By the looks of the city of Dallas' Companion Animal Project (aka DCAP), I don't think they could be getting any further away from lowering the shelter kill rate.
Let's look at the DCAP Facebook page. Instead of announcing any changes to the current m.o. down at Dallas Animal Services, we've been treated to excerpts from Wayne Pacelle's worst-selling book The Bond. From the Dec 29 posting:
From "The Bond": "Right now, slightly less than 25% of all dogs in American households come from shelters or rescue groups. That means that roughly three out of every four dogs come from other sources - from pet stores, puppy mills, small-scale breeders, or friends adopting out litters. There's still a stigma associated with shelters, the vague, sometimes snobbish, and always uninformed view that something is wrong with shelter animals." Here is what each of us can do: tell our friends to adopt from shelters or rescue groups! The dogs in shelters are just as wonderful as those in pet stores!
That's right, DCAP! Just tell her our friends to adopt from shelters and everything will be hunky-dory.
Over at thte DCAP Web site, the Advisory Board just gets weirder and weirder. New members include:
An architect, whose usefulness totally evades me. He is also often photographed with his purebred bulldog - a breed that's been infamously overbred over the decades.
Someone who runs an SCPA in Virginia (like that'll do a lot of good).
Someone who's stinkin' rich and owns Six Flags - a place that relies on smaller local rescue groups to help them manage their feral cats.
Someone who's already professionally committee-sitting (ie., no dirty work please, it'll fuck up my manicure) on another local animal "advocate" group.
Let's see what goes down at the Animal Shelter Commission meeting this afternoon.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
An apology to my readers
Readers of this blog have noticed that I don't publish a lot of updates any more. This is because things at Dallas City Hall took a nasty turn a few months ago with the formation of the Dallas Companion Animal Project, an exercise in Let's Preserve Our Positions By Promising No Kill, But Never Delivering.
Ever since the Dallas Companion Animal Project (DCAP) was launched, the hopeful kept hoping that things would change at Dallas Animal Services (DAS). But look who's chairing DCAP:
Rebecca Poling, the Chair of the Task Force OPPOSED lifesaving legislation in Texas which would have banned the cruel gas chamber, mandated collaboration between Texas pounds and rescue organizations by making it illegal to kill animals when qualified rescues were willing to save them, required transparency in how taxpayer monies were spent by requiring shelters to make their statistics public, and would have made it illegal for shelters to kill animals based on arbitrary criteria.
In addition, Poling’s tenure on the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission has been marked by staggering neglect and abuse at Dallas Animal Services, which is not only underscored by the fact that the agency routinely and needlessly puts to death tens of thousands of animals every year (24,793 of the 34,399 animals it took in), but allowed a cat to starve to death within its walls, while every single employee looked the other way at his cries for help. In short, you cannot create a true and authentic blueprint for No Kill success by empanelling a Task Force chaired by a person who has no track record of success and who opposes the very approach necessary to end the killing of savable animals.
You can keep hoping this will change. But they won't. I am willing to bet any sum of money on this.
Since DCAP came into existence, Poling and Co. have done nothing of value. Instead, they recycle old stories online at Facebook and the Net while kissing each other's bottoms until they're soda-cracker white. And since she has no real news to publish, Poling has recently begun to resort to publishing pretty photos of her friends, complete with their arms around their pets. The photo ops are getting downright nauseating.
Perhaps Poling should show us what's really going on at DAS. This is what is going on every day as DCAP pursues nothing of value:
(Note: This photo is from several years ago. The photo my ex took some 15 years ago was considerably worse. Animals were stacked in wire containers and some smaller bodies were falling out of the sides. She took it while visiting the now-closed DAS Forney Road shelter.)
But none of this is changing anything down at DAS. The killing goes on, day in and day out. Or, as Bruce Campbell would say,
"You ain't leading nothing but Jack and shit. And Jack left town."
At least the public is no longer banned from pointing out how the No-Kill Equation has worked in other cities and counties. Or are we?
From the DCAP Facebook page:
Also, please note - months of research has been conducting up to this point, so while we appreciate the sentiment, general comments like "look at what Richmond did", keep in mind that we've already researched Austin, Richmond, San Antonio, San Francisco, and many, many more.
