Austin's four-legged friends await moral progress

EDITORIAL: AUSTIN CITY COUNCIL
Thursday, November 05, 2009
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/content/editorial/stories/2009/11/05/1105pets_edit.html

A favorite expression of animal welfare groups in Austin is one attributed to spiritual leader Mahatma Gandhi: "One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals."

Today, the Austin City Council will be tested on its moral progress regarding dogs and cats as it decides whether to pass a resolution adopting recommendations that would provide for better treatment of animals.

The Austin Animal Advisory Commission is recommending a comprehensive adoption and foster care program for animals that end up at the Town Lake Animal Center. Approving the recommendations would move Austin closer to its goal of becoming a no-kill city.
For more than a decade, different councils have talked about, but not followed through on, making the shelter a no-kill facility. The deadline for that goal — 2002 — has come and gone.
The choice before the council is to do nothing and therefore allow the shelter to continue to rely on euthanizing animals to control Travis County's animal population or adopt the reasonable and affordable recommendations of the animal commission, whose members are appointed by the City Council.
Ten thousand animals were euthanized last year at the Town Lake Animal Center. We're ready for some moral progress.