Pets in need in Pensacola – Fight Overpopulation and Decrease Euthanasia, They Do NOT Spay and Neuter!
Wednesday, November 15th, 2006Six days a week, at 1:30 in the afternoon, a truck leaves the Escambia County Animal Shelter on Fairfield Drive hauling a trailer filled with dead cats, dogs, puppies and kittens bound for the Beulah Landfill. There, toward the back and out of public view, a freshly turned grave awaits the cargo. The animals are dumped and covered like garbage. Euthanasia is Pensacola and Escambia County’s solution to a growing homeless animal overpopulation.
Some alarming facts:
· More than 10,000 cats and dogs are euthanized each year in Escambia County.
· 11,364 cats, kittens, puppies and dogs were euthanized in 2005.
· Of those, 1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable and euthanized.
Now, for the first time and with help from the state, a group of area nonprofit animal organizations and Escambia County have united to address overpopulation by offering the qualifying public low-cost spay and neuter options. “We’re euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals,” said Cynthia Farrar, the director of Jury-Duty, a relatively new nonprofit that promotes animal welfare through education and a low-cost spay and neuter program. “We have to stop it before it begins. There is no other solution,” she said.
The Florida Animal License Plate Fund is giving a $10,000 grant to the following local groups:
· Jury-Duty.
· Humane Society of Pensacola, a nonprofit, no-kill animal shelter.
· Escambia County Animal Control, which operates the county’s shelter.
· Spayd with Heart, a nonprofit which works to spay all cats and dogs adopted from the Atmore, Ala., shelter near Century.
Low-cost spay and neuter programs and the grant will help address pet overpopulation, said Bruce Rova, director of Escambia County Animal Regulation and Control. The shelter receives a constant flow of abandoned animals. “We don’t turn anyone away; we are open admission,” he said. “That’s why we have to have euthanasia.”
Five-day deadline
At Escambia’s animal shelter, stray dogs and cats have a claim window of five business days. If after five days the stray has not been claimed or deemed adoptable, it is euthanized. Recently, a litter of seven kittens, probably 4 to 6 weeks old, were all brought in together on the same day. The litter would hardly reach the adoptable age of eight weeks in five days. Puppies and kittens considered too young to adopt out are euthanized. The majority of the dogs and cats were euthanized because they were either too sick, too old, injured, aggressive or in the case of 1,180 cats in 2005, feral, according to the county’s euthanasia reporting.
But of the animals euthanized at the shelter last year, 1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable but euthanized because the animal shelter had no space to hold them or because they were not adopted.
No pre-adoption requirement
The Escambia County Animal Shelter is a publicly funded shelter and cannot have an exclusionary adoption policy. The animal shelter adopts out cats and dogs but doesn’t require the new owners to spay or neuter the animal before taking the pet from the shelter. Instead, the shelter provides low-cost certificates or vouchers for the required surgery.
The shelter will make the appointment if a person adopting an animal expresses breeding interest or if the shelter staff doesn’t think the person will follow through with the required surgery within 30 days of adoption or by the time the cat or dog reaches six months of age. The shelter also will make sure that the animal is spayed or neutered, Rova said.
Competition with vets
Spaying and neutering animals before they leave the shelter places the county in competition with veterinarians, Rova said, when asked why the county doesn’t require animals be spayed or neutered before leaving the shelter. This is something Jury-Duty advocates and is a requirement in other statewide shelters. He said the shelter does not provide vet services. Pre-adoption spaying and neutering, however, is considered common practice and many shelters require it, including Santa Rosa County, where euthanasia rates hover between 60 and 70 percent.
In Santa Rosa, a person adopting a pet from the shelter pre-pays for the spay/neuter surgery with a chosen veterinarian. The shelter transports the animal to the veterinarian. The new owner picks up the animal from the vet’s office, said Dominic Persichini, director of Santa Rosa County Animal Services.
Jury-Duty takes up cause
Jury-Duty has taken the lead in addressing overpopulation in the county. In the short-term, the all-volunteer organization intends to spay or neuter 1,500 animals annually; to do so, it must raise $100,000 a year. Routine spaying/neutering costs between $40 and $70. Greg and Cynthia Farrar incorporated Jury-Duty after the death of their black cat, Jury, on May 13, 2004. Jury-Duty is so named because when the Farrars never let Jury outside unattended. If you took Jury outside, you had Jury duty.