From the DCAP Web site:
If you’ve got a suggestion, please let us know. We’re looking for specific programs and initiatives that have been used successfully in other areas, lessons learned from personal experiences, and unique, “outside the box” ideas that we may not have seen before. We want your input.
So...what are we waiting for?
Nathan Winograd described DCAP's real agenda - that of preserving the status quo, while only giving lip service to no-kill - accurately in his book Redemption. Specifically, the chapter Co-option.
Winograd also wrote a letter to the mayor of Dallas everything we need to know to stop the killing here in his blog - several months ago.
Does anyone know if our mayor ever responded to the letter?
Ever since the Dallas Companion Animal Project (DCAP) was launched, the hopeful kept hoping that things would change at Dallas Animal Services (DAS). But look who's chairing DCAP:
Rebecca Poling, the Chair of the Task Force OPPOSED lifesaving legislation in Texas which would have banned the cruel gas chamber, mandated collaboration between Texas pounds and rescue organizations by making it illegal to kill animals when qualified rescues were willing to save them, required transparency in how taxpayer monies were spent by requiring shelters to make their statistics public, and would have made it illegal for shelters to kill animals based on arbitrary criteria.
In addition, Poling’s tenure on the Dallas Animal Shelter Commission has been marked by staggering neglect and abuse at Dallas Animal Services, which is not only underscored by the fact that the agency routinely and needlessly puts to death tens of thousands of animals every year (24,793 of the 34,399 animals it took in), but allowed a cat to starve to death within its walls, while every single employee looked the other way at his cries for help. In short, you cannot create a true and authentic blueprint for No Kill success by empanelling a Task Force chaired by a person who has no track record of success and who opposes the very approach necessary to end the killing of savable animals.
You can keep hoping this will change. But they won't. I am willing to bet any sum of money on this.
Since DCAP came into existence, Poling and Co. have done nothing of value. Instead, they recycle old stories online at Facebook and the Net while kissing each other's bottoms until they're soda-cracker white. And since she has no real news to publish, Poling has recently begun to resort to publishing pretty photos of her friends, complete with their arms around their pets. The photo ops are getting downright nauseating.
Perhaps Poling should show us what's really going on at DAS. This is what is going on every day as DCAP pursues nothing of value:
(Note: This photo is from several years ago. The photo my ex took some 15 years ago was considerably worse. Animals were stacked in wire containers and some smaller bodies were falling out of the sides. She took it while visiting the now-closed DAS Forney Road shelter.)
But none of this is changing anything down at DAS. The killing goes on, day in and day out. Or, as Bruce Campbell would say,
"You ain't leading nothing but Jack and shit. And Jack left town."
At least the public is no longer banned from pointing out how the No-Kill Equation has worked in other cities and counties. Or are we?
From the DCAP Facebook page:
Also, please note - months of research has been conducting up to this point, so while we appreciate the sentiment, general comments like "look at what Richmond did", keep in mind that we've already researched Austin, Richmond, San Antonio, San Francisco, and many, many more.
From the DCAP Web site:
If you’ve got a suggestion, please let us know. We’re looking for specific programs and initiatives that have been used successfully in other areas, lessons learned from personal experiences, and unique, “outside the box” ideas that we may not have seen before. We want your input.
So...what are we waiting for?
Nathan Winograd described DCAP's real agenda - that of preserving the status quo, while only giving lip service to no-kill - accurately in his book Redemption. Specifically, the chapter Co-option.
Winograd also wrote a letter to the mayor of Dallas everything we need to know to stop the killing here in his blog - several months ago.
Does anyone know if our mayor ever responded to the letter?
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Why re-invent the no-kill wheel?
In addition to a ridiculous advisory board - two photogenic women with NO experience with no-kill - DCAP continues to make nice with the ignorant Dallas public via their Web site.
We are invited to make suggestions about how Dallas to become no-kill through an online suggestion box at the DCAP Web site. However, we are not allowed to discuss examples of shelters, groups and cities who have already become no-kill. Seems the DCAP task force thinks that Dallas is so fucked up that we can't learn from other cities. Why not? What's the difference?
