Miami-Dade County Animal Shelter Considers Going No-Kill

Miami- Dade County Animal Shelter is a public facility and as such must accept any animal surrendered to them, whether adoptable or not. While Animal Services claim they are saving 72% of the surrendered dogs, the euthanasia rate for felines still remains much higher. As a result, Miami- Dade County Animal Shelter has been under the gun for the high annual rate of animal euthanasia, which has reached upwards of 30,000 each year.

To help rectify this situation, the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners recently made the decision to investigate plans which would allow them to finally designate the area Animal Services Department Shelter as a no-kill facility. The resolution was designed based on the No-Kill Equation programs in the United States that were developed by the no-kill movement which provides alternatives to the euthanasia of shelter animals.

According to the press release  issued by Miami-Dade County, milestone legislation was proposed at the July Board Meeting by Commissioner Jose “Pepe” Diaz to make Miami-Dade Animal Shelter a no-kill facility. After the proposal was well received, Diaz commented, "Pet owners and animal lovers throughout Miami-Dade have been waiting for a no-kill policy to be implemented at our Animal Services Department. As a pet owner myself, I look forward to seeing this plan in action in the coming months.”

Carlos A. Gimenez, the Mayor of Miami-Dade County is himself the ecstatic owner of two wonderful pets, one of which is a rescue dog; he was extremely pleased with the Board's decision to begin implementing the plan as soon as possible.  Since the County Animal Services Department Shelters are going no-kill, Mayor Gimenez is hopeful that this move will encourage residents to visit their shelter more often, and ultimately adopt many of the shelter’s resident animals and give them a permanent, caring home.

But to be officially designated as a no-kill facility means that the facility must have a 90 percent or better rate of animals that are saved at the County's animal shelter. But in the case of animals with untreatable medical conditions or intractable aggressive behavior, there is an allowance for the remaining 10 percent of the shelter animals to be humanely euthanized.

And while the committee unanimously passed the proposal, before this plan can be implemented, there are several considerations to be ironed out. The committee asked the Gimenez administration to report back to the committee in six months, following a thorough exploration, to ascertain if the proposed no-kill model is financially feasible.

This writer is hopeful that the Gimenez administration will find the funds and resources necessary to actualize their no-kill shelter model. The members of the Miami- Dade Board of Commissioners deserve a lot of credit for recognizing the importance of a no-kill model, so that many more animal lives may be saved.

What are your thoughts about no-kill shelters? Share your thoughts in a comment.