At Maddie’s Fund®, we believe that healthy and treatable pets – dogs and cats with health or behavioral conditions that could, with reasonable care, recover or maintain a good quality of life – should be saved.

In a recent presentation, Austin Pets Alive! veterinarian Dr. Ellen Jefferson explained why they fought so hard to make Austin the largest no-kill community in the country by saving all the city shelter’s treatable pets:

Why is not saving them a problem? Why should we address this?

One, it is bad publicity. What we found in Austin is that the citizens overwhelmingly wanted to save the animals, and they didn’t care about all the internal politics…. They just wanted the animals saved.

Two, it leads to poor morale in volunteers and shelter employees. They don’t want to have to euthanize these animals either.

[Last], I think that animals – every living being – their strongest instinct is to survive. And I think that’s a good reason to try to save them.

Her entire presentation can be viewed here.