Richmond SPCA Blog

Fact check: Are pets adopted at the holidays more likely to be returned?

The Richmond SPCA found lasting homes for Curly, Panther, Sweet Pea, Nila and Lyra during the 2018 holiday season.

The news media has been under considerable scrutiny and attack lately. Many people feel a deep distrust of the news media while others, and I would count myself among this group, believe that the news media is an essential component of our constitutional freedoms and that reporters in general get most things right factually. This difference of opinion about the proper faith to place in the news media has been front and center in our national debate. That is why it is particularly disturbing to me to be confronted with our own local news media misleading the public with inaccurate information and failing to do even the most cursory job of checking out the truth of their story before running with it.

This past Friday, NBC12 ran a news story about returns of pets from holiday adoptions. The story fed into the popular but unsupportable narrative that people should be discouraged from adopting pets at the holidays because the rate of returns from those adoptions are higher. The story was entitled “Animal Rescue Centers See Increase in Holiday Gift Pet Returns.” Please note that the headline says “Centers” in the plural. The NBC12 reporter’s support for this premise was a single woman who runs a small local cat rescue group. She was quoted as saying that she had received a large number of contacts in recent days from people wanting to surrender pets they had adopted at the holidays. She noted that her organization had not adopted out any pets over the holidays (so much for the “returns” part of the title) and she added that “normal shelters” do not accept returns of pets they have adopted out. There was no interview of anyone from any “normal shelter” and no confirmation through any empirical data that the story’s premise that holiday adoptions result in greater returns was true.

We were stunned and frustrated. First, it is absolutely untrue that “normal shelters” don’t accept returns of adopted pets. I can only guess that the Richmond SPCA would be included in the rubric of “normal shelter” and we most certainly accept returns of adopted pets that occur within a reasonable period of time, generally six months. That is not unusual for shelters but typical.

Even more troubling was the lack of any hard evidence supporting the premise of the story and the lack of any effort to obtain such support – the reporter had made no contact to us nor apparently to any other local shelter. The Richmond SPCA tracks its statistics with great care at all times. We constantly examine our statistical results to keep track of outcomes and trends to be sure that we achieve the highest rate of life saving possible. We carefully track the returns on holiday adoptions every year and they generally are a bit lower than our annual rates of return. Total returns of adopted pets during our two most recent fiscal years were between 10 and 11 percent. Returns of adopted pets during the weeks following the holiday season in each of those years were less than 10%.

Dolly's family is among the adopters who have formed lasting bonds with pets adopted at the holidays. She is now known as Miss Sassy Britches and celebrated her seventh adoption anniversary on December 28.

The NBC12 “news” story is also unclear whether it is talking about all holiday adoptions or adoptions of pets to be given as gifts to someone else – it indiscriminately alternates in the type of adoptions it refers to. Neither the Richmond SPCA nor any other responsible humane organization supports the adoption of a pet to be given as an unexpected gift to someone else, but this is true at any time of the year, not just at the holiday season.

I understand a few things are at play here. First, the story seemed to support a premise which is often seen as a widely circulated article of faith. But, the news media has a sacred responsibility to approach stories with healthy skepticism – they must dig to see if the actual empirical facts support something that has been long promoted popularly rather than to just accept minimal anecdotal support as adequate which is what was done here.

Secondly, the news media must engage in precise and critical thinking. Thus, a good reporter must not blur the line between general adoptions done at the holiday season and adoptions of pets as an unexpected gift for someone else.

Just so you know, we contacted NBC12 after the story ran and raised our concerns with them asking that they run another story correcting the inaccuracies of the story they ran. They did not give us the courtesy of a reply.

I am well aware that the news media often treats stories about animals as fluff topics. They don’t really approach them with the discipline that would be applied to other subjects. This is insulting to those of us in the field of animal welfare but, more importantly, it is tragic and dangerous for animals. Homeless animals are depending on the Richmond SPCA and other “normal shelters” to save their lives. We must never casually discourage adoptions for reasons that lack validity since adoptions are the only way that we continue to be able to save the lives of more homeless animals. If people are inclined to adopt at the holidays, then we must do all we can to facilitate and promote those adoptions if there is no actual factual foundation for the idea that those adoptions are less likely to last. No matter how much NBC12 or anyone else wishes to promote that old canard, it just is not true.   

