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"I joined the ASPCA to bring the life-saving model I championed in San Francisco to NYC and beyond

As a pioneer of the "no-kill" model of animal sheltering

which exhorts community groups to collaborate to stop the killing of healthy or treatable dogs and cats in animal shelters

Mr. Sayres was recruited to the ASPCA in 2003 to bring no-kill to New York City

At that point, only 33 percent of the animals in New York City's shelters made it out alive. By the first quarter of 2012, that figure had risen to approximately 80 percent.

Mr. Sayres has been the guiding force behind the ASPCA's effort to build collaborative partnerships across the country with municipal and non-profit animal welfare agencies so that they may end the killing of healthy and treatable dogs and cats.

Responded Humane Farming Association founder Brad Miller, “It is simply delusional to think that getting humane organizations into the business of promoting meat from heritage breed chickens will result in even the slightest reduction of animal suffering. The ASPCA decision to fund the commercial production of chickens for meat raises a number of troubling issues,” Miller continued. “Beyond the obvious ethical issues from the animals’ standpoint, there is also the matter of using charitable dollars to further the commercial interests of a privately owned, profit-driven poultry company. This is just the latest,” Miller charged, “in a growing trend on the part of several major animal organizations to, in effect, merge with the livestock industry.” Miller noted that Farm Forward has previously promoted a variety of federal and state legislation that HFA regarded as more likely to entrench the status quo in animal agriculture than to bring about meaningful change.

“A commercial animal production operation is not an alternative to factory farming, but an extension of it. In this instance, chickens and turkeys are being mass-produced in mechanical hatchery incubators, raised motherless for human consumption by the thousands, and slaughtered, i.e., factory farmed.

“In addition to cruelty and commodification of animals being falsely represented as ‘humane,’ ‘compassionate,’ ‘anti-factory farming,’ etcetera,” Davis added, “is that these relatively smaller farms seek to grow and expand. Regardless of what size they are, they do not reduce the amount of resources needed to raise and slaughter animals

“It is unethical for an ‘animal welfare’ organization,” Davis concluded, “to suggest to the public that millions and billions of people can continue to eat the same number of animals, as long as these animals are raised ‘humanely’ on non-factory farms. Humans will never set aside hundreds of millions or billions of acres of land to accommodate billions of animals living ‘free range,’ yet this is the false prospect being offered to a public that wants to believe that incompatible desires and realities can be reconciled.”

If you think it is wrong for the ASPCA to use charitable donations to fund and promote poultry slaughter, expand poultry breeding and hatchery facilities and pretend that a factory farm is Not a factory farm, while doing NOTHING to promote genuine compassion and respect for these birds,

Like the network of “safe houses” which protected runaway slaves as they fled north to freedom, the thousands of rescue groups, No Kill sanctuaries and No Kill shelters throughout our nation are our movement’s own safe houses.

These organizations have built a dependency model where you give them money and they promise to take care of things, rather than empowering the grassroots to actually go out and solve the problem.

community education and protest

make it easy for people to do the right thing, and they will

we must expose these organizations for what they really are

legislation that prohibits puppy mill dogs from being sold either at pet stores or online,

, when we work to reform local shelters, we are also working to impact the puppy mill trade.

When shelters turn away good homes because of poor customer service or arbitrary rules, we fuel the pet shop trade

when shelters go head to head with the competition, they win.

uring the 1990s, at the height of its adoption success and popularity, the San Francisco SPCA had seven offsite adoption locations throughout the city seven days a week. Consequently, the number of pet stores which sold puppies was reduced to zero.

