help animals with behavioral and medical issues so they can stay in their homes or find new ones. It also means having programs that address the most commonly euthanized animals in shelters — pit bulls and feral cats. “Pit Bulls: Saving America’s Dog” and “Focus on Felines” are two of four Best Friends campaigns aimed at reaching the goal of No More Homeless Pets. Read more about the campaigns here.

Where to go from here

After spending months hearing testimony from Castle and other animal welfare advocates, commission chairwoman Sally Stephens and commissioners Angela Padilla and Andrea Brooks put together “One Possible Road Map to No Kill in San Francisco.” The plan does indeed incorporate some of the advice from Castle and others, such as creating a coalition. Among other things, it would offer free or low-cost dog training classes and would develop a fund to pay for medical and behavioral treatment of animals at Animal Care and Control. It would create a halfway house for shelter animals to stay until foster homes could be found for them. It would provide education and outreach to help end the horrible blood sport of dogfighting, and it states that landlords can’t refuse to rent to pit bull guardians. In addition, it would make trap/neuter/return (TNR) an official city policy. But many, including Castle, say the plan doesn’t go nearly far enough. Castle says the policy should be a mandate and not just a resolution. He says Animal Care and Control should be mandated to run TNR programs, and that the city should also mandate programs that address pit bulls, feral cats and animals who enter shelters sick or in need of rehabilitation.

FixSanFrancisco.org, a group made up of local animal welfare advocates and organizations, agrees.

“We believe that legislation is absolutely necessary to accomplish no kill in San Francisco,” wrote Kathleen McGarr in a letter to commissioners on behalf of the group. “No kill legislation in San Francisco is a tangible goal within our reach. It is time to ensure that all savable animals in San Francisco have a secure future.” Stephens says the road map is by no means a final document. She and the other commissioners drafted it simply to get the discussion going. She says she’s not sure whether the final plan should be a mandate.

“If it is mandated, the city is saying you have to do this,” Stephens says. “If you don’t have programs in place to support it, it becomes an empty mandate. How do you enforce it? If they don’t meet the mandate, do you fine them? The money spent on fines could be going to the animals. If there was better coordination between these groups, no-kill would happen whether there’s a mandate or not.”

Pit Bulls: Saving America’s Dog

The importance of working together Getting all of San Francisco’s local organizations to work together and coordinate their efforts could prove to be a challenge. For a long time, the San Francisco SPCA, which is celebrating its 141st anniversary this year, was considered the model for how to do things right. The organization worked closely with animal care and control to help raise the city’s save rate to the impressive 85 percent it is today. It built a brand new adoption center and was one of the first organizations to create cage-free environments. But in the last couple years, some have criticized the organization for diluting its lifesaving programs and becoming less committed to no-kill.

One of the biggest criticisms of the SFSPCA is that it brings easily adoptable animals in from outside the community while refusing to take in many of the animals from animal care and control. According to FixSanFrancisco.org, the SFSPCA brought in more than 1,000 animals from outside the city in 2008 alone.

The SFSPCA is bringing in animals that are easy to adopt while “choosing to abandon the older black dog who needs his teeth cleaned,” McGarr says. Only when San Francisco reaches the goal of saving all of its own animals should it reach out to take in animals from other communities, the letter to commissioners said. According to FixSanFrancisco.org, any road map to no-kill must also:

• Establish that San Francisco shelters’ primary role is to save the lives of animals.
• Fully comply with California’s Hayden Law, including the section that requires shelters to transfer animals to rescue groups that are willing to take them.
• Make TNR an official city policy.
• Provide free and/or affordable spay/neuter services for all of the city’s low-income companion animals.
• Establish uniform criteria for determining if an animal is saved or killed.
• Prohibit killing animals based on arbitrary criteria such as breed bans.
• Require shelters to notify people surrendering animals about the possibility of those animals being killed.
• Refuse to kill savable, surrendered animals even when requested by the guardian, unless independent assessment has been made that the animal is irremediably suffering or hopelessly ill or injured.
• Require shelters to regularly report outcomes — how many animals are adopted, killed, transferred to other shelters or taken in by rescue groups — and conduct regular reporting of the outcomes. And, those statistics should be reported monthly rather than annually.
• Require both public and private shelters to have fully functioning adoption programs that include such things as offsite adoptions, use of the Internet and staying open seven days a week with some evening hours.
• Require shelters to involve qualified, trained volunteers in all aspects of animal saving endeavors, including fostering and socializing animals and assisting with adoptions.

Already having an 85 percent save rate, San Francisco is very close to becoming the country’s first large no-kill city. But everyone will need to work together if they’re going to make the final stretch to the finish line. Castle says the community as a whole must believe that the goal of No More Homeless Pets is possible and must be committed to getting there.

“None of it is very difficult,” Castle says. “They need to save an extra 600 animals a year.”

Written by Sandy Miller
Photos by Molly Wald

As part of Best Friends’ 25th anniversary in 2009, our goal is to double our membership, so we can double our efforts to bring about a time when all companion animals have a forever home. What can you do to help? Give the Gift of a Best Friends membership to family and friends.

September 19, 2009 : 3:32 PM ET
posted by: drcatwoman

I used to live in the Bay Area and am a proud alumna of UC Berkeley and San Francisco State. I now live in Seattle. I own my home, and my beloved companion is a black pit bull mix dog I found on the street who would have been killed at the shelter. She is fully rehabilitated, acts just like a normal pet, and her presence in the home has been disclosed to my insurance carrier.

