ANIMAL PEOPLE Prime Directive on Trap-Neuter-Return, euthanasia statement

[Guest guest]

Further to the Korea Herald article posted by Yoon Kerr, " Home away

from home for lost pets, " in which ANIMAL PEOPLE was mentioned.

 

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The ANIMAL PEOPLE Prime Directive on Trap-Neuter-Return

 

ANIMAL PEOPLE was instrumental in introducing

Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) to the United States, beginning in 1991

with a seven-month trial of the method in northern Fairfield County,

Connecticut.

From the beginning, the goal was to reduce the feral cat

population at the target sites to zero as rapidly as possible.

There are two preconditions for zeroing out a population of

feral animals through TNR, and both were stringently observed:

1) At least 70% of the animals and preferably 100% must be

sterilized. Before the 70% figure is reached, there will be no net

reduction. ANIMAL PEOPLE made every effort to trap and sterilize

100% of the cats at each site as rapidly as they could be identified;

and

2) Sites must be monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that all

newcomers are identified, caught, and sterilized.

In addition, ANIMAL PEOPLE stipulates as fundamental humane

considerations that all puppies and kittens who can be socialized for

adoption should be; that no ill, elderly, or disabled animals should

ever be released; and, as the Prime Directive for practicing TNR

successfully without rousing politically problematic opposition, no

animal should be released into or returned to hostile or otherwise

unsuitable habitat.

Hostile habitat is anywhere the animals will be at high risk

of being injured or killed (accidentally or deliberately) and most

especially places where the community is intolerant of the presence

of homeless dogs and cats, which puts the animals at high risk of

being poisoned, beaten, shot, or subject to capture and extermination

at the discretion of municipal agencies or other civil authorities.

Highly visible habitat, where feeding animals (especially

feral cats) may encourage people to abandon their pets, should also

be considered unsuitable.

Many of the situations in which maintained colonies of

vaccinated and sterilized animals have been subsequently rounded up

for extermination by local officials seem to have resulted from

disregard of the Prime Directive. The outcome of trying to " save "

animals by keeping them in unsuitable locations is not only an

enormous waste of resources (including time and money) but often a

net increase in the suffering of the animals as they are forced to

endure capture and surgical sterilization in addition to later

extermination by people who may have little or no interest in humane

considerations.

ANIMAL PEOPLE does not consider population control killing or

culling to be " euthanasia. " " Euthanasia " is a term that can only be

used properly to mean putting to death hopelessly suffering creatures

in order to relieve their misery, although ANIMAL PEOPLE recognizes

that some animal welfarists may apply the term " euthanasia " to

killing animals by painless means in order to prevent imminent

suffering if the animals are in clear and present danger of being

subjected to death by means which cause significant pain or mental

distress.

What to do with animals for whom shelter space or foster care

is not available but who must be removed from particular locations

is left up to the intelligence, creativity, and consciences of the

rescuers. However, we believe that killing healthy animals who must

be removed from hostile or otherwise inappropriate habitat is seldom

the only available option.

 

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Kim Bartlett, Publisher of ANIMAL PEOPLE Newspaper

Postal mailing address: P.O. Box 960, Clinton WA 98236 U.S.A.

CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS IS: <ANPEOPLE

Website: http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/ with French and Spanish

language subsections.