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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.

Inaccurate claims fill Clear the Shelters critique in "The New York Times"

Richmond SPCA adoption counselors and retail staff display the names of 88 pets adopted on August 18 during Clear the Shelters.

The New York Times ran an opinion piece on August 18 by Carol Mithers titled “Are We Loving Shelter Dogs To Death?” It seems likely that it was timed to adversely impact the national Clear the Shelters event, a fee waived, or reduced fee, adoption event in which the Richmond SPCA participated along with many shelters across the country. Our staff worked so hard that day to make the most of this adoption opportunity, and they were justifiably proud of having sent a remarkable 88 deserving pets off to good and loving homes by the end of the day. Ours was one of many shelters that successfully adopted many more pets to homes than they would in a normal day. For a writer to seek to retard this kind of lifesaving work, while also providing an inaccurate perspective of the no-kill movement, is irresponsible.

Ms. Mithers, who has written on many diverse topics but who has no shelter management experience, used as a springboard the story of a dog named Valerie who sadly died near Los Angeles on August 6. Ms. Mithers opens her piece with the claim that Valerie had been the victim of abuse including sexual assault. However, by August 16, two days prior to the NYT’s publication of the piece, the Los Angeles Police Department had issued a statement based on a forensic veterinary report that quashed these claims. The department's Animal Cruelty Task Force also concluded that there was no evidence to support the allegation that Valerie was thrown from a car, one of many pieces of misinformation spread in Facebook posts. 

Despite the facts of the case not suiting her narrative, Ms. Mithers goes on to use this tragic anecdote to indict the entire no-kill movement and to conclude that the problems with companion animals entering and dying in shelters nationally is due to their bad luck in belonging to people in poverty. She indicates, inaccurately, that the no-kill movement presents “adoption … as the only alternative to euthanasia.” Everyone who is a part of the valid no-kill movement, including me, believes that a combination of shelter adoption promotion, easily accessible pet sterilization, and pet retention support programs is the foundation of creating no-kill communities. 

I agree with her assertion that lack of financial resources is responsible for many people relinquishing their pets at animal shelters because the pet has a medical or behavioral issue that they lack the funds to address. This, of course, is why pet retention support is so crucial. The Richmond SPCA provides our community with a very low cost, full service veterinary hospital that provides veterinary care to the pets of low income pet guardians. We also offer free behavioral guidance from experienced trainers to pet guardians so that they can work through behavioral challenges.  What I don’t agree with, and find quite offensive, are her unmistakable suggestions that: (1) people of low income should not be allowed to adopt pets because they won’t care for them and (2) no-kill shelters such as the Richmond SPCA are enabling abusers and other irresponsible adopters in order to engage in a “numbers game.” 

Ms. Mithers offers no empirical data whatsoever to support these objectionable hypotheses and even goes so far as to state that “Adoption becomes a feel-good ‘numbers game’…. No one notes how many of them end up back in the system.” Saying that the dedicated people who work for animal shelters are simply playing a “numbers game” is an insult to the sincerity of our devotion to saving animals’ lives. The statement that no one notes how many animals are returned is flat out untrue. The Richmond SPCA like most other responsible shelters carefully tracks returns and actively stays in touch with adopters after adoption to make sure that the placement is going well. Returns from adoption promotion events do not vary from our normal rates of return which hover around 8 percent.

Biggie is a Richmond SPCA alumnus, adopted in 2016, who continues to be a patient in our Susan M. Markel Veterinary Hospital. Because they had access to low-cost treatment, Biggie's family was able to keep him in spite of a life-threatening medical emergency.

Ms. Mithers acknowledges that models exist to help support low income pet owners, but she only offers up one example of a financial assistance program for low income pet owners already considering relinquishment. The real answer lies in providing the sorts of pet retention programs that the Richmond SPCA provides to our community to give pet guardians of low income access to high quality affordable veterinary care and behavioral guidance so that their pets may stay healthy and the relationship stays positive without ever getting to
the point of considering relinquishment.

