Killing for Convenience in Arlington, Virginia

Killing a dog is easier than adoption oureach -- and more profitable too.


Let's compare and contrast the County-contracted open-door animal pounds for Arlington County, Virginia and Albermarle County, Virginia.

The Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA, is a contracted City/County Animal Pound in Albermarle County, Virginia serving both the County and the city of Charlottesville (the county seat). As of Census 2000 Albermarle County had population of 80,000, of which 85 percent were white, and the median family income was $63,400 a year.

In 2006, the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA adopted out 1,085 dogs and euthanized 180, an 86-to-14 percent adoption-to-death rate. Albermarle also transfered 67 dogs to other releasing agencies within the state and 169 dogs to releasing agencies out of state (we assume this means a breed-specific rescue). Another 8 dogs died in the facility, 24 were classified as "miscellaneous" (we have no idea what that means), and 149 were on hand waiting possible adoption as of December 31st.

The Animal Welfare League of Arlington, is a contracted City/County Animal Pound in Arlington, Virginia. Arlington is a densely-settled urban-suburban County across the river from Washington, D.C. As of Census 2000, Arlington had a population of 190,000 people, of which 65 percent were white, and the median family income was over $116,000 year.

In 2006, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington adopted out 310 dogs and euthanized 155, a 67-to-33 percent adoption-to-death rate. Arlington also transferred 8 dogs to another releasing agency within the state and 3 dogs to releasing agencies out of state (we assume this means a breed-specific rescue). Zero dogs died in the facility, 158 were classified as "miscellaneous" (we have no idea what that means), and only 17 dogs were were on hand waiting possible adoption as of December 31st.

What do the numbers show?

Simple: Though residents of Arlington County have almost twice the income of Albermarle County residents, and though our local dog pound has one-third the number of abandoned dogs as Albermarle County, our local dog shelter is killing twice the percentage of Albermarle County.

Why is this happening?

Simple: though Arlington County is one of the most well-educated and wealthiest counties in the country, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington does almost nothing to reach out to the community in order to get dogs and cats adopted out.

I have spent 30 years in Arlington County and have never seen an Animal Welfare League posting at Starbucks (14 in the County) or any other coffee shop, at a grocery store, at a Pet Store, or at any of the numerous dog boutiques in the County (we even have a dog bakery in this animal-loving County!)

Unlike Arlington County, Albermarle County and the City of Charlotesville have dedicated themselves to actually trying to get dogs and cats rehomed.

Charlotesville's SPCA does more than simply advertise their dogs and cats on "Petfinder" -- they work closely with breed rescue groups, and they are willing to hold dogs and cats longer, rather than rush them to the "Blue Death."

Arlington, however, is pretty quick with the "blue death" solution. The practice in Arlington is to manage the budget and the facility through euthanasia. With the County paying a fixed amount of money to AWLA every year, a dead dog means not only less food, and a cleaner facility, but less work, fewer personnel needs, and more "open" cages. As a consequence, overcrowding will never be a problem at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington!

To be fair, there are many other animal shelters out there with higher kill numbers than Arlington. What is notable about Arlington however, is that we have so few stray dogs, such incredible wealth, so many people with nice back yards, and so little outreach by the local County-sponsored shelter. Killing, it seems, is simply more convenient than actually running an agressive adoption outreach effort.

To read more about how how America's "humane" movement has lost its way, read Redemption by Nathan Winograd. A summary can be found here, but read the whole book.
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