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A Big Day for Animals at the Saint Paul Court House

October 13, 2006, 12:0AM MT

By Mike Fry

It isn't every day that a rescued, stray dog gets to make a special appearance at the St. Paul Court House; but today was just such a day.

It isn't every day that a rescued, stray dog gets to make a special appearance at the St. Paul Court House; but today was just such a day. Clyde, aka "Petey", an American Bulldog mix puppy, stole the show at a special gathering of animal welfare groups who got together today to highlight the importance of working together to solve the pet overpopulation problem in the Twin Cities. They met to officially launch the Homes for All Pets initiative.

Their message was simple: the fact that in the Twin Cities area about 20,000 dogs and cats are killed in animals shelters annually is a problem that is just too big for any organization to solve on its own. So, they are committed to working together, to share information, to collaborate in new ways to change this tragic reality.

Based on measures made in other communities, this group believes it is possible to cut the number of deaths in animal shelters in this area from 20,000 to about 5,000 per year. They believe that one of the first steps to achieving that goal is making people aware of the problem.

One of the first items on their agenda is to quantitatively measure pet overpopulation in the Twin Cities area; and that could be a challenging goal, since many of the area's largest animal shelters do not openly report the actual number of animals they destroy every year.

In spite of the challenges that lay ahead, the group remained optimistic. Other communities in the United States have seen dramatic results. The City of Richmond, Virginia saw a drop of more than 41% in the number of animals euthanized in their shelters when their animal welfare groups got together.

Today's meeting was kicked off by Saint Paul City Council President Kathy Lantry. She expressed sincere appreciation for the work of organizations in attendance and indicated she was happy to see them looking forward to solving this problem, rather than just dealing with the animals entering shelters today.

Members of the group were full of praise for the City of Saint Paul Animal Control, not only for helping to host the meeting, but for their long history of working with animal shelters and rescue organizations to save as many animals as possible.

Animal welfare organizations participating in today's meeting included, A Rotta Love, Animal Ark, Cause for Paws, Feline Rescue, Minnesota Humane Society, Pet Haven, Saint Paul Animal Control and Second Chance Animal Rescue.

At the end of the meeting, organizations signed a collaboration agreement which reads:

HOMES FOR ALL PETS, MN
COLLABORATION AGREEMENT

This agreement is entered into by the below listed parties for the purpose of formalizing a strengthened cooperative model of work among animal humane organizations, which will be known as the Homes for All Pets Initiative. By participating in this initiative, each organization agrees to continue working to reduce the overpopulation of companion animals in our community.

The Homes For All Pets, MN working group is a collaborative effort among independent animal welfare groups in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Our primary goal is to work actively and cooperatively to reduce the overpopulation of companion animals in our community.

We recognize that we can capitalize on, and increase the effectiveness of, many existing programs through collaboration, and plan to find ways of opening our individual programs to other organizations participating in this cooperation. We recognize the need for additional funds to aggressively deal with pet overpopulation and are currently moving towards large grant proposals, including potential future funding from Maddie’s Fund.

By signing the agreement below, we, as individuals, and the organizations we represent, agree to the following three items that lay the foundation for all collaboration. They are:

1. To collaborate with other groups within our local animal welfare community in an open and constructive way

2. Open admission shelters agree to make animals that are slated for euthanasia available to participating no-kill rescue groups for rescue so long as the animals are not terminally ill or seriously dangerous

3. All participating organizations agree to report their animal outcome statistics in a common format

Comments

Posted October 18, 2006, 12:6PM by D2or3

That is the word of the day, "HOPE"! I can't wait to crosspost this to a ton of dog rescue yahoo groups. Similar action needs to spread across the country!

Posted October 19, 2006, 10:47AM by mikefry

This is a very exciting time to be part of the animal wlefare community in Minnesota.

As a member of the group that planned the October 12 kick-off meeting, I have to say that I am really thrilled with the direction things are heading in Minnesota. The people who are coming together for this are genuinely very good people.

Posted October 19, 2006, 12:36PM by doved01

Go for it Feline Rescue and the other groups this is great news. I think it will bring a new understanding to the groups of working together and help a lot of animals that otherwise wouldn't be here. God Bless you.

Posted October 16, 2006, 1:2PM by debbies

It's great to see this kind of collaboration. It gives me hope. It would be great to see all humane societies, rescues, sanctuaries and governments forget about their egos and work together for initiatives such as this one. Keep us posted and don't give up. I for one will continue to follow this story and see the outcomes over the years. You are setting the example for all others to follow.

Posted October 18, 2006, 12:19PM by alex

If only the Guilford County shelter here in NC would start working with rescue groups - they say they're there to help the animals but by not working with other groups, they are only hurting them - they have even gone so far as to "fire" volunteers who have suggested such...I don't understand why they wouldn't want to cooperate....thank goodness for these other cities, hopefully the example they set will be followed.

Posted October 18, 2006, 2:7PM by rusty

HOORAY MINNESOTA!! As a Minnesota resident, I have to say that I have been in tears hearing about some of the animal abuse cases in this state during this past year. This is a wonderful initiative - to have all these groups be a collaborative voice for the animals that we love. I pray that someday ALL of Minnesota can be actively involved in a similar initiative. We used to live in the Twin Cities area, but now live in a small town in west central MN. There seems to me - in the area I live in - to be a lot of apathy & indifference when it comes to animal causes. People seem to be appalled at abuse cases, but it doesn't seem to go much further than that. I plan to become involved in the shelter in my county or one of the neighboring counties. I would love to see a combined effort in rural MN to get out information about caring for the animals in our communities.

Posted October 18, 2006, 5:16PM by jcn

Every long journey starts with just one step. Reporting the statistics is the first, very important step. Great job "Homes for all Pets!" Once Minnesotans hear the numbers, they will be quick to stop the maddness. There can be homes for all pets. Thanks for leading the way!