This is from the DCAP Facebook page (not verbatim, I fixed their typos - repairs are in red font. No words were deleted where I inserted "are not welcome" but that's the jist):
This is from the DCAP Facebook page (not verbatim, I fixed their typos - repairs are in red font. No words were deleted where I inserted "are not welcome" but that's the jist):
Also, please note - months of research have been conducted up to this point, so while we appreciate the sentiment, general comments like "look at what Richmond did" are not welcome, Keep in mind that we've already researched Austin, Richmond, San Antonio, San Francisco, and many, many more.
Here's more DCAP Let's Re-Invent The Wheel While We Kill Hundreds More Animals humor:
The idea to move forward with a cooperative, “new breed” of no kill task force was conceived by Rebecca Poling and Mary Spencer back in May, and presented to the Animal Shelter Commission in June.
Clever way to buy some time, Rebecca and Mary!
And if you're wondering who Mary Spencer is, here's what the DCAP site says:
Mary Spencer is the former founder, co-owner and President of The Spencer Company, the seventh largest furniture dealership and the seventeenth largest woman-owned business in North Texas.
Maybe Mary's going to buy DAS staff Barcaloungers so they can be comfy when administering the phenobarbitol.
If DCAP had really researched other groups, they wouldn't need to ask the public what to do. These and other groups - like Seagoville - can tell DCAP all they need to know in half an hour. Network with other groups, work hard, publicize your adoption events, ask your community to help, be nice to your volunteers, and don't be snobs.
Some places have published comprehensive guides with details of how they achieved no-kill, too. Washoe County has published a PDF guide for how they went no-kill during a time when Nevada's economy was tanking. Here's a link their Web site. The link to the How We Did It PDF is small - look in the left-hand margin for it. I recommend it.
Some places have published comprehensive guides with details of how they achieved no-kill, too. Washoe County has published a PDF guide for how they went no-kill during a time when Nevada's economy was tanking. Here's a link their Web site. The link to the How We Did It PDF is small - look in the left-hand margin for it. I recommend it.
So why is DCAP taking this time-wasting, unnecessary approach, reinventing the wheel when we have plenty of wheels ready to help? Here are my guesses - readers are invited to add their own in Comments:
- Poling and Co. want to take credit for suggestions.
- If anyone posts an unworkable suggestion, the DCAP folks can feel superior.
- Poling and Co. are doing exactly what Nathan Winograd described: pretend to want to go no-kill when all they're doing is pacifying the public for as long as they can. In the meantime, they can carry on with their committee-sitting, keeping their hands clean while they pass the blame to the public and the killing continues. (Task force chairperson has already told us she doesn't do "hands-on" stuff any more.)
I considered posting a polite, sensible suggestion at the DCAP site. However, I will never know what happened to it. Neither will anyone else.
This is because it's swallowed up by a survey-taking app called Survey Monkey. You enter your suggestion, hit the Submit button and it's gone - so DCAP can take the credit or, more probably, trash it.
This is because it's swallowed up by a survey-taking app called Survey Monkey. You enter your suggestion, hit the Submit button and it's gone - so DCAP can take the credit or, more probably, trash it.
Whatever happened to good old-fashioned forums?
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
DCAP's Advisory Board: Is this a joke?
I decided to check out the Dallas Companion Animal Project's Web site today.
Can anyone tell me what either of these women have ever done to implement no-kill anywhere? The DCAP Web site doesn't. When you click on their photos, all you get is a larger version. So you can admire their dental work.
As expected, it's published absolutely nothing about successful no-kill shelters. Instead, they're collecting friends with the same juvenile enthusiasm as an SMU freshman pledging a sorority.
Take a look at their Advisory Board. I'm still scratching my head about this, trying to figure it out:
Can anyone tell me what either of these women have ever done to implement no-kill anywhere? The DCAP Web site doesn't. When you click on their photos, all you get is a larger version. So you can admire their dental work.
So far, all I can remember is that Elba Garcia supported the 2008 animal legislation. You know, the one with unenforceable pet limit laws and big fat registration fees for unaltered animals. The legislation that made Mark and Lynn Gideon spend thousands on attorney fees as they were over the six pet limit. You know - the stupid laws.
But Dr. Garcia did get a big fat lick on the butt from the Texas Animal Control Association. TACA gave Dr. Garcia a Presidential Citation in 2008. Who cares of TACA opposed the Companion Animal Protection Act? Who cares if TACA supports kill shelters?