Is it expensive to provide these programs? Yes, of course, it is. But, we have managed to raise the charitable resources to provide them in a community that is not particularly affluent but is very supportive of animal welfare efforts. Providing these programs allows a community to be ethical and compassionate in its treatment of companion animals. We recognize that people of low income can provide lasting, loving homes just like affluent people can. Homeless pets desperately need those homes. So, if we provide programs that help low income guardians both acquire and keep their pets, then we open up many possible loving homes for pets and save massive numbers of lives.

Ms. Mithers conveniently leaves unsaid what will happen to these pets if shelters do not provide every opportunity to get them adopted along with programs to support those adoptions. Let’s be clear about this point. What will happen is that many thousands of homeless animals will die in shelters, even though they are healthy, or treatable, and deserving of a good life. That is not only tragic; it is unethical. 

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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.

Rescue from Paradise: Saving the lives of homeless dogs from Nevis island

The vast majority of the pets in our care come to us from Virginia shelters where their lives are at risk before we take them. Some come to us from local pet guardians who are not able to keep their pets even with the use of our considerable pet retention support services. Occasionally, we will take into our care pets from somewhere outside of our state when we believe that they are at particular risk and we are in a unique position to step in and help save them. Never before last week had we taken pets from the island of Nevis. (Nevis is an island in the Leeward Island chain which is part of the West Indies, and it was the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton.) The Richmond SPCA now has seven lovely and very fortunate dogs here who came to us from Nevis. Most of them are a type of dog that is sometimes referred to as a “coconut retriever.”

Olivia is the puppy whose discovery led my friend to the island's shelter. She has a home waiting to adopt her. Photo courtesy of Erin Edgerton (click to enlarge)

The story of how they got to us is a wonderful one of human devotion to saving and protecting these very vulnerable dogs. A few weeks ago, a friend of mine went to Nevis on a family vacation. While there, she came upon a precious puppy who seemed to be all alone and was trapped inside a fenced area. The puppy, desperate to stay with my friend, managed to extract herself from the fence. My friend then sought to take the puppy to an animal shelter. That is when my friend learned that there was only one shelter on Nevis, and it was in the process of closing for good. She came to know two British couples who had been working with the shelter for many months and were very concerned to find the way to save the dogs in the shelter from being simply turned out on the island to fend for themselves. The treatment of dogs on Nevis can be brutal, their chances for long-term survival are poor and their deaths are often miserable.

So, my friend contacted me and we began to discuss how the Richmond SPCA could help her and these two dedicated couples to save these dogs. It was an effort that was quite unusual for us, but we felt it was important that we help them save these dogs’ lives. The five of them found the way, which was quite complicated, to get health certificates and have the dogs flown to the United States on several different flights. We agreed to take seven of the dogs, and they have been working to place the others in the US. They have driven the dogs great distances to ensure that they reach sheltering organizations who have agreed to help. It has been challenging and time consuming, but they have been deeply committed to not letting any of these dogs die.

Robin visits with two of the "Golden Girls" on Friday, April 27. (click to view full-size GIF)

The Nevis dogs we agreed to take arrived here in two groups last week. We now have in our care two puppies, one adult male named Epperson and four light brown females (dubbed “the golden girls” for obvious reasons) named Bluebell, Star, Coby and Saffy. Epperson is a calm, sweet, easy going and affectionate boy even though his leg bears the scar of a machete that was still lodged in it when he arrived at the shelter on Nevis. The golden girls are all quite nervous and will need time to adjust and feel safe in their new life. They all are gentle and loving. Our staff is showering them with affection and quiet, patient attention to help them come to feel secure.

Epperson will be treated for heartworms at the Richmond SPCA before he is made available for adoption.
Photo courtesy of Erin Edgerton (click to enlarge)

The devotion of the humans involved in this rescue effort has touched my heart. My friend and these two couples have sacrificed enormous amounts of their time and their personal resources to make sure that these precious dogs were not left to a terrible fate in Nevis. Thanks to them, these dogs made it here safely. That outcome was not an easy one to achieve, but they made sure it happened. These dogs will spend the rest of their lives in loving homes.

The dogs involved in this rescue effort have shown us yet again what amazing resilience our canine friends possess and how touching is their bond to humans. I marvel at the ability of dogs to deal with change and adversity and to accept and return human love despite life experiences that might well have turned them against the human race. These seven dogs will need time for us to provide the medical attention and behavioral support they need, but before long, they will be ready to start their new lives as Virginians. I know our community will welcome them.

