REDEMPTION
The Myth of Pet Population and The No-Kill Revolution in America
Author: Nathan Winograd
Publisher: Almaden Books
Reviewer: Claudette Vaughan

He’s called the doyen of the No-Kill Movement in America being unusually gifted in an area that is desperate for his talents of oratory, rescue and the written word.

Nathan Winograd, infact, can make potato water sound like ambrosia and this isn’t just hyperbole. His proven track record helped San Francisco in the 1990’s into No-Kill when they were on the verge of bankruptcy. He then went on to accomplish the same in Tompkins County, NY. Under his leadership Tompkins County, NY became the first community in the nation to save all healthy dogs and cats, sick and injured treatable dogs and cats, and feral cats.

He tells us in his latest book Redemption: The Myth of Pet Population and the No-Kill Revolution in America that every year Americans alone spend more than thirty-eight billion dollars on their animal companions. Six out of ten American families have animal companions. Pet cemeteries are growing in popularity. And in a 1987 study by the U.S. National Institute of Health, 99% of people with pets admitted they talk to their animals, about 4 out of 10 keep pictures of their companion animal in their wallets or celebrate their pet’s birthday. In a subsequent study in 1999 found that nearly nine out of ten people include their pets in holiday celebrations, over half will take time off work to care for a sick pet, and 52% will prepare special meals for them. Pets are family members so where did it all go wrong for them?

This is the book par excellence that explodes the myth that killing is kindness. The politics involved with killing pound animal is enormous – and so is the money involved!

One by one, Winograd takes them on and they, it must be said, must wonder what has hit them. Winograd’s formidable intellect destroys the myths these mega rich and unaccountable animal welfare organisations and their ‘leaders’ have until now spoon-fed the general public for so long. The implications of Winograd’s book are profound, its urgency lying in his careful analysis of how and why pro-killing shelters continues.

Redemption tells us, for example, that The Humane Society of the United States is the largest and wealthiest humane agency in the world. In 2006 alone, its operating budget was a whopping 103 million dollars yet the Humane Society of the United States operates not one shelter nor rescues not one abandoned or homeless dog or cat. Another example, when Kim Sturla from the Peninsula Humane Society in San Mateo, California killed eight animals, five cats and three dogs on television, this public execution was applauded by Ingrid Newkirk from the organisation People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. A spokesperson for PETA at the time said, “We’re hoping that this sort of approach is going to catch on.”

Most readers won’t need reminding that killing healthy animals, on television or otherwise, is immoral.

When Don Chipp in Australia formed the political party “The Democrats” to take on the corporate big-wigs his motto was to “keep the bastards honest”. No-Kill sheltering is Nathan Winograd’s area of expertise to “keep the bastards honest”.

Give Americans their due, they are exceptionally generous when it comes to their companion animals. They have donated millions nay billions to animal welfare organisations over the years to champion the cause of getting homeless animals re-homed and into loving environments where they are safe yet this has not happened and you have to ask yourself why?

Let Redemption: The Myth of Pet Population and The No-Kill Revolution in America tell you why.

Nathan Winograd’s credentials are impeccable. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School and was both a former criminal prosecutor and corporate attorney. An ethical vegan and lifelong animal rescuer, his passion has always been helping animals, and he left the law to dedicate himself to that task.

In 2004 he started the No Kill Advocacy Center, dedicated to creation of a No Kill Nation. He has helped agencies and municipalities all over the United States reduce their rates of shelter killing and he has a busy website: www.nathanwinograd.com

Nathan Winograd has declared war against the killing of innocent victims in the non-human animal kingdom that could be avoided with the right attitude, programs and energy in place. He leaves the reader in no doubt on which side he is on. The only question really left to answer is which side are you on?

This book is a product of its time and it’s so important to hear his message. In order to hear its message though we must start taking animals’ rights seriously. Killing healthy animals is not non-violent direct action. It’s not some twisted “kindness” that humans undertake to show mercy on a healthy animal. It is a betrayal and the first step to eliminating a betrayal is to start to see the killing for what it really is.

This book takes no prisoners. Implicitly rejecting the old conservative notion that nothing can be done for homeless, sick and injured animals except killing them, it equally seeks to deconstruct the myth touted by the liberal assumption that participants in this mass carnage going on unabated in every shelter and pound in rich first world countries around the world will seek animals’ rights and welfare later on down the track in a vague and distant future but for now killing dogs and cats is acceptable. Animal carcasses really have become such a money-spinner for the animal welfare movement of today who calls the shots, makes a comfortable living from it yet changes not one policy to help animals. It’s by calling them into account that’s a job that’s long over-due.

It has been a monumental mistake and counterproductive going against No-Kill efforts for companion animals. The public won’t stand for it and neither will a critical mass of people, growing daily, that rejects the euphemisms of ‘unadoptable’, ‘untreatable’ or ‘unrehabilitative’. Viva Redemption! The struggle continues.

The book is available for pre-order now from Amazon. It will be available in September, 2007 through any U.S. bookstore (Borders, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and through Amazon and others, inc. the independents.

www.nathanwinograd.com has more info or for people to sign up to receive notice when it is available.