Avanzino insists it can be achieved shelter by shelter, city by city. The San Francisco SPCA last year saved 4,897 dogs and cats, finding 82 so diseased or ill-tempered that they had to be put to death. Twelve years ago, Avanzino said, when Dave Duffield started PeopleSoft to create software for human resource applications, people laughed at that, too. We told ourselves that if we ever had money, we would return some back to her kind. And when other shelters see what the first is doing, they'll want to try it.
Success brings more success.
The concept of a no-kill nation has critics. Some animal welfare organizations question how ending euthanasia is possible when the number of unwanted animals far exceeds the number of people willing to adopt them. They also say that labeling a shelter no-kill could make the public think ill of struggling shelters that do kill animals to make room for others that might suffer and die slowly on the streets as strays. Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, lauds the goal of a no-kill nation, but doubts it can be attained. But every day, I pray that some of that money will go to the unpopular roots of the problem.