“Jury was our first child; our chosen child,” Cynthia Farrar said. “When he died, it was a traumatic experience. In working through the grief, I started researching animal welfare issues.” The Farrars found low-cost and no-cost spay and neuter programs existed elsewhere that could be replicated here.
Locally and in other Southern states where cats tend to have more kittens than in cooler, northern climates, the cat and kitten population is especially out of control.
“We’ve had cats come into heat here while they were still nursing their offspring,” said Sheena Watson, managing director of the Humane Society. “Cats cycle very quickly, and kittens are having kittens. Dogs are delayed a little longer and don’t come into heat as often as cats.”
According to Esther Mechler of SPAY/USE, statistics show that for every $1 spent on spay or neuter, $3 are saved in managing overpopulation.
Source: Pensacola News
Other comments from this article and followup.
The statistics given in the article do not show the entire picture. Animal Control director claims 1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable yet were euthanized. What the article didn’t mention is that Animal Control places as many animals as possible in other categories (deeming them not-adoptable) to justify the euthanizing of them.
Here is Animal Controls numbers on the animals (dogs and cats) that were euthanized:
3207 – due to medical problems
4105 – due to behavior problems
140 – at owners request
168 – due to old age
925 – deemed too young
2821 – Space was not available (1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable and euthanized)
Now when you look at all the figures, it absolutely heart breaking. 925 kittens and puppies were euthanized. These are adoptable animals but for their immaturity. Every feral cat that was taken into the shelter was automatically euthanized. One-half of the 4105 that were euthanized due to behavior problems were feral cats. Euthanizing feral cats as a means to control overpopulation is not working. TNR (trap, neuter, and release) is the only solution that will curb this number.
Animal Control mentions in the video that the euthanization number is high due to owners request. Does a 140 animals euthanized at owners request really equal 11,366? Not according to my calculations.
Please help us and be part of the solution, the next meeting Jury-Duty meeting is Nov. 21st at 5:30 at 109 North Palafox Street or visit the website for more information www.jury-duty.org.
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Other Resources for this story are:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/pensacolafladoptapet/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Dogpark-National-News/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Canine-Swim-Events-USA/ <– Doggy Fundraising events
The group above is active primarily in Aug & Sep when seasonal pools are closing and these events are occuring.
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The notion that spaying and neutering would be in competition with local veterinarian is ignorant. I know from my many hours at the humane society that vets all around the area volunteer a great deal of time and money towards the treatment of unwanted animals. They would be the first ones to cheer the idea of sterilizing dogs and cats coming out of the shelter, because it would reduce the need for their pro bono services.
Want to cut the number of unwanted animals? Try:
1. Sterilizing every animal coming out of the shelter.
2. Making it free for all pet owners to have their pets spayed/neutered (the costs being offset savings associated with reduced strays and items below.)
3. Charge immense licensing fees to those who chose not to take advantage of the free spay neuter program. Double (or triple) fees for those who are caught with unlicensed animals.
4. Owners of puppies or kittens wanting to participate in the spay/neuter clinic would have to supply the contact information of the person giving/selling them the puppy or kitten.
5. Charge all pet breeders whether licensed or the backyard type a high fee for each animal born. This would include the cost of covering the spay/neuter of each animal plus an impact fee. That might weed out those breeders only out to make a buck or those who want their children to see the miracle of birth/life (rolling my eyes here).
6. Set a limit on the price anyone could charge for a pet. (No one should ever make a dime on selling a dog or cat as long as there is one unwanted animal at any kind of shelter. The people who do so are putting an unnecessary burden on taxpayers who are having to clean up the mess that they have created.)
7. Set up a better system for people looking for lost animals. Bend over backwards to help people locate lost pets.
8. Educate, educate, educate. Teach responsible pet ownership in the schools as part of citizenship education, and teach them early and often.
THE SHELTER HAS IT COMPLETELY BACKWARDS. NOT ONLY SHOULD ALL ANIMALS BE STERILIZED COMING OUT OF THE SHELTER, IT SHOULD BE FREE FOR ANY PET OWNER TO HAVE THEIR PET SPAYED OR NEUTERED.
Posted by: pknativesurf
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