Nice piece on saving the lives of shelter dogs with foster homes in NC and VA
In Shelby Co, KY they transport animals to other states for adoption – but it’s not a secret!
Humane officers in Washington Co, PA have stopped responding to abuse calls because they say they are over capacity at the shelter.
KC Dog Blog: All options don’t include “euthanasia”
TN shelter to close but they will be adopting out, at reduced adoption fees, their pets first
Due to budget cuts, the SPCA in New Orleans won’t be responding to calls after hours anymore. Instead, the police department will field calls, responding only to “dangerous situations”.
Pet Connection: We must kill the puppies to save them
I don’t often see the word “killed” in mainstream media articles about shelter pet killing – it’s usually – incorrectly – called “euthanasia”. I was interested to see it used here:
The Oconee County animal shelter takes in from 5,000 to 5,500 animals a year, [Capt. Mike Crenshaw of the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office] said, with up to 3,600 having to be killed.
Now if we could just do something about the “having to be” verbiage. Since they do not have to be killed.
Sometimes they come back: Insert Pet Sematary joke here.
I’ve transported for dogs coming out of Shelby Co. before, and they are almost always quite lovely dogs. Mr. Collins is first-rate, and does a great job of saving these dogs and getting them to rescues and adopters.
Where can we place an order for more like him?
Re: Washington County, PA
As the article notes, PA has a weird disconnect between animal control/dog law enforcement/humane enforcement.
Humane enforcement officers, who are employed by local humane societies, do not, under law, have a specific geographical jurisdiction. (This is how the Philly SPCA was able to bring teevee crews out to bust a sanctuary/hoarder – depending on who you ask – in Western PA, when the local enforcement officers did not think it merited a prosecution.) Their employers may define territories for them if they choose. The flip side of that is that there is no defined positive *duty* under law for any particular officer or HS to initiate cruelty investigations in any given jurisdiction.
I don’t think it’s a particularly rational or effective system meself.
The humane enforcement officers employed by the larger Allegheny County/Pittsburgh-based shelters can, if their employers authorize it, respond to abuse calls in Washington County (which is the next county to the south).
I believe that my own county, Butler, to the north of Allegheny County, does not currently have a humane enforcement officer employed by the BCHS. (Because the one they had was a lawsuit magnet, and the BCHS was losing them all, apparently for good reason.)
My guess is that the strapped-for-funds WCHS is trying to get the somewhat better-funded shelters to the north to take some of the burden of confiscating and sheltering animals in cruelty cases within Washington County. There may be an element of playing chicken there.
“Pet Connection: We must kill the puppies to save them
Oh yeah, killing them will save them, and give them a nice long life, dipsticks.
“I don’t often see the word “killed” in mainstream media articles about shelter pet killing – it’s usually – incorrectly – called “euthanasia”. I was interested to see it used here:”
If you consider cats and dogs to be family members equally as much as Mom, Dad, Little Julie and Grandpa, then the proper term to be used when a healthy four legged individual’s life is terminated is: M U R D E R
“The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as now they look upon the murder of men-”
Leonardo Da Vinci
One of the commenters mentioned something about how euthanasia “shortens an animal’s life.” Like they don’t understand that when you kill an animal he or she is dead. It doesn’t just shorten their life, it ENDS it.
Didn’t New Orleans install MSN this year?
If so … now they have run out of money to enforce it?
another failure ….
Well, now, this is the issue. Animal welfare, for most people, is just a feel-good issue, and thus an easy sell to voters, but funding — for ANY service — is not. Although, as Matt says above, if the cutback in services endangered Mom, Little Julie, and Grandpa, you can be sure they’d *find* the funding SOMEwhere… Changing the rules is one thing: that’s an immediate win. But rules can be changed back. True progress is a question of changing the minds of voters and changing the priorities of officials, and that’s the long fight.
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Jack@PDB
They enacted a differential licensing system, imposting somewhat higher fees and additional vacc requirements on intact dogs, not intended to actually force speuter of dogs whose owners want to keep them intact.
It seems all too probable that they’ve run out of money to enforce even that, though, even with the extra fees.
Washington County Humane Society
I live about 50 miles from the shelter and thought I’d look at adoptable dogs and see if there was one that might fit my home.
I looked at the shelters website and there are only a few adoptable dogs listed. I then checked Petfinder and there is no listing at all for the shelter. I understand it’s run by volunteers but how do they expect to adopt out animals if they’re not available on line?
So, if I understand correctly, the way animal protection laws are investigated/prosecuted varies from state to state (or even from county to county within a state)?
Would some kind person be willing to put up a 101 to explain?
Reason why I’m asking is that there’s a growing debate in this country (UK) about making our setup more similar to the US and from what you’re saying here it sounds as if it would lead to more variation between different local authority areas rather than less.