SAN ANTONIO -- San Antonio still has years to go when it comes to reaching its goal of not killing a single animal that comes into city shelters. Thursday night, animal lovers from San Antonio and beyond came together to show their support for the no-kill goal and share ideas on how to make it happen.
The message at the meeting was clear -- the city needs to do away with kill shelters. The solution may be as simple as increasing advertising, at least that is what keynote speaker Mike Arms thinks.
"We need to market our product," explained Arms. "Those bountiful puppies, dogs and cats, we have to show them to the community. How can we expect the community to come in, come into our facilities, if they do not know we have all these beautiful pets looking for homes?"
Non-profit organizations from all over San Antonio and the country came to pledge their support. Everyone we talked to seemed to be saying the same thing -- it's all about marketing.
"Right now, a lot of the shelters are on a model of just intake and keeping the animals and, hopefully, trying to re-home them," said animal rescuer Caprice Inseo. "But there are breeders all over the United States and all over the world that are selling puppies."
As it now stands, 4 million cats and dogs, about one every eight seconds, are put down in U.S. shelters every year. San Antonio used to kill 50,000 animals a year. While that number has decreased by 60-65 percent, the city still has a long way to go.
"We really need people to get on board with no kill, and the way they can do it is to get involved," said Animal Care Services spokesperson Lisa Norwood. "It's really simple. Something as simple as volunteering."
The city is now aiming to achieve no-kill status by 2015.
CLICK HERE to find out how to adopt, foster, or volunteer at Animal Care Services. A little bit of your time can help save lives.
