I havent read most of this thread but I believe that there is a lot that high kill shelters can do to improve adoption rates. The one in my county has made great strides in the last couple of years. Some things they are doing are free adoption specials, off site adoption events, more free spay and neuter events, reduced rates to claim impounded pets,teaming with the local tv news and newspaper to feature adoptable pets and most importantly, allowing and encouraging volunteers. We have voulunteer adoption counselors (before you had to hunt down a sullen county employee to view a pet) and volunteers who walk and run the dogs.both on a regular basis and special events. They also started a foster program (not just thru rescues) but fosters directly from the pound. This is particularly useful for young litters, ringworm cases, URI, etc. Also now animals with injuries are generally being treated instead of automatically killed. It is really awesome and I hope it only keeps getting better!
[QUOTE=Larissa;7700391]
Just a side note on this issue… IME this is not a sunshine-and-roses scenario. My local Animal Control/shelter has this policy as well. And you would be astounded at their euthanasia rates - YTD through April of this year it was a full 51% (67% last year).
Someone is going to try to convince me that 50% of the animals walking through their doors were too old, infirm or unadoptable to be given a shot on the adoption floor? Perhaps it’s not all about public perception but it seems that way to me… tout the “no kill” policy on the adoptables but make the adoptable-threshold that much harder to achieve.[/QUOTE]
Nope, not sunshine and roses. Just the best that this group felt they could do given the realities of the situation. The last year I had a solid figure on for this shelter I’m talking about the euthanasia rate was ~25%. As a low hours volunteer there I was not privy to the selection process, other than that it was done about 3 days after intake and involved both a medical evaluation and a variant of the assess-a-pet style temperament test. I’m all in favor of all of us doing better. As-low-as-possible kill is something worth working toward. I’m not convinced that no kill is achievable as a society though. Not in the short time anyway. We waste an astounding amount of human potential, let al9ne canine, feline, equine. Sad old world.
Reported. What is it with all the zombie threads advertising these days?
