Reno No-Kill Status

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Preliminary statistics for the Reno shelter system are in. This includes the County shelter, and the Nevada Humane Society shelter.

The spreadsheet below is very complicated and difficult to follow, but uses columns instead of rows. The emphasis of the spreadsheet was on % killed vs. total impound into the system. As you can see, the disposition numbers do not account for all the impounds less adoptions, transfers and killed. The other categories not accounted for are returned to owner and held in shelter. I have asked for a more complete spreadsheet.

Unlike almost all other shelters, Reno does not distinguish between died in shelter due to disease and euthanasia for other reasons. They are counted as kill in their kill statistics.

As you can see, the total county intake is about 8,000 animals. The overall kill rate for dogs is 8.8% and for cats 25.4%. They dropped the kill rate by about 50% compared to 2006.

I don't think of Reno as a particularly affluent community made up of rich, highly educated compassionate residents, as naysayers claim, even such as Bickhart, to explain the good stats.

Like most shelters in the 6-8,000 animal category, they have about a $3 million budget and about 50 employees. They do not have civil service, which Bickhart uses to explain LAAS and Boks' failures.

They have about 1/6 of LAAS' impounds, but only 1/8 as many employees.

What sets Reno markedly apart is that they have 700 active volunteers, or 14 for every employee. How many does LAAS have?

Volunteer staff is the key to success at all of the shelter with low kill rates, such as SF, Charlottesville, Philly and Reno. Further analysis of what volunteer numbers mean, of course, is necessary.

Reno has one volunteer coordinator, who is a volunteer her or himself, and three volunteer assistants.

Once again, it seems that total community involvement is essential to No-Kill. I assume this means a no-kill status is difficult to maintain because you have to keep the entire community involved.

By the way Naysayer, no more posting of your rants averring that all low kill shelter directors, even those who run public shelters not dependent on donations, are liars and that only you know the truth but need not supply any evidence yourself. I have had enough.

http://itisnotreal.com/Reno.pdf
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