Animal Control & Rescue
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, Jan/Feb 1994:
The value of publicity was
underscored in Cleveland, Ohio,
after county humane officer Tony
Brand rescued a pair of starving dogs
from a rooftop on December 11.
Notice of the rescue in the Cleveland
Plain Dealer brought nearly 100 calls
to the Cuyahoga County Kennel from
would-be adopters, of whom more
than 20 took dogs––five times the
usual adoption rate. Adoptions also
rose at other local shelters.
Australia has three mil-
lion domestic cats and 12 million
ferals, according to the Australian
National Parks and Wildlife Service,
which puts the U.S. feral cat popula-
tion at 44 million. Australian data
indicates that domestic cats kill an
average of 25 native animals a year.
The city council in Reno,
Nevada, has asked its animal control
advisory committee to draft an ordi-
nance mandating the sterilization of
any dog or cat picked up by animal
control, prior to adoption or return to
the owner. Reno animal control took
in 16,200 dogs and cats in 1992,
adopting out 2,500, reuniting 2,700
with owners, euthanizing 9,500 for
population control, and euthanizing
1,500 due to severe injuries suffered
(usually from cars) before pickup.
Because Santa Clara
County, California, discontinued
animal control service to incorporat-
ed areas last July 1, the city of San
Jose is forming its own animal con-
trol code and enforcement agency.
Cat licensing is a feature of at least
two regulatory plans getting serious
consideration; one of them would
require breeding permits as well.
The Pennsylvania SPCA’s
mobile adoption unit, put on the
road in September 1992, had placed
1,000 animals by December 1993. A
new skylighted adoption center,
opened last month, is expected to
further boost adoptions.
While raising funds to
open a conventional shelter, the
Humane Society of Cottage Grove,
Oregon, has begun a supervised
neuter/release program, under Cary
Hayward, DVM. Get details from
POB 61, Cottage Grove, OR 97424.
Many humane societies begin by fos-
tering homeless animals, but Cottage
Grove is only the second that A N I-
MAL PEOPLE is aware of to start
with neuter/release. The other, the
Merrimac River Feline Rescue
Society, of Newburyport, Mass-
achusetts, is working to prepare its
first shelter for a public opening.
The Fund for Animals
has withdrawn support for the
California “Feline Fix Bill,” AB 302,
which it aggressively backed just a
year ago. Mandating that free-roam-
ing cats over the age of four months
be neutered, the bill was near passage
last spring when San Francisco
SPCA president Richard Avanzino
warned that it might be used as a pre-
text to exterminate ferals. Avanzino
demanded amendments to protect the
ability of rescuers to set up neuter/
release colonies. That’s when it
became clear that the sponsor of the
bill, the National Audubon Society,
had wiping out ferals in mind all
along. Get details from Californians
Against AB 302, POB 60715, Palo
Alto, CA 94306; 415-327-0631.
PetsMart, the fastest-
growing firm in the pet supply busi-
ness, isn’t the only chain to profit by
adopting out shelter animals.
Petstuff, which started in Baltimore
in September 1992, now has 26
stores along the east coast, with three
more soon to open.
Our coverage of rescue
efforts during the fall fires in
Southern California in late October
and early November left out the San
Diego Humane Society, which took
294 animals out of the fire zones,
and Emergency Animal Rescue, of
Ramona, which took in 47 and
helped evacuate Bob Farner’s Wild-
life Rescue Center, near Escondido.
Their work was described in the
December issue of Animal Press, a
regional tabloid, which also reported
that the cat film director Duncan
Gibbons was trying to rescue when
he was burned to death, a Siamese
named Elsa, is recovering well from
injuries and trauma in an adoptive
home. Gibbons’ friend Ron Mass,
burned over 75% of his body while
trying to rescue Gibbons, Elsa, and
his own cat, is still hospitalized.
Bequests from former
federal narcotics officer Oscar
Polcuch and golf pro Paul Summers
Jack Jr., both of Beaverton, have
enabled Washington County,
Oregon, to break ground for a new
animal shelter in nearby Hillsboro.
The National Animal
Control Association Training
Academy will present its Level I
course, February 28 through March
4, in Columbia, Missouri. Tuition
for the 40-hour course, which carries
academic credit, is $400. Get details
from Michael Gillingham, 1-800-
825-6505 or 314-882-6021.
