- Nathan Winograd,
Director of the No Kill Advocacy Center
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One of the dogs at the Central Illinois Small Animal Rescue and Care Shelter peers out of its cage. (Photo by Jessica Kennay / Staff Photographer) |
NORMAL – The first thing visitors to the Central Illinois Small Animal Rescue & Care Center notice are the trills and squawks that fill the air, as exotic birds taunt cages filled with wide-eyed cats in the main room. Young and old, friendly and scared, the birds and animals curiously approach the gates of their tiny, temporary homes to meet their potential owners.
To see the dogs, visitors are guided to an outside barn, where the remainder of the cats and dogs are housed. At the first sight of a human, the dogs bark wildly in excitement.
Sometimes, employees at CISAR will come to work and there will be a box of kittens, taped shut in a cardboard box sitting on their doorstep. Other times it will be a pregnant cat, which later has its litter at CISAR. Every once in a while, they will find a dog tied up to the fence with no food or water, waiting for their owner who will never come back. Students have also left their pets behind in apartments, which was the case for Frodo the cat, who was left without food or water for four days.
The stories go on and on.
CISAR has been a part of the Bloomington-Normal community for the past ten years, offering low cost veterinary treatment and adoption events to give each animal a chance of having a permanent home.
What sets CISAR apart from other shelters is the fact they do not euthanize animals to make room for more animals or because they are aggressive. Humane Societies euthanize animals through an injection by staff members, according to humanesociety.org, and few shelters can offer an animal a place beyond a certain time period.
Recently, financial troubles have CISAR on a short leash.
The no-kill shelter is facing foreclosure on loans it took out to build the 7,000 square foot facility, including the veterinary clinic. The situation began when the Bank of Illinois, who was carrying CISAR’s loan, went out of business due to the poor economy. Their loan was moved to Heartland Bank who assessed their property value and valued it at $51,000 less than the previous estimate, according to Donna Cathy, property manager at CISAR.
Right now, CISAR owes $1.2 million to Heartland to pay off the loan. While the owners are paying the interest payments, they are running into financial difficulties. Attorneys are working with the bank to settle on an amount that will keep the shelter open, but for the 78 dogs and 164 cats, the pressure is mounting.
“People tell us to just stop taking in animals. It’s so hard to argue against that,” Cathy said. “But when these animals are dropped off on our doorstep, they literally have nowhere to go. All of us love animals and we are responsible with their treatments, so it’s impossible to turn animals away.”
Fortunately, the shelter does receive help from the local community. The animals’ food and supplies are largely donated by local supporters, saving $30,000 on food costs alone.
The biggest question for CISAR is what might happen if they end up losing the shelter, leaving the animals with no home. Going into CISAR, one would never guess that there is a serious financial crisis happening. With a “Now Hiring” sign on the front desk, it seems like business as usual.
“We would never abandon the animals. I don’t even think it’s going to come to that point, but let’s say if it did, other shelters in Illinois have agreed to each take some animals. They will not be out here alone. We would do our upmost to find homes or shelters for each animal,” Cathy said.
However, Pat Burr, owner of CISAR, said if the bank wins and takes the property, the bank would euthanize the animals.
“That’s what they threatened,” Burr said in an interview on WMBD in October.
This situation may leave community members in doubt of the affordability of no-kill animal shelters. Nathan Winograd, director of the No Kill Advocacy Center in Oakland, Calf., explained that this is the number one myth when it comes to no-kill shelters.
“No-kill is cost effective, fiscally responsible and great economic boon to local communities. Given the cost savings and additional revenues of doing so with reduced costs associated with killing, enhanced community support, an increase in adoption revenues and other user fees, a community cannot afford not to embrace no-kill,” Winograd said.
Winograd believes that killing animals when they have no place to go is a morally bankrupt policy. Another point he makes in many of his speeches and books is that pet overpopulation is not as extreme as some portray it.
“Around 4 million animals are killed in shelters every year. Of these, 95 percent are healthy animals. The 3.8 million savable animals are not even close to the 23 million Americans who will get a new pet every year. A shelter only needs to find new homes for roughly half to 60 percent of incoming animals to end the killing,” Winograd said.
Moreover, people who adopt those animals from no-kill shelters then spend money on community businesses such as pet supply stores, veterinarians and groomers, not only pumping money into the local economy but increasing the local tax base.
Visitors to CISAR leave knowing that while a dark cloud hangs above the shelter, the employees will do their best to protect the animals no matter what happens.
“You have people here who really care about the animals. I’ve been in animal health for forty years and cannot see myself doing anything else. The animals come first,” Cathy said.