Thanks so much to KXAN who did a story on an important vote the city council took today to make Austin a no kill city (more on that vote and what it means later). It was a great story (which gave a very nice mention to APA!) and we hope that it will raise awareness in our community that a city like Austin is killing 10,900+ pets every year.
There was one item, though, with which we do not agree:
" The problem is too many strays -- lost and abandoned pets -- and not enough people to adopt them."
Overpopulation is one word you probably won't hear a lot from us. Here's why:
According to the AVMA, 74,000 new homes open up in Austin each year for a pet, plenty to handle the 10,900+ that were killed last year.
Other communities who have become no kill have done so by focusing on high-volume adoptions.
(That's not to say that population control and low cost spay/neuter facilities like Emancipet and Animal Trustees of Austin aren't important, because they are a necessary piece to the equation.)
We at APA! think that there ARE enough people to adopt our homeless pets and it's our job to get these pets into adoption events throughout the city so the public can meet them and find their perfect pet. In the almost 7 months we've been in operation, we've had no problem finding people to adopt the pets who were set to die at TLAC. But we want to do more. We need vehicles to open more adoption locations and a building to temporarily house pets and provide necessary programs.
