In this powerful episode, we sit down with Daphna Nachminovitch, Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations at PETA, to unpack the growing controversy surrounding the “no-kill” movement—specifically the bold promises made by Best Friends Animal Society. With a reported annual revenue of $173 million, Best Friends has pledged a "no-kill nation by 2025," a goal PETA says is not only unrealistic, but deeply harmful to animals and the people trying to help them.

Daphna shares PETA’s concerns about how this rhetoric has shaped sheltering policy across the U.S., encouraging shelters to prioritize optics over outcomes. We explore how the use of emotionally charged language like "killing" instead of "euthanasia" and aggressive advocacy tactics have created a culture of fear, burnout, and resentment among animal welfare professionals.

This is a critical, no-holds-barred conversation about what true compassion in animal sheltering looks like—and the cost of chasing promises that sound good but ignore the complex realities on the ground.