But even with such programs, there will always be folks who, for whatever reason, don’t spay or neuter. The good news is that S/N is not a prerequisite for building a No Kill community. It’s just one of eleven necessary programs, and many of the 156 (and counting) communities that save more than 90 percent of the pets who enter their shelters stopped the killing before a S/N program was in place.

S/N is not even the most important step. From Nathan Winograd: “Spay/neuter will not save animals in shelters today. It might not even save many animals in shelters in the future: In Austin, Texas, nine years and 60,000 surgeries after the launch of a low-cost spay/neuter program, the city shelter still killed over 14,000 animals, more than it had in a decade. And it topped 14,000 kills two times. In fact, killing went up four of the previous five years. Ellen Jefferson of Austin Pets Alive explains,

I had spent nine years pouring my heart and soul into spay/neuter and while I knew it was helping the community, I had expected a bigger measurable impact at the shelter. It bothered me that we had no real conclusive studies that showed the impact of spay/neuter on [killing] in the shelter and that the labors of all my work were not something I could see an impact from in a decade.

“It wasn’t until Austin advocates forced the replacement of their regressive pound director and began focusing on adoptions that killing declined significantly. Meanwhile, Allegany County, Maryland stopped killing because someone ordered them to stop, not because someone implemented a spay/neuter program. Seagoville, Texas killed less animals last year than they used to do in a single week because the new director ordered them to stop killing, not because he implemented a spay/neuter program. Williamson County, Texas stopped killing when their new director took over and brought the killing to a stop, not because she implemented a spay/neuter program. Marquette, Michigan did the same, as have others. They did it through adoptions, and programs that get animals ready for adoption.”

County Manager: Brian Alligood, brian.alligood@granvillecounty.org, P.O. Box 906
Oxford, NC 27565, 919-693-5240

Commissioners:
Edgar Smoak: edgar.smoak@granvillecounty.org, 407 East F Street, Butner, NC 27509
David T. Smith: david.smith@granvillecounty.org, 207 Holly Drive, Oxford, NC 27565
Zelodis Jay: zelodis.jay@granvillecounty.org, 8009 Highway 96 North, Oxford, NC 27565
R. David Currin, Jr.: dave.currin@granvillecounty.org, 2578 Joe Pruitt Road, Oxford, NC 27565
Tony W. Cozart: tony.cozart@granvillecounty.org, 4056 Peace’s Chapel Road, Oxford, NC 27565
Ed Mims: ed.mims@granvillecounty.org, 2204 Regent Court,Creedmoor, NC 27522
Timothy Karan: timothy.karan@granvillecounty.org, 2763 Garland Court, Creedmoor, NC 27522