Animal House

A recent Coeur d'Alene Press editorial almost got it right. The County does indeed need an animal center to combine the efforts and resources of all the rag tag rescue efforts in the area that are underfunded and understaffed.

Where they go wrong is to say the Kootenai Humane Society made a mistake going to a no-kill policy. It is suggested that mistakes had been made. That is not reason enough to abandon the policy. Fix it.

We live in a time when "killing" seems the norm. Shoot the elk that escaped from the elk farm. Kill the wolves. Kill your parents because they don't let you have your way. Kill your kids because they don't listen. Hardly a week passes without headlines to this effect appearing in our local papers or blareing out of the television new casts.

No-kill policy is the wave of the future. Major cities are adopting such policies and making them work. If Los Angeles can Kootenai County certainly can.

Best Friends Animal Society in Kanab, Utah, is one of the leaders in this effort. They have wide ranging instruction on how to make it work. They even hold seminars in different regions of the country for those who find it difficult to travel to their facility. Last year they held one in Portland.

I've spoken about this topic many times before. Egos have to be subdued for the sake of the animals whose stake is enormous and whose voice is non-existent.

Too many well intentioned people take on rescue efforts they are ill equipped to make successful. The end result is often a failed enterprise and the animals they are trying to help lose.

A center with a professional staff would ease a part of this burden. A center where the people who staff it are doing it as a profession. I understand good intentions and applaud those who are selfless enough to try. I don't have much patience with those who continue a losing cause for the sake of a need unrelated to the animals they profess to "love". A center with combined resources might be able to ease some of these situations.

I have a dog. I dote on him as many of you well know. I'd be devastated if he got loose, was picked up and euthanised because there was no room for him, or he was too big or maybe they just didn't like him.

I don't understand the "kill" mindset. If you're a hardcore believer in it maybe you ought to go to Iraq. You'll get a belly full of it there.