Nevis island: Nala

Photos courtesy of Erin Edgerton

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Nevis island: Epperson

Photos courtesy of Erin Edgerton

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Nevis island: Olivia

Photos courtesy of Erin Edgerton

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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.

New statistical tool from the Petco Foundation demonstrates how Data Saves Lives in Virginia

Recently, the Petco Foundation made publicly available a remarkable new asset to the field of animal welfare in the form of a well-designed tool for valuable statistical analysis. After I was first introduced to it and then spent time discovering its extraordinary capabilities, I was thrilled. I was particularly thrilled about the fact that the first state’s statistics that have been utilized for this wonderful new resource are those of Virginia. That is because Virginia has required shelters and other releasing agencies to provide their intake and outcome statistics to the state for public access for the longest time. The Petco Foundation’s plan, as I understand it, is to provide this same tool for the statistics of other states that require such record keeping and also to use it to urge states that do not currently require such filings of the immense value of doing so.

The field of animal welfare was resistant for many years to the notion of transparency. That attitude existed because of the fear of many people running animal shelters that the public would not react well to being confronted with the hard, cold realities of the vast loss of animal lives that was occurring. As improved life-saving results have been achieved through the spread of progressive approaches in much of our state and others, there has also come a recognition that the public deserves to have clear and unfettered access to accurate statistics of the actual  results, both good and bad.

This statistical tool provided by the Petco Foundation may be found at Data Saves Lives.  Scroll down past the heading “Virginia’s Progress” and you will see the data tool. There are several tabs at the top:

• Summary provides consolidated data.
• Year Over Year Trend shows animals by category coming in and going out of sheltering organizations.
• Trend Analysis allows for analysis of organizational effectiveness and makes it possible to make valuable comparisons.
• Lastly, a map shows the lifesaving occurring in each municipality in our state.

The map demonstrates very clearly the impressive progress that has been made in most of Virginia in life-saving over the years, and the absolutely tragic lack of such progress in certain pockets of the state.

In 2005, the combined euthanasia rate for dogs and cats for the entire state of Virginia was 43 percent. In 2017, it had been brought down to 14 percent—yes, 14 percent was the statewide euthanasia rate for every reporting agency in the state combined last year. And yet, still in 2017, there were certain Virginia sheltering organizations with euthanasia rates in the mid-70’s.

In our own community, the save rate for the City of Richmond (inclusive of all public and private shelters and rescue groups) was 96 percent. The save rate for the entire community (inclusive of all public and private shelters and rescue groups in Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, Chesterfield and Goochland) was 90 percent.

If you play with each of the tools you will see how they may be used to provide a large range of information about sheltering organizations and striking comparisons that will permit us to bring clarity to what programs, services and policies are actually working to save more lives. It also makes crystal clear where there are geographic pockets of large loss of life in the middle of geographic areas that are succeeding in saving the vast majority of animals coming into the care of shelters. This clarity dispatches the long-standing claims that loss of life in some communities is just a necessary evil and that the status quo is not subject to change. I have long believed in the importance of basing our choices regarding policies, procedures, programming and messaging on actual empirical data and not on old assumptions and outdated notions about both people and animals. This tool that Petco Foundation has generously put the resources into providing moves our field mightily in that direction. Now we can see exactly what is working and what is not and where each is occurring. 

Like every instance of greater knowledge becoming more widely accessible, we need to make sure that it is used properly and successfully. Organizations and communities must be willing to look honestly at the data and the comparisons it affords and be willing to change long-standing concepts and old habit patterns to more closely resemble those practices that are working to save lives in similar communities.

I am so grateful for this tool. The Richmond SPCA made a commitment to the no-kill philosophy and model long before it was as widely accepted as it is now. That commitment changed everything about how we operated. It was a gutsy thing to do at the time and a decision that we will always be proud of having made. The back lash we took in the early years of our commitment, and still do take from some quarters, for our stance was well worth the immense life-saving success it has brought to the precious animals of our community and state. If there is anything that is clear from the comparisons that can now be made with this tool, it is that every community can save all of their healthy and treatable animals if they are willing to look honestly at how that success has been achieved elsewhere and undertake progressive changes.

George Orwell said that telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Petco Foundation has had the courage to be a revolutionary and I am deeply grateful to them. 

