Empty the Shelter Event: Successful or Surreptitious?

So our city shelter, for the first time in it's history, participated in a well known No Kill event called Empty the Shelter Day. The goal for participating shelters is to empty the shelter through adoption. This particular event got lots of general media attention and I was thrilled when I saw we were one of the shelters participating.

However, I quickly became disappointed from the lack of marketing effort set forth by our city as well as the unexpected amount of cats that were actually up for adoption the day of the event.

While I realize that our city runs on a budget and that budget can dictate our marketing efforts, it gives no excuse as to why we were not promoting the event more aggressively with the opportunities we have available to us. They never listed the event in our utility bill that would have been seen by ALL our residents, even though events like the Bluegrass on Ballard gets it's own flyer sent out with the utility bill. But I guess that's because that event can make money for the city whereas our animals in need are just an obligation. The kiosk that can be seen from the street in front of our rec center only listed the event approx. 3 days before, even though our own press release about the event was sent out 2 weeks prior.


Facebook marketers know that to use Facebook efficiently, it requires daily postings as well as utilization of cover images, etc. Our city has 2 Facebook pages, one for the city and one for the shelter. Neither of them ever changed their cover image to market the event, even though it is the first thing someone sees when visiting those pages. And the posts about the event were few and far between.

However, even more disenchanting came the day of the event, when I saw just how few cats were up for adoption. It has always been a contention with me, how our cats are treated through the system we call a shelter. The excuse for killing always being that they just don't have the space. Our shelter can hold approx. 19 cats and yet only 8 were actually available for adoption the day of the event. All the rest of the cages were empty. I expected to walk in and see many cats needing homes. Instead there were only 8.

The Empty the Shelter event was deemed a success and our city proudly stated that we, in fact, emptied the shelter. However the stats have a slightly different story and are disturbing in my opinion. I did a records request to give me stats from June 1st to August 19th (3 days after the event). Keep in mind that our shelter's first post about the event was on July 29th and the press release about the event was dated July 30th. That's roughly 2 weeks before the event. Here's what the stats say:

Dogs - 6 killed

Of those 6, 4 were killed the same day they arrived (7/29, 8/1, 8/12, & 8/18). 1 dog was killed after being at the shelter for only 2 days (in on 7/29 killed on 7/31). 1 dog was killed after 17 days (in on 8/2 killed on 8/19). 

Cats - 7 killed

Of those 7, 4 were killed the same day they arrived (7/31, 8/5, 8/16, 8/18). 1 cat was killed after 2 days (in on 8/9 killed on 8/11). 1 cat was killed after 4 days (in on 8/14 killed 8/18). 1 cat was killed after 10 days (in on 7/29 killed on 8/12). In addition there were 2 cats that came into the shelter before the 2 week period, but were killed within the 2 weeks leading up to the event (1 cat came in on 7/10 and killed on 8/1 and the other cat came in on 7/12 and killed on 8/5).

Keep in mind our city ordinance stats that all animals have a hold period of 7 days (and feral cats 3 days) before the city can do anything with them.

What I find most concerning is that the shelter knew of this event for 2 weeks. Why would they kill ANY animals prior to the event? And even more disturbing are the animals that were killed on the next business days (1 dog & 1 cat on 8/18 and 1 dog on 8/19) as well as the cat that was a same day killing the VERY DAY of the event (8/16). 

They may be able to use the excuse that the same day killings were due to sickness, injury or aggression, however what can be the excuse for the animals that were in the shelter for 2 days, 4 days, 10 days and the 3 that were in the shelter several weeks? Clearly they weren't so aggressive that they stayed in the shelter for a period of time. And if they are claiming that they "emptied the shelter" (through adoption), then what is the excuse for killing the next business day? One dog was in the shelter from 8/2 and one cat was in on 8/14, both killed AFTER the event. That's certainly one way of "emptying the shelter".

In addition, they are now differentiating stray cats from feral cats. Feral cats are dictated by city ordinance as any cat that is brought in within a trap. From June 5th until August 8th (63 days) they killed 36 "ferals". Of those 36, 22 were cats and 14 were KITTENS. All were killed on the same day they arrived except for 1 kitten that was killed after 8 days. 

So from the outside looking in, most would say they had a successful event. And while I'm thrilled they participated, (that they have made slight improvements) and that 8 cats and 16 dogs were adopted, I have to wonder why some of those animals leading up to the event weren't given a chance at life and why they continue to have same day killings of "ferals", especially KITTENS, when research shows that many cats trapped will behave feral-like out of fear and kittens can be easily socialized to make wonderful pets. 

Until they take killing off the table, I will continue to question and advocate on behalf of our city's strays and as I hope you will too.