The No Kill Equation is a proven method to save homeless animals in a community through comprehensive implementation of 11 rescue components.
An adoption or transfer/transport to a rescue group frees up scarce cage and kennel space, reduces expenses for feeding, cleaning, and killing, and improves a community’s rate of lifesaving. Because millions of dogs and cats are killed in shelters annually, rare is the circumstance in which a rescue group should be denied an animal.
HSLC prides itself on our wide network of community relationships including:
Volunteers are a dedicated “army of compassion” and the backbone of a successful No Kill effort. There is never enough staff, never enough dollars to hire more staff, and always more needs than paid human resources. That is where volunteers make the difference between success and failure and, for the animals, life and death.
HSLC is run solely by volunteers – we have no paid staff. We are extremely fortunate to have a dedicated and passionate group of volunteers who save lives every day.
Foster care is a low-cost, and often no-cost way of increasing a shelter’s capacity, caring for sick and injured or behaviorally challenged animals, and thus saving more lives.
As a foster-based organization, we do not have a physical shelter. We can only save animals when we have a foster home to place them in.
Community sterilization programs humanely reduce impounds and killing.
We spay/neuter hundreds of community cats every year through our TNR program. Scientific studies show that TNR improves the lives of community cats, improves their relationships with people living near them, and decreases the size of colonies.
While some surrenders of animals to shelters are unavoidable, others can be prevented—but only if shelters work with people to help them solve their problems. Saving animals requires shelters to develop innovative strategies for keeping people and their companion animals together. And the more a community sees its shelters as a place to turn for advice and assistance, the easier this job will be.
There are several programs to assist families in need:
Adoptions are vital to an agency’s lifesaving mission. The quantity and quality of shelter adoptions is in shelter management’s hands, making lifesaving a direct function of shelter policies and practice. If shelters better promoted their animals and had adoption programs responsive to community needs, including public access hours for working people, offsite adoptions, adoption incentives, and effective marketing, they could increase the number of homes available and replace killing with adoptions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, shelters can adopt their way out of killing.
HSLC’s adoption program is crucial. We serve as the bridge to adoption for hundreds of cats and dozens of dogs each year. More adoptions means more animals can be saved. We regularly hold adoption events at local pet stores and county libraries.
Increasing adoptions, maximizing donations, recruiting volunteers and partnering with community agencies comes down to increasing the shelter’s public exposure. And that means consistent marketing and public relations. Public relations and marketing are the foundation of a shelter’s activities and success.
HSLC is out in the community! Please regularly check the calendar on our home page for times and locations of weekly Adoption Events and look for our tent at community festivals all year long. In addition, we often partner with local restaurants, businesses & non-profits for fun and educational events throughout the region – so please stop by and meet our furry friends!
Do you have an idea for a fundraiser or know of a group that would like to organize a project to benefit HSLC? We would love to hear from you! Email us at helpanimals@humaneloudoun.org.
To meet its commitment to a lifesaving guarantee for all savable animals, shelters need to keep animals happy and healthy and keep animals moving efficiently through the system. To do this, shelters must put in place comprehensive vaccination, handling, cleaning, socialization, and care policies before animals get sick and rehabilitative efforts for those who come in sick, injured, unweaned, or traumatized.
HSLC’s Medical Coordinator volunteer helps schedule and track vaccinations and other medical needs. Our Foster Liaison supports our foster parents and provides guidance on handling, cleaning, socialization and care. We also partner with our vets to ensure sick, injured, unweaned, or traumatized animals receive the best care possible.
No- and low-cost, high-volume sterilization reduces the number of animals entering the shelter system , allowing more resources to be allocated toward saving lives.
HSLC’s low cost spay/neuter program provides low cost options for Loudoun County residents to spay/neuter their animals.
One of the most overlooked opportunities for reducing killing in animal control shelters is increasing the number of lost animals returned to their families. This includes matching reports of lost animals with animals in the shelter, rehoming animals in the field, and use of technology such as posting lost animals on the internet.
This is the rescue term for Lost & Found and is covered under our Education & Communication programs. There are several things you can do right now to prevent your pet from becoming lost and to improve his/her chances of quickly returning home:
The final element of the No Kill Equation is the most important of all, without which all other elements are thwarted—a hard working, compassionate animal control or shelter director not content to continue killing, while regurgitating tired clichés about “public irresponsibility” or hiding behind the myth of “too many animals, not enough homes.”
Our board of directors lead HSLC’s execution of our mission and vision. All board members are dedicated to the no-kill philosophy and keeps the philosophy in mind when making all decisions.