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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.

All for show: Animal cruelty conviction of show dog breeder reveals inhumane breeder practices

A recent news story in the Washington Post encapsulated the frustrating struggle that we who advocate for animals and their well-being so often experience. The article detailed the conviction of Joan Huber, a “luminary on the dog show circuit,” (that is a bit like being the tallest building in Galax) for animal cruelty. She was turned in to authorities not by anyone in animal welfare but by her own employees who were horrified by her cropping the ears of her “show dogs” without proper and legally required veterinary medical care and even without anesthetic. Many, but not all, of her dogs went to animal rescue organizations for care and adoption to good homes – ones that will not subject them to painful mutilation.

Huber has become the poster child for show breeders’ whining about the inroads they see being made on their ability to exploit animals for profit.  They decry what they love to refer to as “AR” people – that abbreviation means animal rights. They believe that it is an insult to us if they suggest that we are so nuts as to believe that animals should have the right to not suffer abuse. The AKC seems to be unsure how to react to Huber’s prosecution and conviction, delivering a vague public statement about Huber’s conviction that indicates that she cannot use their “services” currently and that they like veterinary care to be used for the mutilation of pure bred dogs. But, their own legislative liaison has sought to portray people in animal welfare as being mentally unstable.

Let’s be clear: Huber was performing an absolutely unnecessary mutilation of a healthy animal. That is what the cropping of ears and docking of tails is. She was doing it without any professional veterinary medical care being provided. Her excuse is that she was married to a veterinarian for six and a half years. I am not making this up. I suppose you would be happy for me to cut off your ear without any anesthesia if I had been married to a physician at one time in the past, right?

Leaving aside the unnecessary nature of this form of abusive mutilation, doing this cropping without veterinary medical care is practicing veterinary medicine without a license and none of the rest of us is allowed to do that. Why should these show breeders be allowed to do that?

Huber has said publicly that she believes that humane organizations who took in her dogs after they were seized from her were delighted because they got dogs worth thousands of dollars for free. This display of arrogance and ignorance on her part discloses a total lack of comprehension of the work of private animal shelters. We are dedicated to saving the lives of animals whose lives are at risk. We don’t see any pet as being “worth” any sum of money, and we don’t care about pure bred dogs any more or any less than any other dog. The Richmond SPCA puts great amounts of time, money and love into rehabilitating dogs and cats who come to us with illnesses and injuries largely due to their mistreatment and neglect at the hands of humans. We don’t care whether they are pure bred or not.

The Washington Post article quotes her fellow show breeders in discussing Huber’s conviction for animal abuse as saying that “this has got to stop.” What exactly has got to stop? Our advocacy for animals to be treated with compassion and for the value of their lives and their sentient natures to be respected? Sorry, our dedicated work for that progress for animals will not stop. The belligerent arguments of these people that their dogs are their property and so they should be able to mistreat and abuse them however they wish is not a perspective that can ever be squared with a principled view of the role of humans as stewards of this planet. Compassionate and unselfish treatment of the animals who love us and depend on us can never be effectively portrayed as crazy. Just kind and decent.

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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.

Stopping the killing starts with individual choices

Do you know who Nemo is? Not Captain Nemo who was the ship captain in Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. And, not the wayward little fish in “Finding Nemo.” More recently, another Nemo has been in the news who is the new dog of President and Madame Macron of France. That Nemo was adopted by the French First Couple from a shelter in France where he had arrived as a stray.

BBC News: France's President Macron adopts black dog called Nemo

When I read recently of Nemo’s adoption by the Macrons, I was grateful for the fine example that they are setting of adopting a formerly homeless pet, rather than buying a pure bred dog from a breeder or pet store. I wish so much that message would be more effectively conveyed here in the United States. Note that I use the word “effectively.” Despite our many and long-standing efforts to convince people that they must adopt and not shop, I find myself feeling discouraged at times about making headway in convincing people of moderate affluence of the critical importance of adopting their pets from shelters.

