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Animal Foundation To Go No-Kill

The Animal Foundation announced plans to become a no-kill-shelter in five years

The Animal Foundation – the group running the Lied Animal Shelter – announced it wants to become a no-kill shelter by 2020.

The move is something groups like No Kill Las Vegas have been wanting for quite some time.

The co-founder of No Kill Las Vegas, Bryce Henderson, told KNPR's State of Nevada he thinks it will take the foundation less than five years to become a no-kill shelter.

"I think once they get in there and start doing the work, and the community becomes involved, I think we're going to see it happen much sooner," Henderson said.

He said one of the biggest problems facing the shelter is the cat population. Henderson said the foundation's plan to work with other animal advocacy groups will help.

"This is a huge victory -- not just for our organization, but for the whole community," Henderson said.

The Animal Foundation is an open admission shelter that handles legal holds for animals from Clark County and the cities of Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. 

It came under fire earlier this year about the number of animals it puts down. According to its annual report, it euthanizes about 40 percent of its animal population.

When the foundation's contract with Clark County came up for review, critics said it was not doing enough to keep those numbers down and asked that the county not renew its contract with the foundation.

In the end, the county did give its multi-million dollar contract to the foundation.

In an interview with KNPR's State of Nevada earlier this year, Andy Bischel, the development director of the foundation, said the number of euthanized pets is going down and will continue to go down.

“The numbers are going in the right direction," he said. "Is it happening fast enough? No. But we can become, call it what you want, a humane or a no-kill community in the next five to seven years."

 

 

 

 

Bryce Henderson, No Kill Las Vegas

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Casey Morell is the coordinating producer of Nevada Public Radio's flagship broadcast State of Nevada and one of the station's midday newscast announcers. (He's also been interviewed by Jimmy Fallon, whatever that's worth.)