|
Arange County Animal Services Sheltering Practices and Philosophies 59
<br />"We plugged away for a long time and we said the animal overpopulation would
<br />get better if people didn't let their pets run free and got them neutered," she says,
<br />"but I don't know that I really believed that we would see the results,"
<br />Irwin has been around long enough to remember when the shelter did not require
<br />neutering of male animals-and to recall local veterinarians' resistance to the
<br />idea when the humane society first proposed it, Since then, she has watched her
<br />shelter's intake shrink from 1.5,000 animals a year in the mid-'70s to fewer than
<br />5,000 now. The SPCA has a shortage of "regular, friendly, mixed-breed dogs,"
<br />says Irwin-to the extent that she actually seeks them out from other agencies in
<br />Pennsylvania that welcome her help with placements, And where once the 5- or
<br />6-year-old dogs were considered "old," the shelter is now placing 7-, 8-, and 9-
<br />year-old pooches.
<br />"I like that we are able to place a whole pool of animals who would have been
<br />unplaceable before," says Irwin, "Even when we operated on a real shoestring,
<br />we always had some special cases that we fixed up, But now it's far more routine
<br />that animals that have treatable conditions get treated, We're doing temperament
<br />testing, We have a much better health program for animals. It was all we could
<br />do [before] to afford the minimal vaccinations. Now we do leukemia tests,"
<br />Irwin knows that her situation is by no means universal, however, As the
<br />president of the Federated Humane Societies of Pennsylvania, she is familiar
<br />with the challenges faced by agencies in less wealthy areas, Some shelters in
<br />Pennsylvania's rural communities are still trying to cape with the kinds of
<br />problems the Bucks County SPCA was dealing with two decades ago-far too
<br />many puppies and other healthy, behaviorally sound animals for the number of
<br />homes available. "[These communities] might have one or two vets in the whole
<br />county, They don't really have any kind of animal control program, and they are
<br />operating on a shoestring," Irwin says, "No one could expect them to get much
<br />closer to the goal of 'no kill' any time soon."
<br />Everyone has to start somewhere-even in San Francisco, where former San
<br />Francisco SPCA President Richard Avanzino started his quest to create a model
<br />shelter with no volunteers, only a few employees, and an annual budget of less
<br />than $1 million, During that era, the concept of spay/neuter was practically
<br />unheard of, says San Francisco Animal Care and Control (SF/ACC) Director Carl
<br />Friedman, "I remember 30 years ago, if you wanted a puppy or kitten, [you
<br />would] just go to the park any Sunday during the summer months," he says,
<br />"There would be people with boxes of kittens and puppies, t ,tying to give them
<br />away.... It was just a tremendous overpopulation problem..,, There was a lot
<br />more breeding going on in those days. Now I think people are more responsible,"
<br />As One Door Closes, Another Opens
<br />Though San Francisco has come a long way since Friedman's younger days,
<br />even that city hasn't reached "zero euthanasia" in the sense that the shelter
<br />
|