Good health is our greatest asset. As youngsters, we take it for granted. As active adults, we are lucky to have it. As we get older, we are blessed by it. It should be no different for those blissful fur balls we embrace as our pets. They are lucky because we are there for them.
Unfortunately, the general pet population in every corner of the country is in a state of distress. Too many pet owners everywhere are allowing unaltered adults to reproduce randomly. There are seasonal offerings of puppies and kittens with nowhere to go, so the problem endures.
Many youngsters born from strays die before they ever leave the nest or can be rescued. Feral cats have lousy prospects. Their average life span is two years. Many of their offspring die of viruses that make it impossible for them to eat or drink.
The number of animals euthanized in this country has been stable for years — yes, this is bad news — one out of two. That's simply too many. Every other animal that enters a shelter for adoption never leaves the facility alive. These are statistics that can't be ignored.
The issue is on the mind of every veterinarian, animal shelter professional and volunteer all day, every day. They all know about the statistics. Some days in the shelters and care facilities are better than others. There are days when pets are doctored and carried home safely tucked into warm carriers.
Other days aren't so good, and this is the heart-breaking ritual that these professionals and volunteers serve all too often. Some days the veterinarians are there to perform the ominous task. Can any act of volunteerism be tougher? Ask any of them and they tell you the problem: overpopulation. There are two identifiable causes: Pet owners and pets without owners.
Feral colonies, strays and packs roam small towns and city neighborhoods foraging for food. They live among us, but not with us. There are many who will feed them, but few who will trap, neuter and release them. The educational efforts for progress are strong in the “pet community,” but veterinarians and shelters are “preaching to their choir.”
Responsible pet owners are in the clinics, and they are the people who are staffing the volunteer positions at adoption centers. Responsible pet owners are doing all they can and more, just as the veterinarians are. It's the pet owners who are uninformed about their options and who are unaware of the impact their annual crop of kittens and puppies have on their community who need to change their ways.
Dr. Carie Wisell is so concerned about responsible pet ownership that she has shaped her private practice into a unique facility in Albany where she can address the issue on both fronts. She tends to pets privately at Companion Animal Hospital, but she reaches out to the community with a creative array of services, which includes
supplying adoption kittens for Pets 'N Pals, a pet store in the Albany Mall. In this fashion, she helps find homes for kittens that find her.
Companion Animal Hospital and Wisell will accept your stray or unwanted cats, if they are socialized and healthy.
“We ask for $15 for each kitten to cover the vetting procedure,” Wisell says. “When someone adopts one of our kittens, we ask for a ‘medical assistance fee.' We aren't an adoption agency, so we don't call it an adoption fee.”
The practice also accepts unwanted litters of puppies for a $25 intake fee (per puppy).
“We keep puppies longer,” she says. “They are a little harder to place. I just don't take them unless I am going to place them.”
Wisell has placed 241 kittens through Pets 'N Pals since July 1, 2008, and she places others through her practice. Another aspect of her program offers adoption for a litter of kittens, if the owner will pay to have the female spayed.
Wisell has no euthanasia option on her plan, so at a fundamental level, she assumes ethical responsibility for every animal she takes into her care. Every adoptive parent becomes her ally by default. Wisell, as a private veterinary clinic, is free to take a firm stand against euthanasia.
“It puts a real strain on my staff, and on the practice, but we all feel like it is necessary to do this,” Wisell says of her commitment to the spay and neuter effort and the adoption program. “But it's certainly worth it.”
There are “no kill” shelters, but because of the number of pets coming into all shelters, particularly during “kitten season” in the late spring, there just are not enough adoptions to go around. The cat population grows out of proportion quickly. A group of two cats can easily become 40 over two years.
“We do euthanize,” Albany Humane Society Director Donna Strickland volunteered. “We follow a lengthy set of guidelines. Rules [for euthanizing] are made to be broken and this is one nobody cares when we break it.” She means, they save kittens and puppies when they can, and against all odds, sometimes.
“We offered a voucher [see sidebar below for info] to people who brought litters of puppies to the shelter” Strickland says. “In all the time that we issued them, not one person came in. Once they dump that box [of puppies], their problem is solved. They don't understand in six months, the dog will be pregnant again.”
When we consider organizations such as humane societies, it is important to remember that their services are driven by donations in the public sector. Donations are down, just like the economy at-large. That doesn't slow the individual veterinarians, who are in private practice but volunteer services to animals in the shelters. They are the real backbone of the shelter system.
“We try not to euthanize for space,” Strickland assures us. “We had a puppy recently that had been hit by a car. His injuries would have required multiple surgeries and special care. We make some decisions in cases like this where the prognosis is not good.
“To end suffering is one thing,” says Strickland. “If an animal hasn't drawn any interest, we need to move him and put someone else in his place, but that is really hard for us because after we've played with them, we're attached. That's when you see them on TV and stuff. We're saying ‘someone, please help; we think this is a great animal.'”
The Americus Humane Society takes in about 3,000 pets a year, but Amber Manning, the assistant director says that they are proud to have one of the highest shelter adoption rates in Georgia .
When the shelter euthanizes, it is done by injection at the facility by their veterinary volunteers. There is no gas chamber. Medical issues and temperament are two factors that are considered first by the Americus Humane Society. Again, these are the bad days at the shelter and everyone hopes there will soon be fewer of them.
“It is kitten season right now and we are getting a lot of them every day,” Manning says. “We always urge people to get their pet spayed or neutered so we don't have this problem.”
Professionals and volunteers agree that responsible pet ownership today includes spaying and neutering. It is good for the animal's long-term health, too. Your pet stands to live longer with better quality of life. This preventative care will reward your bank account as your pet ages. Early neutering, before sexual maturity, is less stressful for the animal, too.
The law in Georgia requires that all pets adopted in the state from shelters must be neutered. When they are young and healthy, kittens are back up and running three hours after surgery according to Wisell. Everybody wins.
Strickland stresses, “There is no money to be made in adoption. It is an attempt to stop euthanizing.”
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