I have experiences so often with friends and acquaintances of means who tell me that they are in a position to bring a new pet into their home. I always seek to convince them to give a chance to a shelter pet. The scenario unfolds pretty much the same way each time. They say they will consider it. Soon, I call them about some very special, cute, sweet dogs or cats we have at the Richmond SPCA. They usually will come see them to humor me, but it stops there. While they are visiting with the pets we are showing them, they tell me how they really want something very specific, which is something different from what these pets are. It is usually a specific breed that they have had in the past and are convinced is the only great dog in the world. I explain that the world is full of great dogs of many types. They tell me that they are worried that they don’t know the past of the dogs in our shelter. They often spout that old canard about how they want a puppy because they can be sure to train that puppy to have the exact personality they want in their next pet. I explain that dogs and cats are individuals and, while good training is a fine thing, you must not imagine that you will be able to write the exactly desired personality on a blank slate, any more than you can or should create your child’s own personality. I explain the bigger picture – that shelters are full of wonderful homeless animals and, if we are to create and sustain no-kill communities, we must participate personally in giving a home to a homeless pet. I make clear that their own personal behavior contributes directly to our life-saving success. They smile, pretend to agree and then go out and get a pet from a breeder.

I am going to be frank here. This pattern I am describing happens with fairly affluent people. People who can have pretty much exactly what they want. Despite our efforts to persuade them, many of them simply refuse to acknowledge how their own behavior about the acquisition of a new pet directly affects whether homeless animals live or die. They want to remain in oblivious denial in order to have their heart’s desire. It is all about them.  

But their own behavior about acquiring a pet really does directly affect whether or not wonderful animals survive. They don’t die here in our care, but if we don’t adopt them out, then we cannot bring more in from places where those animals’ lives are at risk. Every adoption allows there to be another life saved.

There is no excuse for buying a pet from a breeder or pet store. None. Full stop. Every single one of us can be a part of the solution and can play a role in stopping the needless killing of dogs and cats in shelters. You can get a wonderful and loving pet at the same time as you do the right thing ethically. I have one of those wonderful pets lying next to me right now as I type this.

Binks, a kitten with cerebellar hypoplasia, was adopted on July 12. His severe neurological conditions require special accommodations his adopter was willing to make for him.

Is every pet in a shelter perfect? Of course not. They have often had tough lives before they get to us. They may need some love and some patience. But no animal, and no person for that matter, is ever perfect. The truth is that that supposedly perfect little puppy they may buy from a breeder won’t be perfect either.

Saving lives is what we do. And, I cannot find the words to express the depth of my gratitude to the wonderful people who adopt animals in need from us. Especially for the wonderful folks who adopt pets with medical or behavioral challenges. They are life-savers and heroes. Just like the President and First Lady of France, they set the example of the right thing to do. I wish the other folks out there would listen to and heed that message. 

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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.

Reflecting on 20 years as chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA

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. 

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 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. 

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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.

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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.

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The company PETA keeps

The company you keep: it really says a lot about you. Mark Twain and many others have told us that the kind of people you associate with says an enormous amount about who you are and has a large impact on who you become, whether for better or for worse.

So, it is clear that PETA has chosen a lawyer to represent them who behaves in a way that is consistent with his client’s attitudes and behavior. A remarkable letter was sent to the attorneys in the lawsuit Wilbur Llaven v. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals by Judge Everett A. Martin, Jr., the presiding judge in the case. In the letter, which is a highly unusual thing for a judge to send and to place on the public record, Judge Martin makes clear that the conduct of Phillip Hirschkop, who is PETA’s lawyer in this case and who has represented PETA for many years in many matters, has been appalling. Judge Martin says that Mr. Hirschkop has said things in open court that were discourteous, unprofessional and outright contemptuous. Wow.

The Llaven case, as you may recall, concerns the theft by PETA personnel of the Llaven-Zarate family’s healthy young dog off of the front porch of their home after which PETA representatives killed the innocent dog. It is a course of conduct that is beyond explanation or defense. It is reflective of the massive numbers of killings that PETA has done and continues to do at their Norfolk facility (which does not deserve to be called a “shelter”) of innocent animals who deserved a life in a loving home. PETA has tried for years to defend this indefensible behavior with claims that the animals they have killed were all sick, injured or elderly. However, they have never produced any substantive evidence of the factual truth of this claim nor does it square with what those of us in this field know about the likely proportion of animals in any community that are too sick or injured to be susceptible of treatment.   

