A lot of animals pass through Animal Services in Midland, Texas, each year, and one experience many of them encounter is euthanasia. Director Paul O'Neill has a plan to try to save many of those animals. Last night he addressed a large group of interested citizens with a plan to establish the Midland Humane Coalition as a non-profit entity which would coordinate the efforts of Animal Services and the various area animal shelters. The goal is to get an animal adoption facility constructed next to the Midland Animal Services building.
It's a very ambitions project, and if implemented as Mr. O'Neill anticipates, the city would contribute the land and construct the building. And the new entity would provide the staff and upkeep with a grant from Maddie's Fund.
Reporters swarmed the place, so rather than rehash Mr. O'Neill's remarks, I'll simply refer you to the links below. But there was one particularly memorable statement he made to emphasize how difficult a "no kill" status is to achieve. He cited San Antonio Animal Control, which is a Maddie's Fund participant, as an example. SAAC's Policies and Directives say, among other things:
ACS will partner with ALL qualified Rescuers. We will support and build our rescue network, both local and national, in order to achieve NO KILL status.
Mr. O'Neill cautioned the audience that SAAC placed so much significance to the no-kill objective that to try to meet their no-kill goal they discontinued picking up stray dogs. Therefore, they sacrificed one objective for another without much consideration for which was better for the population affected
No-kill is a goal that could never be reached. But as the old saying goes, it's better to shoot for the moon and miss than shoot for a skunk and hit it.
News Links:
Midland Reporter-Telegram report
CBS7 report
KWES9 report
Permian Basin 360
Animal helpers:
Midland SPCA
Lone Star SPCA
Noah's Ark Animal Sanctuary
Animal Outreach.