the Dakin three-year plan to adoption guarantee
Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society has launched an ambitious plan to end the euthanasia of homeless adoptable animals by the year 2012.
The current state of homeless animals in the Pioneer Valley
In 2008, more than 11,000 animals entered the region’s three largest animal shelters: Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society, Thomas J. O’Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center, and MSPCA Western New England. Nearly half of those animals lost their lives.
When the MSPCA closed its Western New England Animal Care and Adoption Center in Springfield in late March 2009, Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society arranged to purchase the building, re-open it, and embark on an unprecedented campaign to put an end to the putting to sleep of adoptable homeless animals.
Statistics show….
We’ve got good news. And we’ve got bad news.
The good news is that few adoptable homeless dogs are ending up in animal shelters in our communities. For a variety of reasons—stronger animal control laws for dogs, the lower reproductive capacity of dogs, the ability of dog lovers to keep even intact dogs from breeding—the homeless dog population has dwindled in our region. Homeless litters of puppies, once commonplace as recently as 10 years ago, are now mercifully rare.
The bad news is that, of the 11,000 homeless animals entering our animal shelters, more than three quarters—8,500 animals—are felines. Cats and kittens are relinquished at an alarming—and lethal—rate.
Where there is compassion, there is hope.
Around the country, communities have risen to the challenge to end the unnecessary deaths of homeless animals. We ask you to join us in creating a community that will no longer tolerate lethal solutions to animal homelessness.
We have a plan. And we need your help.
Milestone I, August 2009: Open Dakin Springfield Adoption & Education Center
Milestone II, August 2010: Work in Progress
Milestone III, August 2011: Saving More Lives
Milestone IV, August 2012: Adoption Guarantee!
Healthy? Rehabilitatable? Manageable?
Dakin Asilomar Standards provide detailed definitions of which animals we consider to be healthy, rehabilitatable, manageable, or unhealthy/untreatable.
Animals who develop or manifest medical or behavioral problems that change their Asilomar classification during their stay in the adoption program will be re-evaluated and may be euthanized if they no longer remain healthy, treatable, or manageable.