Tunica Celebrates No-kill Animal Shelter

(Tunica, MS 7/31/2012)  More communities are considering what are called “no kill” animal shelters such as the one in Tunica. MS.

Consider the case of “Kibble.”

Kibble has lived at the Tunica Animal Shelter for three years.  Most other shelters would have given up on Kibble by now, but Tunica runs a “no-kill” shelter and has new hope for the little brown dog due to social networking.

Some animal experts say it’s impossible to run an animal shelter without euthanizing animals, and in some cases that may be true.

Tunica organizers however said from the start, they’d do whatever it took to keep from putting an animal to sleep.

”There’s nothing about this that’s easy.  You have to stay on top of your situation,” said Tunica Humane Society Head Sandy Williams.

She says strong spay and neuter programs are key to success.

Tunica has a strong network of foster families that can care for a dog until it can be adopted.

Williams runs an aggressive adoption campaign every day of the year, ”Most of the people that come here, walk out with one of our animals. We get a lot of people from out of town that come in to the casinos and hear about our shelter. We had two adoptions last week that went out of state.”

As for Kibble, her kennel mate got adopted recently, which sent her into depression and had hiding her face in the corner for days.

When Williams posted a picture and Kibble’s story online, she started getting responses from around the world.

She says it shows that communities like Corinth, which is considering a no-kill shelter, can make it work, ”It can be done. We’re living proof that it can be done”.

There’s even talk of a national “Kibble” day to promote adoptions. 

Williams says no-kill shelters aren’t for every community, but if you’ve got commitment, she says it’s worth a try.