Animal Adoption Advocates - Sensible Words

Animal adoption is less expensive and more humane than municipal euthanasia programs, said an Austin lawyer and “No Kill” advocate visiting Baton Rougeans trying to sustain a “No Kill” initiative.

“I started like a lot of people start in the animal welfare world,” said Ryan Clinton, 34, who grew up in Baton Rouge. “Stumbling on a stray dog or cat or two or three or four in the neighborhood.”

Municipal animal shelters think “No Kill” too expensive, Clinton said, but “the budget of a shelter has shown to be unrelated to whether a shelter becomes ‘No Kill.’”

“There’s a long tradition that says spay/neuter is the only answer,” Clinton said. “The shelters say they do hard work all the time. But it’s spay/neuter, adopt out a few, kill the rest. It’s been that way a hundred years.”

Nonprofits and individuals pick up the tab for adoptions and spay/neuter in Austin, Clinton said.

“We have a good rapport with Hilton Cole (head of Baton Rouge’s Animal Control and Rescue Center),” said Patricia Calfee, a Baton Rouge Area Foundation project manager, who has worked with animal welfare people here on a “No Kill” initiative.

Figures provided to Calfee by Cole show 8,222 animals (3,855 cats and 4,367 dogs) put down by the East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control and Rescue Center in 2009.

Cole is on medical leave, said Richard Byrd, operations manager at the center, but a figure in the neighborhood of 8,000 sounds right.

About 80 percent of the stray cats and dogs brought to the center each year are killed, Byrd said.

“But that’s changing drastically,” Byrd said. Adoption, foster homes, spaying or neutering saved 550 dogs and 152 cats through October 2009, he said.

The kill rate in Charlottesville, Va., is less than 10 percent.

“We could do that in Austin,” said Clinton, who with his girlfriend has provided a foster home for 14 animals.

Charlottesville has 2,000 foster homes.

Clinton estimated that Austin would euthanize 6,000 to 9,000 dogs and cats this year, but thinks just a few years ago it was as high as 14,000.

“Thirty-five percent of animals impounded in Austin die, and it was higher in past years,” he said.

A 10 percent kill rate is achievable, he said. A certain percentage of animals that end up at a municipal animal control center can’t be saved, Clinton said.

Clinton founded http://www. FixAustin.org, a “no kill” advocacy group.

He’s a volunteer foster “parent” and legal counsel with Austin Pets Alive.

Yelp BR is modeled after Austin Pets Alive, said BRAF”s Calfee.


To contribute to the “no kill” initiative, send contributions to Baton Rouge Area Foundation, The ‘No-Kill Baton Rouge Fund, 402 N. Fourth St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802.

Clinton’s research shows 40 million Americans looking for pets this year. “With only five or six million animals going into shelters,” he said, there’s no reason millions of animals can’t be saved.

“The loss of an animal means opportunity for adoption,” he said. “Adopt a pet as opposed to buying from a breeder or a pet store or convincing a friend to let his animal have a litter.”

Clinton, who’s with the Dallas-based law firm Hankinson Levinger, is the son of Ralene Cerise and Jim Clinton.