Jocelyn White is equally mystifying. She's on the SPCA board but seems to concentrate on fundraising. But again, absolutely no experience with no-kill, although she can help you shop yourself into insurmountable credit card debt.
And Jocelyn has three pugs. She describes one as "rescued" at one site, but at another Web site she says all three are rescues. Why not shelter mutts, Jocelyn? Couldn't find any that matched your interior decor?
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Monday, October 31, 2011
Running scared, or DCAP's co-option dance begins
Earlier today, I listened to Nathan Winograd's October 30 interview on Animal Wise Radio. It's available as a free, downloadable podcast.
During the interview, Winograd referred to the "Co-option" chapter of his first book Redemption. He saw the Dallas Companion Animal Project (DCAP) coming a long time ago, because this sort of reaction is not uncommon. It's happened in other cities.
Here's how co-option works. It's a three-step process.
DCAP's Rebecca Poling, is refreshingly honest about her unsuitability to chair this task force. If you read her "About Me" page here, you'll get the drift. For example, she admits she isn't involved in any "hands on" rescue any more. She's not lazy - she's "focusing on the big picture". And she thinks we need tons of unenforceable laws to keep the "stupid" members of the public in line.
And where are these brilliant plans to reduce shelter killing? Not for our eyes. DCAP's Facebook page and Web site have NO details of what the task force is planning to do to reduce euthanasia rates, even though Poling knew it was coming way back in May (see previous post).
Instead, DCAP's Web presence is nothing more than pages of cheerful mutual masturbation, thanking other shelters for joining the Project. Here are some examples from the DCAP Facebook page:
Occasionally, someone will dare disagree with this rubbish - including those who have been truly successful with the No-Kill Equation. But any message they post will be deleted in minutes.
They are also occasionally told to fuck off and not post any more. Here's an example:
Asking Poling and Co. to be accountable is kind of like asking Wayne Pacelle to be honest about the HSUS's fundraising efforts. (And since the HSUS reports have done nothing to improve things at Dallas Animal Services, can we have our $50,000 back?)
I feel sorry for many of the shelters who are joining, as they're ready to do what needs to be done to make Dallas a no-kill city. Instead, they'll eventually realize that DCAP's message hasn't changed - just the name.
In the meantime, the killers at Dallas Animal Services and in Dallas City Hall will continue to kill the majority of animals they take in, while they continue to tell us to shut up and let them do what they want to do behind closed doors, without accountability.
During the interview, Winograd referred to the "Co-option" chapter of his first book Redemption. He saw the Dallas Companion Animal Project (DCAP) coming a long time ago, because this sort of reaction is not uncommon. It's happened in other cities.
Here's how co-option works. It's a three-step process.
- The folks who did nothing to stop killing in the past begin to get nervous, as more of the public insist that the shelter gets rid of bad management and stops killing the majority of animals in its care.
- Eventually, these folks decide that the only way they can hang on to power is to begin to start tossing the phrase "no kill" around. This will buy them some time. For example, they'll probably begin to classify many more animals as "unadoptable". This cunning little math trick will immediately increase the numbers of "adoptable" animals that aren't killed. Easy!
- However, this charade, combined with the others in store for us, won't fool us forever. When their failure eventually becomes obvious, the DCAP task force won't be blamed. Nor will they be held accountable. Instead, the public will be blamed for the killing again, as they were before the task force was formed.
DCAP's Rebecca Poling, is refreshingly honest about her unsuitability to chair this task force. If you read her "About Me" page here, you'll get the drift. For example, she admits she isn't involved in any "hands on" rescue any more. She's not lazy - she's "focusing on the big picture". And she thinks we need tons of unenforceable laws to keep the "stupid" members of the public in line.
And where are these brilliant plans to reduce shelter killing? Not for our eyes. DCAP's Facebook page and Web site have NO details of what the task force is planning to do to reduce euthanasia rates, even though Poling knew it was coming way back in May (see previous post).
Instead, DCAP's Web presence is nothing more than pages of cheerful mutual masturbation, thanking other shelters for joining the Project. Here are some examples from the DCAP Facebook page:
To be fair, not 100% of the Facebook messages are suckups. I think some of the shelters who are now "Animal Advocacy Partners", whatever that means, mean well.
