AWLA Hawk wants Arlington County’s animal shelter to reflect the compassion of Arlington residents. Few counties can match Arlington’s resources on a per-capita or per-homeless-animal basis. Our goal is to make sure those resources are deployed to save as many homeless animals as possible.
Arlington contracts with the Animal Welfare League of Arlington (AWLA) for animal-shelter management and animal control. Founded in 1944, AWLA is a non-profit organization whose management is selected by its Board of Directors. The AWLA Board of Directors nominates and elects its own members, without input from local animal-rescue organizations, County management, or Arlington residents.
AWLA publishes a newsletter that it sends to donors and volunteers, and this newsletter includes an Annual Report that shows financial results and animal outcomes. But the financial numbers differ significantly from those AWLA reports to the IRS, and there are no reference points for the outcomes (i.e. no comparisons with other shelters.)
AWLA Hawk will try to make AWLA’s results and policies more accessible, so that Arlington residents and taxpayers can monitor the effectiveness of County spending on animal welfare.
AWLA Hawk contributors and readers are citizens concerned about the treatment of homeless animals. Many of us are volunteers associated with animal-rescue groups in the Washington, DC area. By creating an open forum for Arlington residents to discuss the services performed for the County by AWLA, we hope to improve the prospects for homeless animals in Arlington County.
Do you know about an animal that you think AWLA could have saved or transferred to a rescue organization, but chose to euthanize instead? Send your story to awlahawk@yahoo.com and we’ll post it here.
