Sheltering

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1997:

Animal shelters are exempted from a new
Arizona law that makes pet stores financially liable
for veterinary costs if they sell sick dogs and cats. One
side effect of the bill, which resembles legislation
already in effect in many other states, will be to
encourage more pet stores to emulate the PetsMart
Luv-A-Pet program, which allows humane societies to
do adoptions through store facilities. The 300–plusstore
PetsMart chain, based in Phoenix, may cumulatively
place more animals now than any other organization,
but is not beloved of all humane societies: a
brochure on Spaying and Neutering distributed by the
in-house VetsSmart clinics, forwarded to A N I M A L
PEOPLE by Animal Issues Movement co-director
Phyllis M. Daugherty, of Los Angeles, seemingly
encourages breeding with a passage reading, “Many
people who welcome the birth of puppies or kittens
believe the experience and the comitment involved are
among the most rewarding experiences of their entire
lives. Being a ‘grandparent’ to a bunch of new pets
can be fun for everyone in your family––and highly
educational for your children.”

PetsMart also expects
Luv-A-Pet participants to put maintaining a good sales
atmosphere foremost. Pet Search, a highly respected
St. Louis no-kill shelter that places about 3,000 animals
a year, was recently ousted from a local Luv-APet
program apparently due to complaints about confrontations
with customers that resulted from stringent
adoption screening and refusals to adopt.
Michigan on May 16 became the 21st state
to require that all animals adopted from animal
shelters be neutered. If neutering cannot be done on
site, the adoptor will have to make a neutering deposit
before taking the animal.
City of Los Angeles animal services director
Gary Olsen announced May 12 that he will retire
in September to take a one-year consulting job for
$100,000, equal to his current salary, plus a pension
of $64,000 a year.
The Bide-A-Wee Association, of
Westhampton, New York, is constructing a retirement
home for pets age 8 and up, offering luxury conditions
for a one-time donation of $10,000.
Judge Matthew Borowiec, of Cochise
County, Arizona, on May 19 fined the town of
Willcox $2,000 for inhumanely killing dogs last year,
and put the town on probation, a first for the state.
After the Tucson activist group Voices for Animals
exposed the situation, Willcox increased animal control
spending from under $1,000 a year to $17,000,
hiring a fulltime and a halftime animal control officer.