When we first checked in with Baytown, Texas, local advocates were excited. Their City Council had just passed a non-binding resolution to be No Kill by 2025. We felt a need at the time to play a bit of the "Debbie Downer" role by pointing out that these long-term goals never really pan out. The reasons why they don't are many and a little complex. The simplest way to explain why they fail, however, is this: Since achieving No Kill can happen overnight (literally), setting the goal to hopefully achieve it many years into the future, with no meaningful action to be taken today, serves no purpose, other than to help elected officials look like they are doing something to improve their shelters when they really are not. We said that back in 2017 when we first heard of the Baytown No Kill by 2025 resolution. This is their accomplishment to date, according to the statistics on their web site. The short version: More than a year later, they are still killing about 40% of the animals brought in, though it is hard to tell exactly, because they use a strange reporting format that does not appear to include all outcomes. In other words, more than a year after some people said they were "on the threshold" of becoming No Kill, not much has changed.
"No Kill by Year ______" (fill in the blank year) resolutions are cons perpetrated by elected officials to convince their constituents that they are doing something, while avoiding doing anything really at all.
We understand that Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS) has stated a goal of a No Kill nation by 2025 and, at a federal-level, we support that goal. However, on a local-level, that cannot and should not ever be the goal. In fact, if local municipalities are encouraged to set the goal post at the 2025 date, that is a near guarantee the nation will not be No Kill by 2025. To reach that date, we need local governments to make their change now, today. Otherwise the goal will never be achieved.