Gays and lesbians
are famous crusaders for fairness and notorious
pamperers of pets. So why not lead the fight for
pets’ rights?
Gay men and
lesbians have long fought for justice, equality, and
compassion. After all, they know what it's like to be
treated unfairly regardless of race or sexual
orientation—or maybe even species. “We have
experienced what it’s like to be the outcasts, to be
the underdog,” says Marcello Forte, 37,
executive director of the Animal Haven shelter in
Queens, N.Y.’s Flushing neighborhood. “And one
of the injustices gays and lesbians are sensitive to
is animals dying simply because there aren't enough
homes.”
Forte is part of
a national movement for “no-kill” animal
rights policies that spare healthy and adoptable
animals from being euthanized. Nationwide, millions of
healthy cats and dogs die in shelters every year
because they have nowhere to go. Now many gays and lesbians
are fully involved in the effort to stop euthanasia.
In 1994, San
Francisco became the first city in the United States to
implement a no-kill approach to dealing with stray,
abandoned, and abused animals. San Francisco’s
Animal Care and Control Agency and the city’s
privately run Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals work together to significantly reduce the
number of euthanized pets by encouraging adoption,
instituting low-cost spaying/neutering programs,
investing in foster care and medical treatment, and vastly
improving shelters. When adoptable animals cannot be
placed in a timely manner through city shelters, they
are transferred to SPCA facilities until homes can be
found for them.
Since then,
similar no-kill policies have gone into effect at select
shelters in Illinois, Virginia, Texas, and Utah as well as
throughout several Florida counties. Now New York City
and Los Angeles are vying to become the next citywide
no-kill havens, and gay and lesbian advocates in both
cities are leading the effort.
Since 2000,
Forte, a former speech pathologist, has worked with Jane
Hoffman, president of the Mayor’s Alliance for
NYC’s Animals, and animal rights attorney
Mariann Sullivan to stop euthanasia of the city’s
adoptable animals. “It should be unacceptable that
healthy cats and dogs are killed in NYC shelters
simply because there is not enough space,” says
Hoffman from her Greenwich Village apartment, which she
shares with her partner, Ellen Celnik, four rescued
dogs, and as many cats.
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Sacks is a freelance writer based in New York City.
Photo of Dan Matthews with Todd Oldham's dog, Ann, by
Todd Oldham.