Richard Gregory has died. During his life, he fought against segregation, disenfranchisement, racism, gender equality, and economic injustice. He also fought for animals: I had been a participant in all of the ‘major’ and most of the ‘minor’ civil rights demonstrations of the early sixties. Under the leadership of Dr. King, I became convinced that nonviolence meant opposition to killing in any form. I felt the commandment ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’ applied to human beings…
One of many healthy puppies killed by PETA after lying to get custody of him. PETA promised he would have no problem finding a home only to then kill him within minutes in the back of their van. A former PETA fieldworker says that killing is not an ancillary part of PETA’s Community Animal Project; it goes to the core of the mission. “The objective of the program,” she says, “was to get as many…
Photo taken by my son at a candlelight vigil in San Francisco in honor of the injured and dead of Charlottesville my family attended. We stand on the side of love. Yesterday, I was tagged on Twitter and Facebook with a photograph taken in Charlottesville, VA, of Debi Day of No Kill Nation wearing a gun and asked whether or not she was the President of my non-profit organization. She is not. I am the…
It’s time to throw out the fake hand, the doll, the food bowl takeaway, and the loud knock on the door. The debate as to whether temperament testing in a shelter is effective, flawed, needs modification, or should be discarded is over. In a recent feature, the New York Times highlights some of the challenges as “Shelters Struggle With Live-or-Die Tests.” They shouldn’t be struggling because they shouldn’t do them at all. Temperament testing in…
A veterinarian may face disciplinary action for refusing to kill a dog. She should be hailed as a hero. As wrong as it is to talk of animal companions as “property,” there are times when that legal status confers protection, such as under the Fourth Amendment. Dogs and cats, for example, cannot be seized and killed by animal control without a court or other hearing, because doing so would be a taking of property without…
I’ve been vegan for 26 years. In fact, I’m an All American Vegan. And I’ve been an All American Vegan for roughly half my life. It’s not as impressive as my wife’s 30 years of veganism or even my daughter’s 21 years. My daughter is, after all, only 21, meaning she’s been vegan her whole life (and my son, for all of his 17). But as one young 20-something vegan once told me, “You were…
An Animal Rights Perspective on Living with Dogs & Cats I am pleased to announce that Welcome Home, our new book, is now available on Amazon by clicking here. For the vast majority of people, the bond they share with their dog or cat companion is a familial one, born of love and mutual affection. Indeed, interspecies relationships in the world are not rare and they are relationships that humans generally celebrate as evidence of…
A growing number of shelters are claiming they and their communities are No Kill or near No Kill without actually saving all animals who are not irremediably suffering. Here’s how they cheat: 1. Not counting animals who die in their kennels. Under pressure to decrease killing, there are several cases of shelter directors allowing sick/injured animals to go without food and medication in order to encourage and hasten their deaths so they won’t be counted…
Phil is looking for a home at Chippewa County’s animal shelter. If Michigan is a sign of the times, it is good news for the No Kill movement. In 2007, Michigan shelters were killing close to 120,000 animals. In 2016, it was 29,591. As Michigan Pet Fund Alliance previously reported, out of 80 counties with shelters, over 50 now have live release rates of at least 90% and the majority of those are at or…
I get a lot of questions about animals on a wide variety of topics and I try to answer each and every one. When they have wider appeal, I’ll post my response. (If you would like to ask me anything, you can do so in the comments of my Facebook page or through the No Kill Advocacy Center, my organization.) This week, I was asked about the limits of community cat sterilization, specifically about cats…