Today: Just One Day

Hundreds of animal shelters across the country have pledged to end the killing of any healthy or savable* animals, even if only for one day. And that day is here!

The Just One Day campaign, a collaborative effort of the No Kill Advocacy Center, Animal Ark, and Animal Wise Radio (all of whom have been great supporters of Vox Felina!), had a lofty goal: to “change everything for 10,411 companion animals,” making June 11th “a day that can change the world.”

“For Just One Day, ‘Euthanasia Technicians’ will put down their syringes and pick up cameras. Instead of injecting animals with lethal doses of sodium pentobarbital, they will photograph them and post them on the Internet, on Facebook, on twitter. On June 11, 2012, they will market their animals to the public, they will reach out to rescue groups, they will host adoption events with discounted rates, they will stay open for extended hours, and they will ask their communities to help them empty the shelter the good way.

Instead of going into body bags in freezers, the animals will go out the front door in the loving arms of families. At the end of the day, the shelters will be emptier than when the day started. And, no one will have had to die in order to make that happen.”

Success stories are pouring in on the Just One Day Facebook page, and Animal Wise Radio has scheduled a special live broadcast at noon CDT “to celebrate what could turn out to be the safest day for Animals in U.S. History.”

My sincere thanks to all those who’ve helped make this happen—the campaign’s promoters, the numerous shelters that have taken the pledge, the hundreds (thousands, maybe) of rescues working in concert with shelters near and far, and the community leaders who’ve made proclamations and pushed no-kill policy. And of course all those who are using the opportunity to adopt.

Today is a very good day.

* Those animals that have not been diagnosed with a terminal, incurable condition, or dogs have been determined by a credentialed behaviorist to be unmanageably aggressive, and beyond hope of rehabilitation.