Companion Animal Protection Act
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Too many shelters are not voluntarily implementing the No Kill Equation. As a result, animals are being needlessly killed. In response, the No Kill Advocacy Center has developed model legislation to help animal lovers and animal advocates achieve their goal of No Kill communities: The Companion Animal Protection Act.
This law mandates the programs and services which have proven so successful at lifesaving in shelters which have implemented them; follows the only model that has actually created a No Kill community; and, focuses its effort on the very shelters that are doing the killing. As a result, it provides a framework for success unavailable from traditional legislative models such as punitive legislation aimed at the public or through counterproductive national efforts that legitimize the killing. |
CAPA highlights:
- Establishes the shelter’s primary role as saving the lives of animals;
- Declares that saving lives and protecting public safety are compatible;
- Establishes a definition of No Kill that includes all savable animals including community cats;
- Protects rabbits and other animals, as well as dogs and cats;
- Makes it illegal for a shelter to kill an animal if a rescue group or No Kill shelter is willing to save that animal;
- Requires shelters to provide animals with fresh food, fresh water, environmental enrichment, exercise, veterinary care, and cleanliness;
- Makes it illegal for shelters to kill owner relinquished animals without making them available for adoption or transfer to a rescue group, even in cases where the owner wants the animal killed unless the animal is suffering;
- And more…
Why CAPA?
For No Kill success to be widespread and long lasting, we must focus on institutionalizing No Kill by giving shelter animals the rights and protections afforded by law. Every successful social movement results in legal protections that codify expected conduct and provide protection against future conduct that violates normative values.
We need to regulate shelters in the same way we regulate hospitals and other agencies which hold the power over life and death. The answer lies in passing and enforcing shelter reform legislation which mandates how a shelter must operate.
CAPA saves lives, saves taxpayer money, improves public health and safety, and is popular with voters.
For No Kill success to be widespread and long lasting, we must focus on institutionalizing No Kill by giving shelter animals the rights and protections afforded by law. Every successful social movement results in legal protections that codify expected conduct and provide protection against future conduct that violates normative values.
We need to regulate shelters in the same way we regulate hospitals and other agencies which hold the power over life and death. The answer lies in passing and enforcing shelter reform legislation which mandates how a shelter must operate.
CAPA saves lives, saves taxpayer money, improves public health and safety, and is popular with voters.
CaliforniaIn 1998, California passed a rescue rights law making it illegal for shelters to kill animals if rescue groups were willing to save them. The law has been an unqualified success.
The law increased the percentage of animals sent to rescue groups rather than killed by 370%, an additional 46,000 animals a year. That law has also resulted in significant taxpayer savings for municipalities.
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New YorkA NYS survey showed that 71% of rescue groups have been turned away by a NYS shelter and killed the very animals they offer to save. The survey also showed that half have been the subject of retaliation for exposing neglect and abuse in shelters.
Communities that embrace No Kill not only save on the cost of killing and bring in additional adoption revenue and other user fees, but also provide an economic boon to local business.
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DelawareSince passing CAPA in 2010, Delaware has seen a decline in killing by roughly 80%.
The Delaware Office of Animal Welfare notes that the law “established common-sense statutes to improve the health and wellbeing of animals temporarily housed in shelters,” including “vaccination upon intake,” “veterinary care for sick or injured animals,” and “holding periods to allow owner reunification or transfer.”
It notes the law requires that animals must be held and given to rescue groups rather than killed. And then states that it “has improved the quality of care animals receive in shelters and has saved thousands of animals that would have otherwise been euthanized due to outdated policies and practices. Prior to this law, healthy dogs and cats were euthanized very quickly, sometimes while their owners were looking for them.” |
