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Are Surrender Fees the Answer?

July 30th, 2010

I don’t think anyone who has been involved in pet rescue or who have volunteered at a shelter hasn’t wondered if people really know what happens to their pets once they are relinquished to the “pound.”

Most of the general public haven’t witnessed the gruesome reality on kill day.

Springfield Missouri Animal Control goes as far as to tell people who are relinquishing their pets that they will be euthanized if a rescue doesn’t claim them, but that hasn’t deterred some from handing their pets over, sometimes on an annual basis, according to Randy Barnts, supervisor at the facility.

That’s why, he said, the municipal shelter instituted a new policy on July 1. They began charging a $20 surrender fee.

Barnts says the fee covers vaccinations and deworming, as well as boarding for a five day hold period, and if a rescue doesn’t claim the animal, it covers killing it (the shelter is 40 years old and not set up for public adoptions).

“We’ve seen private facilities charge surrender fees, but seeing municipalities doing it is not really a trend we’re seeing,” says Betsy McFarland, who works for the companion animal section of the Humane Society of the United States.

That’s most likely because municipal shelters were built to help curb the dumping of animals that will either become wild and roam in packs, becoming a danger to the public, or die terrible deaths from disease or starvation.

Springfield Animal Control took in 2,500 dogs last year and 2,000 cats (some of those were picked up as strays). Barnts says he doesn’t know if their numbers have increased this year, but added that charging a surrender fee has been in discussion for at least a year within the city and was finally approved by the city council. “We have repeat turn ins, people will get a puppy and bring it in a year later so they can get another one,” says Barnts. “At least with the fee, they will have to take at least a little responsibility.”
He says it’s always a concern that people will simply dump their animals rather than paying the fee, but he says only time will tell how the new policy is working.

I’m not sure that in a state that has always been in the top five with regards to being home to puppy mills and in an area with so many people having a disposable mindset to animals, that charging a surrender fee will deter anyone or make them take responsibility.

It looks like more education might be needed.

What do you think about municipal shelters charging surrender fees, readers?

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Tags: Are surrender fees the answer? pet surrender fees, municipal animal shelters, private animal shelters, rescue
Posted in K9 Rescue | 15 Comments »

Five Simple Things You can do

July 23rd, 2010

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” ~ Dr. Seuss.

Our new BBD, Chloe

Last week we began at the root of the problem in Animal Lover Action with my post about establishing a low cost spay/neuter clinic in your area.

There’s many, many other things you can do to help homeless pets and sometimes it’s as simple as punching a few keys on the computer.

Here’s 5 small things you can do to help in a big way:

• One of the greatest advantages for animal lovers, rescuers and advocates has been the Internet. Thanks to this medium, thousands of pets have been “networked” via social media sites, allowing rescues and animal lovers to be alerted to pets needing to be pulled from kill shelters. There are hundreds of rescues involved in networks on Facebook. You might start by putting in the name of your favorite rescue or no kill shelter and linking to them and some of their “friends.” Through these links, you can become a part of the network, helping to find fosters, adopters or donating money. Be careful though, about your donations, remember, this is the Internet.

• Get involved with your local municipal shelter to make things better. Co-K9 Cuisine blogger, Allie Johnson, who writes Pet Tips and Tails, volunteers as a dog walker each week at her local municipal shelter. She says it’s very rewarding making sure these canines have some quality exercise and love while in such a stressful environment. She’s also dedicated to one day seeing her shelter become a no-kill shelter. A couple of weeks ago, she plucked a dog from death row (a BBD!) and fostered him, attending adopt-a-pet events until he found his forever home! She’s also very involved in networking pets on the Internet as well.

• Make phone calls to see what your local rescues and shelters need. Sometimes it’s food, blankets, toys or cat litter. Call your local grocery, pet supply and farm and home stores. I learned one of our local stores was throwing away outdated pet food. While this food cannot be sold, rescues and shelters can still use it. It took one simple phone call to the manager and now that store is donating their food to a local rescue. Another good place for this food is food banks. So many people are struggling to feed themselves and their pets, food banks are now also distributing pet food.

• Foster a dog or a cat through a local rescue. I’ve written about fostering before and while you can become attached, it really is very rewarding loving and nurturing a homeless pet. The best part is seeing it go to its forever home. Sometimes, the sponsoring rescue will pay for the food and most always pay for the vet bills while the animal is in your care.

• If you can’t foster or adopt, a great way to help a rescue or some shelters is to sponsor a pet. Sponsorships give rescues the money they need to pull animals from death row and to care for them until their homes can be found. Sponsorships also make a great gift for animal lovers who have enough stuff (don’t’ we all!?)

You can be that one big difference in a pet’s life.

What do you think you can do for a homeless pet today?

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Tags: animal lover action, donating, Five Simple Things you can do, fostering pets, pet tips and tails, rescuing pets
Posted in K9 Rescue | 6 Comments »

Animal Lover Action: Establishing Spay/Neuter Clinics

July 16th, 2010

This will be the first in a series of what ordinary animal lovers can do to help the animal rescue movement.