T]he more animals dying in a given community (which traditionalists claim means lack of homes), the greater number of pet stores that sell dogs and cats (which shows homes readily available). Generally, pet stores succeed when a shelter is not meeting market demand or competing effectively, and because animal lovers do not want to go into a shelter that kills the vast majority of the animals…

we can file civil lawsuits and push for criminal prosecution.

we can attempt to regulate and/or eliminate puppy mills directly through legislation, as several states have done

severe lack of state inspectors

Protest, educate, litigate, legislate, push for enforcement, and reform the shelter. And oh yeah, don’t buy from a pet store, sign my pledge, and send me money. (Just kidding.)

the bill will require commercial breeders to provide each dog with sufficient food and clean water, necessary veterinary care, housing, sufficient space, regular exercise, and limits on how many times per year a dog can be bred.

It continues the breeding, buying, and selling of dogs.

It specifically excludes dogs in animal research labs. It excludes breeding operations who sell “hunting dogs.” And it excludes animal shelters

the opposition is using the support of groups like the Humane Society of the United States to claim this is part of a radical animal rights agenda.

Compromises must often be made to achieve piecemeal success which can be built on over time.

For example, I would support laws banning the killing of animals in shelters altogether. But given tremendous opposition from the shelter killing industry, and the support of that industry by powerful groups like (ironically) the Humane Society of the United States, the ASPCA, and Best Friends, local and state governments are not willing to do that at this time in history, so I work on legislation like the Hayden Law and Assembly Member Micah Kellner’s rescue access bill in New York State to reduce the number killed. T

Historically, HSUS has a disturbing pattern of raising money on an issue, and immediately moving on, just as they did when they raised $30 million on Hurricane Katrina rescue, spent $4 million, shipped the animals off to kill shelters, announced “Mission: Accomplished,” and went  home $26 million richer with two criminal investigations on their fundraising practices in their wake.

we need local and other national groups to act less like simpleton cheerleaders of HSUS and more like what they should be—groups whose mission is to advocate for dogs.

HSUS taking some of its $110 million annual budget (of which only ½ of one percent goes to shelters)

ASPCA taking some of its $120 million in annual revenues,

Best Friends taking some of its $40 million per year it takes in to rescue only 600 animals per year (at a whopping $70,000 each

If HSUS and others fully commit resources and energy into creating a safety net for dogs currently in puppy mills who will be discarded when Proposition B passes, any potential downsides resulting from this legislation would be eliminated.

In truth, I believe people are ready for laws banning puppy mills altogether and that would make sense, so long as we do not inadvertently open up markets to puppy mills from places like China, where medieval levels of barbarity would likely be the norm and they would remain out of regulatory reach.

Although there was an initial decrease in euthanasia from 85% to 50% between 1999 and 2001, after 2001 the AAC (the only open admission shelter in Austin, Texas) consistently took in over 23,000 animals and euthanized an average of 50 - 55% of the animals admitted each year.

In fact, AAC euthanized over 14,000 animals in 2007, which was a decade record and showed me that my efforts were not decreasing shelter intake or euthanasia like I had hoped.

Using Data to Identify and Fill in the Gaps

Using Data to Re-Assess and Fine-Tune Programs

The second strategy

Using Data to Develop Programs: Filling the Gaps

The first strategy

the medical help that I provided did not help the sheltered animals leave alive in any larger numbers.

off-site adoption programs

These were animals with mange or kennel cough, minor behavior issues like being scared, or animals with minor injuries. APA created a large-scale foster program to provide short-term foster for these animals as they overcame their minor problems.

neonatal nursery with all the supplies needed for around-the-clock kitten care

again built up a large-scale medical foster base for all the injured and ill animals.

large breed dogs with behavior problems.

The Austin community's demand for adopting a pet is higher than the supply from AAC

By bringing in animals from other shelters, APA is able to prevent adopters from becoming pet store pet buyers and thus save a whole lot more lives.

adult large breed dogs with behavior issues are adopted each year because of improved customer service,

pet-matching practices,

behavior modification

APA rescued over 5,000 animals last year. No cat, kitten, small breed dog, puppy of any breed, or large breed friendly dog, including pit bulls, died in the City of Austin in 2011 simply because it didn't have a home.

increase the number of adoption venues

additional exposure.