Tell RMFR to put "no kill" back into their mission statement. Rescues must take a stand and not waiver for the sake of funding options. What's next?! The no kill community needs to be a unified voice that does not make compromises.
DENVER – The Rocky Mountain Feline Rescue dropped two words from its mission statement recently that has some former board members up in arms.
But the shelter says it changes nothing about the way they operate.
The RMFR dropped the words “no-kill” from the statement citing pressure from outside groups.
“We formed a grant writing committee and a lot of grants we could not apply for because people are starting to require that the no kill vernacular not be used,” said Cari Dicke, the shelter’s current board president.
Dicke said the move was made by the shelter administrator as a way to join a coalition of local shelters, which has banded together and refused to use that term.
One of those shelters is the Denver Dumb Friends League.
“As a group we’ve agreed to not use “no kill” language and we’ve agreed to do that because no kill language is very very divisive in a community,” said Dr. Apryl Steele, COO of the DDFL.
“No kill does not mean no kill,” she said. “People think that because we use no kill it means animals aren’t being euthanized. That standard is that less than 10 percent of animals are being euthanized and our whole state does that.”
Steele said more progressive donors are limiting grants to shelters that don’t use the term she calls divisive.
RMFR said it only euthanizes cats when they are suffering and all medical options have been exhausted, much like a veterinarian would suggest to a regular pet owner.
Dicke insists the move was only made to advance the shelter and that nothing has changed as far as operations go.
“We’re not a kill shelter. And quite honestly I think they’re trying to get rid of kill and no kill. And I think it is misleading,” Dicke said.
