City Council’s passage earlier today of a “no-kill” plan for Austin’s animal center was long in the making. Bill Spelman, who voted for a no-kill plan in 1997 said he was happy to “stop talking about it, and start doing something about it.”
The passage of the 34-point plan, including four contentious recommendations council kept over the advice of city staff, reflected months of recent work – including the Animal Advisory Commission’s work last summer, then their co-development of an implementation strategy with city staff, starting in November. But as Spelman and others reminded us, it has roots that reach back way further than that.
The 1997 vote Spelman referred to was for the No-Kill Millennium plan, an ambitious document designed to increase “live outcomes” among pound animals. But as former Chronicle reporter Rachel Proctor May pointed out in 2005 (in a cover story that graphically drove the point home), very little headway had been made on the plan since: “The plan was conceived in the boom years, when council could make grand promises of support: 15 new positions, an unprecedented public education program. Both were cut, however, in the subsequent downturn.” Additionally, she noted, “the downside of the decentralized NKM plan is that small groups wax and wane with their volunteers’ zeal and grant dollars.”
Some of the same problems still exist: the plan passed today is only that – a plan – with funding to be allocated in the next fiscal year’s budget. However, Mike Martinez has repeatedly pointed out substantial cost savings may be gained by going no-kill, in the form of adoption fees and reduced costs for euthanasia services. Similarly, the Mayor Pro Tem’s calls to quickly issue a request for proposals among local animal nonprofits for outsourcing adoptions should make non-city groups’ contributions more rigorous and standardized.
So while, as Chris Riley noted, passage of the measure “represents a huge milestone in terms of welfare for animals in our community,” it’s still another step on the journey. While we’re a little late in making it to a no-kill millennium, in the words of Laura Morrison, “we can make it a no-kill 2011.”
This article appears in March 5 • 2010.