The CSPCA has a number of kittens available for adoption like Mung above. (Submitted photo)

By Patrick McLaughlin,

Executive Director

In November 2017, five years before I came to the Chenango SPCA, the organization made an important decision to stop euthanizing for space. In other words, we would not euthanize healthy, adoptable animals due to lack of space. The common term for this is "no-kill," but that wording can cause confusion.

It's not accurate to say that we never euthanize an animal. When an animal is so sick or injured that it can't recover, or its behavioral health means that we can't safely match it with an adopter, euthanasia is more humane than a life of physical or mental suffering. That doesn't make euthanasia easy, and it's not something we take lightly, but it is something that happens.

The term "no-kill" has also caused deep divisions in the animal welfare field. If organizations like the Chenango SPCA describe ourselves as "no-kill," what term describes the places that do euthanize for space? One phrase sometimes applied to those shelters is "high-kill." That is not a term they choose for themselves, but a label imposed by others to cast judgment.

The many animal welfare organizations that euthanize for space don't do so because they want to. They do it out of necessity. Generally, the necessity that causes them to euthanize healthy, adoptable animals is intake volume: They have so many animals coming into their shelter that euthanasia is, in their opinion, the only solution.

You may wonder, especially if you read last week's consideration of the Conveyor Belt Problem, whether they can solve this issue in a different way, by taking fewer animals. That suggestion reveals the connection between euthanasia policy and intake policy:

Rather than call themselves "high-kill," most shelters that euthanize animals for space use the term "open admission." Indeed, the Chenango SPCA used to call itself an open-admission shelter. The appeal of an open admission policy is, to quote an old Chenango SPCA brochure, that "we never turn an animal away."

Unfortunately, in a community with limited shelter space and other resources, there is always a trade-off: A shelter can either take every animal, or minimize euthanasia, but not both. If a shelter chooses to stop euthanizing for space, as the Chenango SPCA did back in November 2017, then it will need to start making hard decisions about admissions.

That is the situation the Chenango SPCA finds itself in: Too many animals, not enough space. Our policy since 2017 is not to "make space" through euthanasia. Therefore, we must practice what the field calls "managed intake" or "limited admissions." Basically, we have to keep our animal population within our capacity, and that means telling some people that we can't take their cat or dog.

What happens to the animals the shelter can't take? The short answer is that we don't know. We  do  have an admissions wait list, and sometimes people are able to wait. Sometimes, they re-home the animal on their own. Sometimes they find another shelter that is able to help. Sometimes the animal is abandoned. That outcome indicates something serious: Chenango County has more animals in need of shelter than the Chenango SPCA can help.

There is something you can do: Right now, until we close (at 7:00 PM) on October 31, we're offering a  drastic discount on our adoption fees: You can adopt a cat for just $13 or a dog for just $31! That's an  80% discount for dogs and an  87%  discount for cats!

Adopt to have a new friend in your life. Adopt to give a shelter animal a loving home. Adopt to make space in our shelter for another animal who's already out there in desperate need. Whatever the reason,  please adopt! And if you can't, please spread the word to anyone you know who can!

Who will you adopt?