This month, I celebrate my 20th anniversary with the Richmond SPCA. I mean it sincerely when I use the word “celebrate.” I am so deeply grateful for the incredible gift of being allowed to do a job every day that I love with people I love for the benefit of the animals I love so much. The day that I joined the staff of the Richmond SPCA 20 years ago was one of the luckiest days of my life. I have much to celebrate about the last 20 years and much to look forward to as well. Because I am not stopping any time soon.
Things were very different the day I first came to work at 1600 Chamberlayne Avenue in June of 1997. My daughter Tyler, who just completed her first year in law school, was only three years old then. I had spent quite a few years practicing law and had really no idea about how to run an animal shelter though I had served on the boards of this and other nonprofits, and as a corporate lawyer, I understood the financial management aspects of running businesses. I had tried to educate myself, but nothing really could have prepared me for an organization that took in nearly twice the number of animals that it could care for, kept all of its animal records on little paper cards filed in little drawers and had never engaged in any sort of organizational strategic planning in its entire history. I was even less prepared to head up an organization that took the lives of thousands of healthy and sweet animals every year and spoke publicly about its doing so as being a sad necessity. While I intellectually knew that great numbers of innocent animals were losing their lives at the hands of the Richmond SPCA, the first time I walked into the room-sized freezer filled with bodies was one I will never forget. I will always remember standing there after everyone else had gone home, alone in the freezing cold, looking at the carnage and knowing that this must change.
The start was rocky for other reasons too. There were a lot of people in other animal organizations who were not very nice or welcoming. They treated me with a hostility that had developed regarding the past practices of an organization that I was in the dark about. Neither the staff nor the people in other local animal rescue organizations had any interest in giving me any time to get my bearings and they most certainly were not going to help me. The exception was Geraldine Thornton who still works for the Richmond SPCA today. She was the same classy and kind lady then that she still is today, and I have always been grateful to her for all she did to help me through those early days.
I got to know Rich Avanzino of the San Francisco SPCA when I first began the job and he became my mentor. He was the architect of the no-kill movement and he helped me to understand what the no-kill philosophy really means in ethical terms and what it requires in practice. I came to understand that the enormous amount of killing that was the status quo around the country did not have to happen but that the challenges associated with changing that paradigm were tough. With the steadfast help and support of Emerson Hughes, who was Chairman of the Board of Directors in 1997, we challenged and changed the status quo. At that time, the idea that you would stop killing homeless animals was edgy and considered unrealistic by most people. They believed that there were too many homeless animals and too few homes for them and the only easy answer was to kill a lot of them. They called it “euthanasia” to make it sound less horrible. They justified it by saying that it was a kindness to give animals a dignified and gentle death.
Em and I both knew that it was not ethical and, no matter what may be the excuses about expediency and practicality, nothing will ever justify doing something that is unethical. We faced enormous local resistance and hostility. Emerson believed with me that systemic change was possible and that the time had come to make the Richmond SPCA and our community no-kill for the benefit of many thousands of animals. We showed that our no-kill goal could be accomplished through grit and dedication.
Over the 20 years since I started, the people of the Richmond SPCA (meaning our board, staff and volunteers) have worked with single-minded conviction as a true team to provide for our community the programs and services that it, like any community, must have if it is to stop relying on killing as its response to animal homelessness. Those programs and services, which have culminated in the Susan M. Markel Veterinary Hospital are why Richmond has achieved the excellent live release rate for homeless animals citywide that it has. Don’t let anyone kid you – cities do not become no-kill overnight nor because of the short term work or skill of any one person. It requires the provision of essential charitable programs and services that change a community’s way of behaving toward companion animals. That has been the work of the Richmond SPCA over the last two decades. You must not only give the people of the community the tools, but you must also push them to use those tools and to recognize their own personal role in saving animals’ lives. We have done that and our entire city now has a remarkable live release rate to show for it (over 90 percent in 2016).
These 20 years have not been without some tough patches. I have learned that some people who care about animals can be stunningly lacking in compassion for other humans. But any life worth living will test you at times and any work worth doing is bound to be hard. If there is anything I believe in deeply it is the ultimate value of perseverance. At the end of the day, perseverance is the only thing that truly matters in achieving what you aim for. I would say the same thing about myself as Louis Pasteur said: Let me tell you the secret that has led to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.
There also have been absolutely wonderful people I have met in my work who have become my dearest friends and true exemplars of compassion. The greatest gift to my life over these last 20 years is that I truly love to go to work each day. My daily partner and dearest friend for the last fifteen years has been our Chief Operating Officer Tamsen Kingry. I absolutely do not know what I would have done without her incredible generosity of spirit when I went through difficult times, her wisdom, counsel and dedication through all of the challenges and her great companionship that has made our work together fun. She has truly had my back for a lot of years and I admire everything about her as a person.
None of this would ever have been possible without my incredible husband and daughter. They have been true partners to me in this lifesaving work and they are deeply dedicated to the Richmond SPCA. Ed is always delighted to do whatever the Richmond SPCA and I need him to do to help animals in need and many of “my” best ideas have really been his.
I am so very proud of all that we have done and so excited about what the coming years will bring. Mostly I am proud of the deep integrity with which this organization operates. We will keep on challenging the status quo for animals. I continue to love to go to work each day and will keep doing it so long as that continues to be true. While I take great pride in what the Richmond SPCA has accomplished for the animals of Richmond over the last 20 years, there are so many animals, especially sick and injured ones, suffering and dying all across Virginia. They are waiting for us to save them. And we are on our way.
Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read her biography or that of our other bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires both your first and last name to be used as your screen name.
This is just beautiful! You are such an inspiration to so many who go through the hardest of times when in rescue....especially at the beginning. Thank you for all you do Robin! And congratulations!!
Posted by: Melissa Crampton | June 06, 2017 at 07:00 PM
Thank you for all you have done to make the Richmond SPCA the organization that it is today. I am so proud to be a volunteer with this organization and I never stop talking about the Richmond SPCA.
Posted by: Linda MAroney | June 07, 2017 at 08:28 PM