When I read about a local low cost spay/neuter clinic in my area, it seemed appropriate to start with organizing low cost spay/neuter clinics. Approximately 70,000 puppies and kittens are born in the U.S. every single day. Between 8-10 million of them a year are killed in shelters.

The only way to help curb these stats is to get to the root of the problem and keep spreading the word about spay/neuter.

Anyone can organize a temporary low cost spay/neuter clinic by soliciting the help of local veterinarian(s) to reduce their fees. If you are already a non-profit rescue organization, you could hold fundraisers to subsidize the cost of the reduction by providing vouchers to people. However, some vets who are aware of the pet overpopulation problem might agree to absorb the fees temporarily.

Michelle Dormady, president of Spay & Neuter Kansas City, formed the organization in 2002. Michelle worked in a shelter for 4 years and part of her job was euthanizing the animals that weren’t claimed or adopted. “I realized that wasn’t the answer to the problem,” says Michelle.

Her organization uses a 3-pronged approach, which has reduced the number of municipal shelter intakes by 35 percent and the number of animal control calls by 30 percent:

• First, she secured grants, some of which came from funds that were going to be directed toward a new shelter in the city. “To do a long-term spay/neuter clinic right, you have to have grant funding,” says Michelle. Although most of their grants dried up during the recession due to budget cuts, the clinic is surviving now on donations fund raising and offering low cost veterinary services.
• Next, Spay & Neuter Kansas City targets the highest at risk population, which is determined by the number of animal control complaints. “Only 3 percent of the population contributes to 80 percent of the pet overpopulation problem,” says Michelle. The areas they target tend to be lower income areas where dogs are chained or allowed to run loose in the neighborhoods. They do not leave fliers, but go door to door talking to residents and pet owners, educating them of the benefits of altering their pets. “If we would leave fliers, it wouldn’t work,” says Michelle. “And if we targeted people who would alter their pets anyway, it wouldn’t help the problem.”
• Finally, they use incentives to further convince the pet owner. “If we see a dog outside without adequate shelter, we tell them we’ll give them a dog house, but the only thing we ask is that they get the dog altered,” says Michelle. “And then we tell them we’ll throw in a bag of food and also take the animal and bring it home. It’s a whole package deal.”

Rural areas are a bit different in that people are farther apart and veterinarians tend to be older and less educated on the pet overpopulation problem (thus less willing to help).

Mobile clinics, such as Arkansans for Animals (the one coming to my small town), are a viable way for anyone to set up a low cost spay/neuter clinic and many areas and states have them.

Jake Hillard, executive director with Arkansans for Animals, says they travel all over the state at the request of rescue organizations, shelters or even just a couple of volunteers who want to organize and publicize the clinic in their area. The mobile clinic operates on grants and donations and has a veterinarian, a technician and an assistant.

Most people pay, but there is grant funding for those who simply cannot. People managing feral cat populations don’t pay, she says. As well, Jake says 90 percent of the animals they alter have never seen a vet and they will also offer low cost vaccination services if the pet is being altered.

The organization also offers vouchers in some areas with vets who are willing to participate. Vets agree to charge less for their services and Jake says it’s best, if you are going to offer such a program in your area, that you talk to all the vets. “They can agree to participate or not, but at least they can’t say you are referring work to other vets and they weren’t given the chance,” says Jake.

One way to convince vets to go for such programs, says Michelle, is to tell them they can establish a whole new base of clients.

Have you ever helped established a local low cost spay/neuter clinic or program? Do you have other ideas or suggestions?

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Tags: Animal Lover Action: Establishing Spay/Neuter Clinics, establishing low cost spay/neuter clinics, pet overpopulation
Posted in K9 Rescue | 2 Comments »

In the Arms of an Angel

July 9th, 2010

Melanie Bruski with one of her rescues. Photo by Pamela Marches

She only had him for 6 days, but Melanie Bruski still cries when she thinks of Gideon Brown.

The 1-year-old pup was diagnosed with a severe case of kennel cough, but after Melanie rescued him from the shelter, she knew it was more serious. A more thorough diagnosis revealed the dog had suffered a hit or kick so severe that it had collapsed his diaphragm.

“He would do any command you asked of him, he just wanted to be held and loved all of the time,” says Melanie. “In the first couple of days, I thought he would make it, but those last handful of days were very hard.”

Gideon died on the operating table, as the vet just could not get his lungs to inflate. “They called me and let me say goodbye and hold him,” says Melanie, in a breaking voice. “I still have him in a box in my bedroom.”

This is what Melanie does – rescuing mostly the sick and elderly – so these canines will die in someone’s arms, knowing someone cared and loved them.

Melanie, 26, has been involved in rescue for the past three years, in between balancing a full-time job and caring for her family, which includes a husband, two children, a teenage niece, 3 dogs, 2 cats, and 2 hermit crabs.

