Animal Shelter Statistics - Sept-Dec 2006

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regular services rely not only upon the dedicated efforts of our staff but their collaboration with other organizations and individual members of the public with a commitment to the welfare of animals in our community. And we look forward to our continued work with stakeholders, partners and members of the general public in addressing and ultimately resolving what at root is a community problem—namely, the problem of pet overpopulation. Questions about the statistics and narrative discussion that follow may be addressed to Robert A. Marotto, Director, Orange County Animal Services at bmarotto@co.orange.nc.us. Factors Affecting Animal Dispositions A number of observations may be made about the decline in the number of animal adoptions and “live releases” during the period under consideration. While some of these concern specific challenges, others relate to changes in our internal processes and service orientation. Also of note are some broader factors related to the operation of Orange County’s Animal Shelter in a dynamic context. Challenges • During December of last year, we lost the off site adoption spaces at Dubey’s Pet World because it closed. This caused not only a loss of additional space and an adoption venue for adoptable cats but was also a loss in terms of advertising of shelter services including adoption. • Building maintenance during this period (painting the shelter floors and walls), required to comply with new state regulations for public shelters, caused loss of space for holding animals and thus reduced the number of animals available for adoption for the duration of the project. • The appearance of two different serious infectious disease outbreaks—ringworm and parvovirus—impacted the number of animals available for adoption. In each of these situations, shelter staff worked closely with our consulting veterinarian to control the spread of disease (and in the case of ringworm, initiate prophylactic treatment) but all such measures limited adoption possibilities. • Staffing vacancies inhibited the department’s ability to maximize adoption opportunities particularly with respect to promoting adoptions in the community and developing collaborative relationships with rescue organizations. Changes • Improvements in the area of adoption counseling provide the public with better information about the responsibilities involved in owning and caring for pets. This critical educational process has promoted more informed decision making, but it may sometime mean that a potential adopter chooses to not adopt at this time • Our goal is to ensure that animals made available for adoption are both healthy and behaviorally sound. Improvements have been made to the process used to evaluate animals and thereby help to identify animals not suitable for placement into the community. The end result of this process is of great benefit to those adopting from the shelter; however it impacts the number of animals made available for adoption to the general public.