HSOY Yuma’s no-kill goal
Local animal shelter works to improve live release rates
The Humane Society of Yuma continues to make progress toward its goal of becoming a “no-kill” shelter, with its live release rate hitting 88.8% for all animals during the first quarter of 2019.
Executive Director Annette Lagunas said she’s hoping HSOY can reach a live release rate of 90% or higher later this year, but it could take until early 2020.
“This time of year is always hard. If this were October, then I would say ‘oh, we’re good, we’re gonna be good from now on,’” she said. “But you know, we’ve got a little work to do this summer. I’m hoping we can do it all summer for cats.”
From January through March the release rate for cats was at 80.8%, versus the 94.1% rate for dogs, which form the majority of the animal population at the shelter.
HSOY’s recently adopted policy of returning all stray cats to the area they were found, after they’ve been spayed or neutered, seems to be having an impact, since almost 100 fewer cats were brought in during April than the same month last year.
Of the 360 cats who did come in, 79 were returned to the streets, Lagunas said. Another 59 were euthanized, bringing the live release rate to 84%. Many of those, she said, were very young kittens brought in without their mothers.
“When they come in and they’re a few days old, we have some really great fosters that can manage something that small, but it’s very difficult to do,” she said.
HSOY encourages residents
not to bring in very small kittens found alone unless they’re in obvious distress, because the mother is usually out looking for food and will come back.
Lagunas said the “community cat” program has been controversial with some feline lovers, “and I think it is because they don’t want the cats on the streets. Which we don’t either.”
But research has proven cats often don’t do well in a shelter environment, and euthanasia doesn’t decrease the feral cat population, while putting sterilized cats back into that environment often does.
Animal shelters across the country have reached or are trying to get to the point where 10% or less of animals brought in are euthanized. That practice is reserved for those who are too sick or too dangerous to adopt out.
There isn’t a national organization of any kind that certifies animal care facilities as “no kill,” Lagunas said.
“It’s just a big trend. You see no-kill LA, no-kill Maricopa, no-kill Pima, all these different places that are really trying to reach the 90% benchmark. We don’t get a license or certificate, but a lot of people know that wow, that shelter’s really trying to save as many animals as they possibly can,” she said.
The shelter has taken other steps to make adoptions easier. The shelter at 4050 S. Avenue 4 1/2E is now open seven days a week, with the addition of office hours on Monday. Adoption and owner return services are now available 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
Adoptable animals are also available through the adoption center at PetSmart, 1460 S. Yuma Palms Parkway.
On the other hand, HSOY is limiting the hours when pet owners can surrender their animals, with none accepted on Sunday and Monday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
Lagunas said it’s part of a broader effort to convince more people to keep their pets, but “what we really want to be is a resource to these families, we want to help them keep their pets in their home in the first place. We want them to come in before the point of no return.”
HSOY will soon launch a smartphone app where people who can no longer care for their pets can post a profile, in hopes of being able to find the pet a new home without taking them to the shelter.
The shelter is also offering “foster-to-adopt” programs for puppies and kittens and “pre-adopt” options for families who want to see how well a potential pet will do in their home.
All of these programs are expected to help, Lagunas said, but, “Again, 8,100 animals are still coming through here every year. That’s a lot of animals for Yuma County. We’re doing 5,000 surgeries in our spay and neuter clinic.”
The public can help HSOY reach its “no-kill” goal by choosing to adopt a pet, make sure they have are licensed, sterilized and identified by a microchip or tag, and donate money or volunteer time.
For more info visit www. hsoyuma.com or call 928782-1621.