Board Members:

I am writing on behalf of the tens of thousands of adopters, donors, volunteers and supporters of the Humane Society of the Fairfax County.  Throughout our 53 years of serving the animals in our community,  we have worked tirelessly each and every day to ensure that they are cared for until their new families come to welcome them into their new, loving home.  That is what our community expects from an animal rescue group – caring for animals, not euthanizing them because their time is up.  In 2015, Senate Bill 1381 established that the purpose of an animal shelter is to find homes for the animals in their care.  Virginia is nationally viewed as extremely animal friendly and progressive in many of its animal welfare laws.  We must continue to maintain this high standard and ensure that every shelter works to ensure that they are adopting out every animal except when circumstances are extreme.  The goal should be adoptions well into the high 90 percent.  The only way to ensure compliance is to include a means of measurement – a metric – in the final regulation by which all shelters must adhere to.  No shelter should be allowed to kill the majority of animals that walk through their doors.  Only one organization Virginia does and it should not have the privilege of being called a “shelter.”    Animal shelters by their nature are places of kindness and compassion – not a killing zone.  Please ensure that you insert the component of a metric so that adoptive animals – regardless which shelter in which they are taken – allow them to find their forever homes.  Thank you for your courage in guaranteeing that Virginia is for animal lovers.

Respectfully

Gina Marie Lynch