I have a rental house as well in another state. A pitbull owner was interested in renting the house. I was advised by the property manager to check with my insurer first, who said I would not be covered if a pit bull lived in the house. In the end, the pit bull people did not like my house, but in the meantime I became a pit-bull-loving landlord who can't rent to families with pit bulls.

It's hard for me to understand how SF is going to force landlords to rent to pitbulls when you can't force a landlord to rent to someone with a kitten. As a landlord, I have sufferred more damages from peoples' children than from their pets, by the way. This is a difficult problem. But people who are providing much-needed rental housing should not be the ones required to solve it.

September 19, 2009 : 2:31 PM ET
posted by: marilyse

That would be just wonderful! How exciting...

I volunteer for a humane society and find it very hard when i hear that a cat or dog has been euthanized. When it is because of grave illness, it is sad.

When it is because a dog bit someone it is a lot sadder to think that the dog is euthanised because there is no one to try and correct the behavior which is probably the result of being caged for weeks in an overcrowded environment where pain and suffering can be heard clearly through the voices of the cats and dogs present and their pacing in the cages.

September 18, 2009 : 5:41 PM ET
posted by: lilkelst

San Francisco would do well to work on getting more landlords to accept pets, especially the large rental groups. This would help get animals out of shelters and keep them out. I can't tell you how many friends I have that would love to have a companion animal but are not allowed by landlords. When I have looked for rentals very few have been pet friendly and the few that are have strict weight/size/breed limits or extreme deposits. Unfortunately most San Franciscans have to rent due to the sky high price of real estate here.

September 18, 2009 : 10:23 AM ET
posted by: ialubitz

Other things that are needed to make this possible:

Mobile vet vans that would provide neuter/spay and other low cost or free services.

Crackdown on backyard breeders - except for rescue groups, require that a license number be posted with any pet sales ads in newspapers, magazines and on the internet.

Increase monitoring of stores that sell cats and dogs re where the animals come from and the care provided at the store.

September 18, 2009 : 9:33 AM ET
posted by: klaus von hagen

IT WOULD BE WONDERFUL IF SAN FRANCISCO COULD BECOME A LEADER FOR THE ENTIRE NATION IN BECOMING A NON-KILL SHELTER. MORE IN THIS REGARD NEEDS TO BE DONE.

ALSO, MORE SPAYING AND NEUTERING MUST BE ADVOCATED IN ORDER TO SOLVE THE SAD PROBLEM OF ANIMAL OVER-POPULATION.

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ARE WORKING FOR THIS CAUSE.

September 18, 2009 : 3:25 AM ET
posted by: WaltVasco

I could write a book here however I would like to raise just two points at this time. 1) When will all of you American Pit Bull Terrier lovers and advocates start using their proper name?? This in itself would help the breeds image and raise awareness that the APBT is one of Americas few breeds!! Pit bull is a lazy short cut that is to often used to describe many other similar looking breeds and mix of breeds. They have only one true name and it was given to them in 1898 by the United Kennel Club which was started that year in order to register the ( American Pit Bull Terrier ) as its first pure breed!

2) With all about San Fransisco, the Victory dogs and no kill shelters, why did I not see any mention here about the non-profit org. Bad Rap? (Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls ) They are the ones who took in and rehabilitated most of the Vick dogs.

The American Pit Bull Terrier is the most abused,misunderstood and discriminated breed in the world. It is so very sad to see what America is doing to this wonderful breed of dog which has many fantastic traits. Sadder yet that it is one of Americas OWN BREEDS!!!!!!!!!!

Please do all you can to help these great dogs. To end BSL. and also to improve their image.

Aloha and God Bless, Walt Vasco

September 17, 2009 : 9:40 PM ET
posted by: duckyjd

Yay! Great work, Gregory!

September 17, 2009 : 7:26 PM ET
posted by: purrful

I live in San Francisco and am a struggling independent rescuer. I have taken in cats with behaviorial issues who would have died in a shelter. We typically see year old males with biting issues because some one played rough with them when they were cute kittens but ditched them when they got old enough to really hurt when they bite and claw. They CAN be retrained. I had 4 like that find new homes. Also hypersensitive animals are seldom understood... lifelong they will be 1 minute cats... biting or clawing when petted longer as they get overstimulated. They are not wanted anywhere. I have one of those. Another problem is temporary housing for pets while their owner is homeless, or under long term hospital care or out of town. I've done that too but in many cases there needs to be financial support to encourage foster/hosting for these temporary situations that will enable the pet to remain with the owner long term. It is bad enough to be out of work, homeless or ill (or abused) and not be able to save your beloved pet as well. When "cat sitting" I make sure the owner can visit regularly.. it is emotionally important to both owner and pet. But what happens if the pet I am fostering needs medical care that their indigent owner cannot provide and that I cannot afford either? We need a fund for that, to encourage more people to be fosters by supporting them with medical care and food sources.. a lot of us may have room, but necessarily funds to help in these situations. Education is important too. I find myself explaining about ferals, or shelters or vaccines or many other things to people I meet in lines at clinics, in the pet food aisles of stores or during adoptions. I've seen some resources for education but no real coordinated effort. It is not easy to FIND the resources, even when they exist. Best Friends is an excellent source that could easily be a central one. I have shared the no more homeless pets article from your site with countless people trying to rehome animals whom I could not otherwise help. Now if we just had access to emergency food supplies and vet care!