ANIMAL CONTROL & RESCUE

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1997:

Alley Cat Allies invites cat rescuers
to participate in the sixth of an annual
series of surveys of techniques and observations
similar to those ANIMAL PEOPLE
did in 1992 and 1995. For a survey form,
send SASE to POB 397, Mt. Rainier, MD
20712, or call 301-229-7890.
Among the encouraging data
reported in a new National Pet Alliance
paper, Do free spay/neuter vouchers work,
“Newborn kittens entering the H u m a n e
Society of the Santa Clara Valley shelter
have decreased 44%” since a voucher program
began there in 1994, “while kittens in
general have decreased 10%. The total
number of cats handled has dropped slightly,
even though the service area has been
increasing and the human population has
been increasing,” author Karen Johnson
wrote. Among the other evident results of a
lower feline birth rate, the number of cats
surrendered at the shelter because the owners
claimed to have too many cats dropped
from 51% to 35% over the same interval.
The paper is available c/o NPA, POB
53385, San Jose, CA 95153.

Citizens for Humane Action, of
Columbus, Ohio, on June 19 elected Mary
P o l i s e n o president, succeeding Susan K.
Romans, M.D., who was president for
two months, but disappeared after a raid by
health authorities found 72 cats and dogs
living in filth in her home.
Hoping to lower shelter killing
and encourage adoptions, the commissioners
of Broward County, Florida, on June
10 lifted a 40-odd-year-old limit of no more
than three dogs and three cats per home.
The Delta Society National
Service Dog Center in Renton,
Washington, unveiled a new program
called “Beyond Limits” on May 30, which
hopes to train 600,000 shelter dogs as service
dogs during the next 10 years, at estimated
cost of $6 million. About 80 service
centers around the U.S. have trained about
16,000 service dogs to date, mostly bred
for the purpose, but the San Francisco
SPCA hearing dog program has demonstrated
than shelter dogs can be trained as
effectively. The Delta Society hopes to
train shelter dogs to whittle down a four-tonine-year
waiting list to get service dogs.
Harris County Animal Control,
one of the largest suppliers of shelter animals
to biomedical research, will continue
to provide dogs and cats to the Baylor
College of Medicine, Texas A&M, the
University of Texas, and the University of
Houston––and need not offer the animals
for sale via competitive bidding, county
attorney Mike Fleming opined in June. In
early April, the Harris County Commissioners
Court voted 3-2 to halt the sales, but
county judge Robert Eckels reversed his
vote on May 20. Harris County sold 791
animals in 1996, down from 1,900 in 1994.
Dade County, Florida animal
control director John Zobler might not
have been able to get elected dogcatcher
this spring after the combination of a computerized
system to send out dog license
renewal reminders and an automated telephone
answering system produced a barrage
of complaints and local headlines
about the threat of lien the county issued to
antique dealer John Crouse, 66, because
he had not paid a series of fines imposed
against him for not licensing a dog who had
died––with his tags paid up––back in 1995.