“NO-KILL” POLICIES

October 2, 2005

General policy

When a cat becomes a “10th Lifer,” we become responsible for its well being. If it’s a healthy animal, we’ll do everything we can to keep it healthy; if it’s not healthy, we’ll do everything we can to make it better.

            However, if we fail to make a sick cat better and the animal begins to suffer, we’ll mercifully put it to sleep – but only if “it has an incurable disease, condition, or injury and is suffering.”

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, animals can not suffer or experience pain when they are in a coma. Therefore, we will not euthanize a cat that is in a coma because it is not suffering.

            If an animal is in a coma, we’ll make it comfortable. If possible, we’ll continue medical treatment.

            Coma or not, it’s time to euthanize when nothing more can be done to stop the medical decline and the animal involuntarily cries out, becomes restless, has difficulty breathing or moving, has seizures, or cannot stand on its own.

Under no circumstances, do we euthanize cats because they’re unfriendly, aggressive, or aren’t “pretty” enough to be adopted. And, we don't euthanize cats that test positive for feline AIDS (FIV) or leukemia. These are the “kill” criteria for Animal Control and most animal shelters, rescue groups, and adoption agencies.

Medical exceptions to “No-Kill” policy

There are several exceptions to the above policy. When animals have certain diseases that jeopardize the health of our other animals or the safety of our personnel we must put them down. We do euthanize cats that have "distemper" (in cats it’s called “panleukopenia” – or “panleuk”) and animals that have rabies.

Panleuk is rampant – and devastating. Many shelters have been shut down for weeks because they took in an animal that was sick with panleuk and the disease spread to other animals within the facility. We’ve been lucky so far. But it could happen to us at any time.

            Isolation, confinement, and immunization of newcomers (and yearly immunization shots for our resident animals) is our method of preventing any outbreaks.

            If we find panleuk in a newcomer, we’re obligated to euthanize it – for its sake, and for the sake of all our other animals. If it were to spread, it would spread to other newcomers in our isolation ward who have just received their panleuk immunization shot – but who are not yet fully immunized because it takes 10 days for the shot to become fully effective.

Rabies is another disease that requires us to euthanize. Though it is less prevalent than reported in the media, it is a disease that is un-treatable, causes a horrible death, and can jeopardize our workers.

            We take in a lot of feral cats that have come from areas that have a high incidence of rabies (usually in bats, raccoons and foxes). Though we have yet to have a case of rabies, our isolation, confinement, and immunization procedures will keep it from spreading to the rest of our populations.

            But, once the symptoms are recognized, and we see the steady decline, we will euthanize the animal to avoid it having to suffer the end stages of rabies. This protects our other animals and personnel.

Another important exception

“What happens if you run out of money to operate the sanctuary? What happens to the animals? Will you euthanize them?”

Once a cat becomes a “10th Lifer” we become responsible for its well being. Part of being responsible for its well being is to make sure we have enough money to operate.

            We don’t have a million dollars in the bank nor any kind of endowment to guarantee that we will always have money to operate (we wish we did!).

            So, we have two choices:

1. Charge enough money at the time of admission to provide lifetime care for the animal, or

2. Establish an ongoing fund-raising program to provide all the necessary funds to operate.

            Few people have enough money to pay for lifetime care, up front. So there is only one real choice: To establish an ongoing fund-raising campaign.

            Our program includes soliciting donations from individuals, applying for grants from foundations, governments, and corporations, and conducting individual projects to generate funds.

            Our plan is to continue and expand our ongoing fund-raising efforts. It’s a responsible plan. We’d be irresponsible if we didn’t do it.

But, the question stands: “What happens to our animals if we don’t raise enough money to operate?”

            If, after cutting all operating costs to a bare minimum, we find that we still don’t have enough money to operate, and we find that the only solution is to shut down, then we will try to find homes or other organizations to take our animals.

            Failing that, we will euthanize them. We will not let them starve to death.

People who surrender animals to us should realize that there are no guarantees in life. Banks fail and endowments can get destroyed in stock market plunges. We will do the best we can, we will make our best efforts. But, the reality of providing lifetime care for our animals is contingent upon future funding.

            The best way to ensure that our cats live a long time at our sanctuary is to participate in our ongoing fund-raising campaigns.

Euthanasia

Euthanasia means “easy death.” When we have to euthanize a cat, we make sure it suffers no pain – and has an easy death.

            Injectable sodium pentobarbital is the drug of choice because it is a central nervous system depressant that first shuts down “pain receptors” in the brain (so that there is no pain in the body) and then proceeds to shut down the rest of the brain which stops the breathing and stops the heart. The entire process is pain-free and everything stops.

            There is no painful “heart attack.” The heart just stops pumping.

There are several methods used to get the drug into the body’s circulation system which delivers it to the brain. Some methods take longer to reach the brain than others.

            In cats, we use the fastest method, “IP.” With IP there is no need to pre-anesthetize the cat, nor a need to find a vein. It is totally painless.

            It works very fast. The cat is totally unconscious within 5 seconds after the drug reaches the brain and “medical death” occurs 35 painless seconds later (“clinical death” at 120 seconds).

Maury, the President of The “10th Life” Sanctuary, Inc., is a Florida Certified Euthanasia Technician (CET). When necessary, he can do it.

We bury our animals in our cemetery at the sanctuary.