Occasionally, someone will dare disagree with this rubbish - including those who have been truly successful with the No-Kill Equation. But any message they post will be deleted in minutes.
They are also occasionally told to fuck off and not post any more. Here's an example:
Asking Poling and Co. to be accountable is kind of like asking Wayne Pacelle to be honest about the HSUS's fundraising efforts. (And since the HSUS reports have done nothing to improve things at Dallas Animal Services, can we have our $50,000 back?)
I feel sorry for many of the shelters who are joining, as they're ready to do what needs to be done to make Dallas a no-kill city. Instead, they'll eventually realize that DCAP's message hasn't changed - just the name.
In the meantime, the killers at Dallas Animal Services and in Dallas City Hall will continue to kill the majority of animals they take in, while they continue to tell us to shut up and let them do what they want to do behind closed doors, without accountability.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Dallas Companion Animal Project: Ouch, ouch and ouch
Since Jody Jones was brought in to run Dallas Animal Services (DAS) a few months ago, I decided to take a wait and see attitude to see how she planned to manage.
Recently I have decided that she might as well have stayed in Richmond.
Seems that the committee-sitters have decided to retain their links to the folks who helped them kill the Companion Animal Protection Act earlier this year - namely, THLN, HSUS and similar - while attempting to pass off their mysterious plans for a no-kill Dallas as Nathan Winograd's No-Kill Equation.
Someone NOT involved with No-Kill Dallas (a group separate from DCAP, and supported by Nathan Winograd) has wandered over and registered every usable No Kill Dallas Web address. If you visit Register.com and look up these:
Here's a screen shot of one of them, courtesy of Register.com.
The bottom feeders at Dallas City Hall, especially the ones in the Animal Shelter Commission, have already got this no-kill Dallas thing wrapped up. (Not really, but this is what they want you to think.) They've named themselves the Dallas Companion Animal Project. Let's call them DCAP for short.
Seems that the committee-sitters have decided to retain their links to the folks who helped them kill the Companion Animal Protection Act earlier this year - namely, THLN, HSUS and similar - while attempting to pass off their mysterious plans for a no-kill Dallas as Nathan Winograd's No-Kill Equation.
To my mind, if you're in bed with the THLN and HSUS, there is absolutely no way you can make no-kill become a reality. But DCAP insists this is true.
DCAP's Facebook page proudly links to THLN, HSUS, and similar "hidden-agenda" organizations. Ouch One.
Winograd not only noticed that DCAP's Rebecca Poling borrowed an outdated quote of his; he was sufficiently outraged to write to the major of Dallas and to point this out in detail. He also made his letter public.
Here an excerpt from his letter, in which Nathan eats Rebecca's lunch one more time:
...you cannot create a true and authentic blueprint for No Kill success by empanelling a Task Force chaired by a person who has no track record of success and who opposes the very approach necessary to end the killing of savable animals.
But even though Nathan's letter has been public knowledge for several days, DCAP has not had the courtesy (or the brains) to remove his quote from any of their materials.
Here is Ouch Three. Even if the previous has not convinced you of the disingenuous nature of DCAP, this may.
Someone NOT involved with No-Kill Dallas (a group separate from DCAP, and supported by Nathan Winograd) has wandered over and registered every usable No Kill Dallas Web address. If you visit Register.com and look up these:
www.nokilldallas.com
www.nokilldallas.net
www.nokilldallas.org
you will see that they're taken. NOT by a group, but by an individual. And they are not in use.
Here's a screen shot of one of them, courtesy of Register.com.
My guess is that she is busting a gut to sabotage the real No Kill Dallas group - the group that Nathan Winograd actually supports. Because if she can do this, she can keep the spotlight on herself. You can read about this group and find out how to volunteer at the No Kill Dallas Facebook page.
Does anyone care to hazard a guess as to what's wrong with Rebecca? For someone who pretends to love animals, her actions betray her at every step.
But here is the ultimate bad news: while Rebecca busies herself with her egocentric activities and confuses a growing number of newcomers to no-kill, Dallas Animal Services keeps killing more and more animals. Every day.
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