It is not surprising that PETA’s attorney behaves in a way that is bullying and abusive to others because that is consistent with his client’s history. I have no doubt that Mr. Robb and the other attorneys on the other side in this case will not be successfully bullied and can deal with whatever Mr. Hirchskop tries to dish out. Such behavior only reflects terribly on the person engaging in it and jeopardizes a lawyer’s good reputation with judges, such as Judge Martin. It also lets us know that his client believes that bullying and trash talking is an acceptable way of trying to escape accountability for the injuries you have inflicted on others. That PETA would choose a lawyer to represent them who conducts himself in this manner says a great deal about its nature as an organization.  

Read Judge Everett's letter: Download Judge_Everett_A_Martin_VA_Fourth_Circuit [Llaven vs PETA]

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Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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A dog once left for dead in Kuwait City travels thousands of miles to be saved

About a month ago, I read a plea on Facebook from my friend and fellow animal welfare professional Sue Bell, who was seeking help for a dog halfway around the globe in Kuwait City. Sue, who runs the animal rescue organization Homeward Trails in Northern Virginia and who travels extensively to other countries in order to help animals, was in Kuwait at the time, assisting a large number of dogs in great need of saving.

This February 26 Facebook post led Robin to offer to bring Diamond into the care of the Richmond SPCA.

As I read the message providing details about one particular dog – Diamond – I was immediately moved to assure Sue, who was desperate to find a humane organization willing to take Diamond, that the Richmond SPCA would bring the precious dog into our care.

Many months earlier, Diamond had been hit by a car and was left for dead. To everyone’s amazement, this sweet, affectionate and gentle companion survived her injuries, but lost a rear leg and was paralyzed in the other, leaving her to drag herself through the sandy streets of Kuwait City. A Kuwaiti woman had been looking after Diamond, however, prospects for a lasting home capable of providing for Diamond’s special needs would be far improved in the United States.

When Robin met Diamond this morning at Homeward Trails, the dog immediately pulled herself up and out of her cage to snuggle into Robin's lap.

It took several weeks to arrange for Diamond’s safe transport. Originally, she was scheduled to arrive into Dulles International Airport Saturday, however, devastating flooding in Kuwait City prevented Diamond and Sue, who was traveling with Diamond, from leaving. Thankfully, both Sue and Diamond were finally able to board a plane that arrived into Washington, D.C. last night.

This morning, Laura Palin, our manager of admissions, and I drove to Northern Virginia in order to pick up Diamond, who spent the night at the Homeward Trails’ adoption center. This lovable and resilient girl is now headed back with us to our humane center, where our staff and volunteers anxiously await her arrival.

We have much work ahead of us to prepare Diamond for adoption to a lasting home with a wonderful family, and with your generous support, Diamond will be guaranteed a full and healthy life. The loving arms of our organization are wrapped around Diamond, just as they are the 4,000 other homeless animals we save every year with your help.

Your gift today changes Diamond’s future, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.

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Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

 

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Sharing our accomplishments for the 2015-16 fiscal year

Adoption Counselor Danielle Long holds Binks, a kitten with Cerebellar Hypoplasia whose life was saved by the Richmond SPCA.

It is with great pride that we make the Richmond SPCA’s Annual Report for our 2015-16 Fiscal Year available for viewing on our website. This Annual Report provides a clear and detailed perspective on our use of resources during the fiscal year just completed  to save the lives of and to protect the animals who are the heart of our mission. The fiscal year being reported on was an absolutely stunning one in terms of the growth of our life-saving work and our services to support the companion animals of our community and the people who love and need them. I could never find the words to adequately thank the donors and volunteers whose help and support made this amazing increase in the breadth of the accomplishment of our mission possible.  

However, our reason for providing this Annual Report publicly is not to boast about having had a particularly good year but because we believe deeply that transparency to the public by non-profits is crucial whatever may be the results. Every non-profit organization should provide a detailed and public report that lets its community and supporters know exactly what has been accomplished with the resources that have been given to it. I am so very grateful to Tabitha Treloar for her detailed and dedicated work that made this Annual Report so thorough and understandable.

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Robin Robertson Starr is the chief executive officer of the Richmond SPCA. To read the biographies of our regular bloggers, please click here. Before posting a comment, please review our comment guidelines. Please note that our comment policy requires a first and last name to be used as your screen name.

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