Defining no-kill - Part Three

Okay, today, after six months, I am going to finish up the third and final part of this series.

Hopefully, you have taken the time to read the other two parts. They are available on the Gcdailyworld.com website under Community Bloggers.

In the first two parts, I discussed the different types of shelter and rescue intake as well as the difference in kill, no-kill and zero-kill organizations. We also discussed the reasoning for some of the types. Today, I want to close the series by discussing what we can do as a community to help prevent homeless and unwanted animals in the first place.

Imagine you are walking along a river and you see a kitten floating down, struggling to keep its head above water. So naturally you run into the water to save the kitten. While you are getting that kitten, you see another so you grab it too. Then there is another kitten, and another and they just keep coming. You frantically try to gather them all up to save them but it does not seem that the flow of kittens is slowing down at all. You are beginning to get exhausted by trying to save every kitten floating by. You have an important decision to make. Do you stay where you are, just trying to grab kittens and risk drowning or do you finally start moving upstream, saving kittens along the way but working your way towards the source of the kittens to put a stop to it.

This scenario is happening every day, across the country in shelters and rescues. While they are not in the middle of a river saving kittens, they are figuratively drowning in a continuous flow of unwanted animals. The public’s support of these organizations is imperative in them trying to handle the flow, but the piece that’s missing is the support to move upstream and stop the flow altogether.

As I move forward, I want to stress that these thoughts are mine solely. They are not necessarily a representation of the Greene County Humane Society’s official stance on any of it.

These are simply my personal beliefs on how we can improve the issue of organizations drowning in unwanted animals. Yes, I am going to step onto a soap box for a bit.

In Greene County, we have some of the most antiquated ordinances of any county when it comes to animal care and control. Many of the ordinances were originally passed in 1997, with some updates in 2017. I also wanted to look up the City of Linton’s ordinances out of curiosity and many of them were passed in 1984.

If you would like to read the ordinances for yourself, they can be found here:

Greene County: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/greeneco/latest/greeneco_in/0-0-0-1326

Linton: https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/linton/latest/linton_in/0-0-0-1154

Not mentioning the verbiage in either of the ordinances that does not reflect how things are actually done now or the fines and fees that are assessed, a few things stood out.

Only the Greene County ordinance mentioned the term “altered animal” and it was only twice and only in the definition section. There is zero requirement for people to have their animals altered/sterilized/spayed/neutered/etc. I don’t think there is any question that having your animals spayed/neutered is the number-one way to prevent unwanted animals. There can be a lot of debate on telling people that they have to have their animals spayed/neutered, how to handle intentional breeders, etc. A law was passed by the state and took effect in July of 2021 that required all animal shelters to alter animals before adoption or require the adopter to pay a deposit that could be refunded if the animal was altered within six months. That law could be expanded to breeders and pet stores. There is a lot that could be done but simply not doing anything is not a great option in my opinion.

Another place that I would like to see change is requiring microchipping for animals. The number-one way to get an animal back to its rightful owner is with a microchip. We provided free microchips to the community over the summer and were able to microchip over 200 animals, but there are so many more in the county that need to be done.

There is also so much room for helping to improve welfare overall. The ordinances in place mostly only require access to food and water as well as shelter. There are no required specifics in regard to extreme temperature, and the types of tethering is a bit vague. Unfortunately, a lot of the complaints that we hear about how people are housing their animals are perfectly allowable under the current ordinances.

To make things change, it is going to take all of us, moving upstream together, to stop the flow of animals. Are you asking yourself how you can help? Well, if you are of the age of majority and a US citizen, the place to start is with your elected officials. Call them, write them, email them, use a carrier pigeon if that’s your style. Speak to your town/city officials, county officials, state officials and even federal representatives. They need to know and understand that people care about animal welfare. Let them know if you are passionate about spay/neuter laws, microchip requirements or about overall welfare. No organization or person can make the change but the voters can. If our current officials don’t want to take action, then at the next election we can look for officials that do.

My ask to you is to sit down and write to your elected officials. Let them know that you care about these things and encourage them to make positive changes. Earlier this year, I communicated with both the Greene County Commissioners and the Mayor of Linton with suggestions for updating ordinances and nothing has been done. Let’s work together to make a change to help save our local animal rescuers from drowning.

Thanks for letting me be up on my soapbox for a bit. I truly appreciate you taking the time to read my column and doing so with an open mind. As always, I like to close with a quote. “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” -

Mahatma Gandhi.

Kegan is the president of the Greene County Humane Society Board of Directors.