Shelter aims to reduce 49 percent euthanasia rate
CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. — Amorous animals have gone too wild.
With an overpopulation of dogs and cats, the Walker County Animal Shelter hopes to curb the baby-making this year. Because while county officials love puppies and kittens, they say, too much of a good, tiny, fuzzy thing can cause unexpected problems.
An overabundance of dogs and cats is hard to keep healthy in the community. And by the time they get to the shelter, Director Alison Smith said, workers can’t help them. As a result, over the last two years, the shelter has euthanized about half the dogs and cats in their building.
To curb the problem, shelter workers met with consultants from Target Zero, a national nonprofit aimed at lowering shelters’ kill rates to 10 percent. The consultants, who are also working with Whitfield and Murray counties, recently shared their assessment of the shelter on North Marble Top Road.
The key suggestions? Promote adoptions, move animals out of the shelter faster and prevent as much mating as they can.
“It’s an ambitious goal to be Target
Zero,” Smith said. “I see where our numbers are now. But despite the fact that we have limited funding, despite the fact that some animals have greater needs than just a dog you can’t keep anymore because you’re moving or having a baby, I believe it can happen. I have dreamed of this for far too long.”
When he took office Jan. 1, Commissioner Shannon Whitfield came in with promises to reign in overspending — the county’s debt jumped in Bebe Heiskell’s last years with a $15 million bond and an $8 million bill from Erlanger Health System. But to lower the shelter’s euthanasia rate, Whitfield may have to boost its funding for the fiscal year that starts in October.
Target Zero consultants recommend shelter workers more aggressively spay and neuter the dogs and cats they encounter. For now, Smith said, the shelter will charge an extra fee for adoptions and pets will be spayed or neutered before the new owners pick them up.
This is a change from prior policy, where adopters signed a paper promising to spay or neuter their animal within 30 days and provide proof after the surgery.
“I have a stack of unresolved contracts,” she said Friday. “And when we call to the number given to us … sorry, there’s nobody there. The phone doesn’t work.”
The county is also resuming a partnership with Wally’s Friends to spay and neuter local animals. Every Monday morning, people can drop off their dogs and cats at the county’s agricultural center off U.S. Highway 27 in Rock Spring.
Target Zero recommends the county pay for spaying and neutering all animals leaving the shelter. County spokesman Joe Legge declined to say how much money would be put into the budget, but he said the county is looking at grants, in which advocacy groups would donate money if Whitfield set some aside for the shelter.
“You talk about unknown surprises coming in as commissioner: This is one of them,” Whitfield said of the high kill rate during a Chamber of Commerce luncheon last week. “I knew we had a shelter. I knew we had a euthanasia program; you just about have to. But this was a tragedy to me.”
The People for Ethical Treatment of Animals group has criticized no-kill shelters, saying they emphasize numbers instead of some animals’ health. Sometimes, PETA representatives argue, sick animals need to be put down. Plus, no-kill shelters can become too crowded, a hazard for all the animals.
Target Zero consultants believe a shelter reasonably can try to pull its euthanasia rates down to 10 percent, though. And one of the keys is taking in fewer animals. For example, they encourage moving animals to rescue centers after three days. And they recommend not holding feral cats for long at all — instead, they should sterilize and vaccinate them, then release them back in the area where they were found.
Smith said that idea won’t work because Georgia Department of Agriculture rules say she can’t put those cats back in the wild.
But she hopes to follow through on another recommendation: Getting some decent technology in the shelter.
Legge said the internet signal is weak out there, and Smith’s computer needs a new operating system. If the county can fix those problems, Smith can buy software to input data on every pet that comes in.
Right now, shelter workers have to track animal trends on paper. If they log it into the system, they can see where the animals are coming from and how long they’ve stayed at the shelter. Plus, they can automatically upload the animals’ information and pictures onto adoption websites, encouraging more people to buy a dog or cat.
“It’s like looking at ‘Car Finder’ or ‘Busted,’” Smith said. “You see pictures. You get excited.”
She added that most of the recommendations are ideas she pushed for in 2006, when she let the LaFayette Animal Clinic run the shelter. For years, she said, funding wasn’t streaming in, and she eventually grew weary.
“Every day was a fight,” she said. “I was tired of killing animals.”
“You talk about unknown surprises coming in as commissioner: This is one of them. I knew we had a shelter. I knew we had a euthanasia program; you just about have to. But this was a tragedy to me.”
— SHANNON WHITFIELD, WALKER COUNTY COMMISSIONER