Melanie with her 3 canine kids. Photo by Pamela Marches

Melanie, who is now a resident of Temecula, Calif., grew up in Montrose, Colorado, on a farm around animals and 4-H.

Melanie’s husband is also an animal lover and his mother is involved with the Southern California Golden Rescue. Melanie, who is also now a board member of the organization, says her mother in law asked her to pick up some Goldens from shelters in her area.

Melanie was hooked.

Melanie, who ironically is allergic to dog slobber, also sports a large tattoo on her forearm to hide a scar from a dog that attacked her at one of her shelter visits.

She doesn’t discuss any hardships she has endured in her rescue work but she openly shares all of the stories of the animals she’s loved.

Most are Goldens, but Melanie will rescue any dog that tugs on her heart. She recently just rescued a blind dog she dubbed Ray Charles.

There’s also been Prudence, who couldn’t see, had open sores, broken ribs from beatings, and a choke chain embedded in his neck; Jim Abbott, a 10-month old puppy that was hit by a car and dropped at the shelter to be euthanized (he survived); Macey, a pit bull abandoned at a home without food or water for at least 3 weeks, and James Howlett, a French Mastiff found lying in a ditch, his skull cracked and tail broken from abuse.

Every dog gets a name, sometimes its named for a shelter worker who took the time to call, sometimes the dog is given a first and last name.

Melanie has saved over 100 dogs in her rescue work. She doesn’t know how many she’s lost overall, but says she lost 15 just last year. “The best part is getting the old ones,” Melanie says. “I will take a 14-year-old over a puppy any day because those are the ones no one wants.”

Melanie recalls Henry, a Golden whose owners dropped off at the shelter because he had a severe case of Cushing’s Disease. “He could barely walk and was bloated,” says Melanie. “He weighed 125 pounds, but I managed to carry him to the car.”

Henry only survived a short time after Melanie got him home. “He was loved for an hour, at least he got to die in the arms of someone who really loved him,” says Melanie.

Of the dogs Melanie has rescued that were adoptable, she has found homes for all but one so far. She doesn’t know what accounts for her high adoption rate.

Perhaps her passion for the homeless and broken is contagious.

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Tags: abused, dogs, elderly dogs, In the Arms of an Angel, Melanie Bruski, sick, Southern California Golden Retriever Rescue
Posted in K9 Rescue | 15 Comments »

When Love for Animals Defies Reason

July 2nd, 2010

Dogs left in unfamiliar places are often scared and confused. Is this love?

A few weeks ago, I was really distressed to hear follow up stories on a couple of dogs I’ve profiled here on Rescue Me.

Camille, a blind rescued Pit Bull, had an “accidental” encounter with the male dog in the house. Both were obviously not altered and it resulted in a litter of puppies (mea culpa, readers, I had no idea Camille had not been spayed when I wrote the profile, much less that the male dog in the home had also not been neutered).

I worry that these puppies, no matter how hard the owners try to find loving homes, will either be used as bait dogs for fighters; breeders if they’re given away unaltered, or at some point, end up in a shelter and spend their last days unwanted before being gassed to death.

When I expressed my concern to Camille’s mom, she expressed valid health reasons Camille’s spaying had been delayed. But she also argued that her boyfriend – who consciously refused to have his male dog neutered – wasn’t irresponsible; she insists he loves his dog and he felt it was the right thing not to do.

Of course, this defies conventional wisdom. Every animal welfare organization agrees that altering a pet is best (unless you’re one of the very few reputable breeders in the world). Pets that are a result of “accidental” breeding are a part of the 8-10 million that end up dying in shelters.  Spaying/neutering a pet isn’t just a responsibility to society, but it is also beneficial for a pet’s overall health (unaltered males can be more aggressive, unaltered pets of both sexes also run a higher risk of certain cancers and studies show that 80 percent of dogs hit by cars are unaltered males).

The other story was about a woman who convincingly told me during our interview that her little dog rescued her at a time in her life when they both needed each other the most. She said she loved her dog beyond measure.

I was told that the woman recently gave away her little dog she dubbed “Hope.”

As I wrote last week, my dog Emma literally saved my life. I couldn’t imagine giving her up and I know most animal parents feel the same. I’ve also seen the confusion in the eyes of a dog left at an unfamiliar place, so how could someone give up an animal they truly love?

Hoarders represent yet another group of once well-intentioned animal lovers who will swear to authorities they are “saving” animals. Many will tell authorities they would “never harm an animal,” even as the animals lay sick and dying in their own feces. The Humane Society of the United States estimates 250,000 pets are victims of hoarders each year. While there are different mindsets of hoarders, a majority of them do believe they’re acting out of love.

So, what skews a person’s views to make them believe not altering their pet, giving it up, or having more than a person can care for, is actually good when conventional wisdom tells them otherwise? Why do some pet rescues go so wrong?

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Tags: abandoning pets, altering pets, camille, giving up pets, Grendel, Hope, Humane Society of the United States, pet hoarders, When a Love for Animals Goes Wrong
Posted in K9 Rescue | 11 Comments »