BE THEIR VOICE THIS TUESDAY
Every day, Austin Pets Alive rescues as many dogs and cats as they can from Town Lake Animal Center. But make no mistake, they leave some behind and they hate it. Thankfully, there’s something you can do to help this Tuesday: On October 27th at 6pm at the Rosewood Zaragosa Neighborhood Center (2800 Webberville Road), we need you to speak for those being left behind.
At Tuesday’s City-called public meeting, the City wants your input on what it should prioritize at the shelter. We need you to advocate for Austin Pets Alive’s efforts to increase “live outcomes”—more adoptions, transfers to rescue groups, and animals returned to their homes. We want no adoptable healthy or treatable dog or cat left to die today.
Believe it or not, there are powerful forces in our community who believe that the animals left behind are not worth trying to save—that they should continue to be “humanely destroyed,” day after day, while we exclusively focus on long-term goals. On the other hand, we think every healthy and treatable dog and cat who enters the shelter should have a chance to leave alive today. We’ve got the data to prove it can be done and Austin Pets Alive has the know-how to do it. In fact, Austin Pets Alive is already singlehandedly responsible for over 96% of the increase in live outcomes at the shelter this year over last. What we don’t have is the City’s buy in, and that’s where you come in.
We need the City to hear from you that even while it continues to employ long-term strategies, it must increase efforts to stop today’s shelter killing. For decades, the City and some other groups have focused exclusively on the latter, leaving shelter animals to die day after day. We need you to help us make Austin Pets Alive's short-term “live outcomes” strategies the City’s #1 focus today, while we continue with our already well-funded, well-planned long-term strategies to reduce intake tomorrow.
Please attend Tuesday’s meeting to advocate for Austin Pets Alive’s efforts to increase live outcomes now. We are unwilling to continue turning our backs on the dogs and cats left behind, and we need you to be their voice.
