A Step in the Right Direction

The killing of animals continues in Milwaukee. I attended Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Care and Control's (MADACC) first operations committee meeting of the new year. There the board discussed how the staff was doing, how the staff had the flu, and how much a new fence would cost. Oh yeah and more than 5,000 animals were killed by them last year. Although the staff is humanized during these meetings, the animals are nothing more than numbers and statistics. Sick. About a week later, MADACC announced it had hired a new executive director.

The new executive director is definitely a step in the right direction. She comes from a neighboring No Kill humane society in a Milwaukee suburb. The question now becomes, will the board support her No Kill practices? Right now, based on the meeting I attended, I'm not too confident No Kill is right around the corner. I truly believe it only takes one person to say "we will no longer kill healthy animals and we will work to ensure the health of every animal that comes through our doors" however, this board seems to be straight from hell. I had the privilege of attending operations meetings regularly as an intern at Found Chicago. There we talked about how the animals were doing, how many more animals we could save, and we used their names, we did not refer to them as numbers. It wasn't about numbers, statistics, and money. It was about giving each animal the time it needed to be adopted into the right home. And we certainly met more than once a month. The MADACC board acted like they never saw each other outside of the meeting, so they had to use the meetings to catch up, instead of discussing the needs of the animals. I hope this new director can change this, but it seems to be a philosophic and culture that needs to be changed, not just a position change.

It is still an uphill battle and so the emails continue. Right before I wrote this blog I sent an email to my mayor letting him know the board still needs to be changed and he needs to get involved in order to help the companion animals of Milwaukee. I will continue to email, blog, and show up until Milwaukee goes No Kill. I hope you will take the time to get involved as well. Please help the Missaroo, Mister, and me make a change in our city.