Animal control & rescue

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, March 1996:

Taking over the New York City
animal control contract from the American
SPCA on January 1, 1995, the Center for
Animal Care and Control provided pickup and
rescue service to 5,448 dogs and 4,753 cats
during the year, nearly double the ASPCA
norms, according to CACC director Marty
Kurtz. In consequence, dog intakes rose to
24,536, with a euthanasia rate of 73%, while
cat intakes rose to 26,266, with a euthanasia
rate of 78%. Returns-to-owner were achieved
at about the same rate the ASPCA managed,
but still at only half the rate managed by
Chicago and less than a third the rate of San
Diego, the apparent RTO leader among major
U.S. cities. To boost RTO, the CACC in
November began microchipping all animals
placed. Overall, the CACC adopted out 4,975
cats, 222 more than were picked up in distress,
along with 4,561 dogs. Combined adoptions,
all species, came to 9,616––slightly
less than the ASPCA norm, but the ASPCA is
still doing adoptions, dividing the traffic.

Hot Springs Animal Services i n
Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1995 achieved
five-year lows in both dogs and cats received.
Intakes of both dogs and cats peaked in 1993.
Dog intakes are down 28%; cat intakes are
down 20%.
The Cook County Department of
Animal Control, serving Chicago, offered
neutering rebates for the month of February
only, of $25/male cat, $35/female cat or male
dog, and $50/female dog.
The ASPCA, having purportedly
given up the New York City animal control
contract because it wished to get out of
high-volume euthanasia, took on the animal
control contact for Suffolk County, Long
Island, effective January 1––and hasn’t
answered questions about why. Reported
Carole Paquette of The New York Times, “For
two years the Suffolk County SPCA had a
$35,000-a-year contract financed by fees from
dog licenses. The society was headed by its
founder, Gary Rogers, son of Barey Rogers,
a Republican fundraiser and $1-a-year chief of
staff for the President Officer of the County
Legislature. In November, two months after
Gary Rogers resigned from the 11-year-old
society over what he says were ‘philosophical’
difffences, the Legislature voted to give the
contract to the ASPCA. Gary Rogers, now a
volunteer agent for the ASPCA, is on the staff
of full-time and volunteer agents who work
from the ASPCA office. The senior vice president
and chief of humane law enforcement for
the ASPCA, Robert O’Neill, oversees the
Suffolk office.” The Suffolk County SPCA
has reportedly sued the ASPCA over the
deal––and insiders intimate that former
ASPCA executive vice president John Foran
may have abruptly left last November because
he considered the arrangement unethical.
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana,
reduced shelter intakes 10% in 1995, and cut
euthanasias from 17,459 in 1994 to 15,628 last
year (also 10%).
The city council of Petaluma,
California, on January 2 officially terminated
the animal control contract awarded on
August 14, 1995, to Thunder and Lightning’s
Cause. Animal control duties have been performed
by the Humane Society of Sonoma
County, the previous contract holder, since
the TLC contract was suspended pending
investigation of alleged management problems
on November 8. Richard Day, one of at least
two attorneys representing TLC head Janet
Coppini in various situations, told local media
that the organization would sue the city. On
January 4, Coppini told the Petaluma A r g u s –
Courier she would sue her public critics, and
said she had sued ANIMAL PEOPLE over a
one-paragraph notice of the Petaluma situation
published in December. At press time on
February 12, ANIMAL PEOPLE had not
received service of such an action.
The Miami Beach Parks and
Recreation Department is reportedly supervising
one of the largest neuter/release projects
yet undertaken, with 84 volunteers catching
cats at feeding stations, and more than 400
cats fixed in the first three months of the effort.
Belgium introduced a law, effective
January 1, that bans the sale of dogs
and cats at flea markets––so dealers now display
animals and distribute calling cards, but
don’t actually complete transactions until after
hours, Global Action in the Interests of
Animals president Michel Vandenbosch
recently told Reuters.
Luv-A-Pet, a state-of-the-art neutering
clinic, was to open on Valentine’s
Day in Dallas, sponsored by the City of
Dallas and The Animal Foundation
International, a project of PetsMart Charities.
The clinic is modeled after the Luv-A-Pet clinic
opened in Maricopa County, Arizona, in
May 1995. Arrangements for the clinic were
made by Cile Holloway, 43, widely known
for her work with the Animal Connection of
Texas and the Texas Humane Information
Network. Her mother, Patt Davis, founded
the Humane Society of Greater Dallas.
Humane Society of North Texas
board president Art Brender and executive
director James Bias both resigned in
J a n u a r y , while assistant operations director
Tammy Hawley gave notice of intent to
change jobs. Brender, a board member for 18
years and board president for nine, recently
became chair of the Tarrant County
Democratic party, and was also elected president
of the West Meadowbrook Neighborhood
Association. Bias told the Fort Worth S t a r –
Telegram he’s leaving to be able to spend
more time with his family. “It is a seven-daya-week
job, and my thoughts are in it 24 hours
a day,” Bias said. “With a family, it is now
harder for me to keep my focus.”
Moving to increase fundraising
capacity, the Massachusetts SPCA––with current
revenues of $22 million a year––recently
formed Friends of MSPCA Law Enforcement,
to raise funds around cruelty prosecutions.
The San Francisco Housing
Authority has reportedly begun a drive to oust
pit bulls and other dangerous dogs from its
premises, after being ordered to pay
Rasheedah Riles, 18, $190,000 for injuries
suffered when a pit bull attacked her on a
housing project basketball court. Another
SFHS resident, Vera Kennedy, recently sued
over non-enforcement of the no-pets clause in
the housing authority leases. In November,
the SFHA insurance carrier warned the agency
to get rid of dangerous dogs or else.
Minnesota state senator John
Marty and state representative Matt
E n t e n z a have introduced companion bills to
repeal the mandatory surrender of dogs and
cats from public animal shelters to biomedical
research institutions. The Minnesota law,
adopted in 1948, was the first so-called
“pound seizure” statute, and is now one of
only three still on the books of any state.
The Progressive Animal Welfare
Society has introduced Virtual Shelter, accessible
to anyone who can access World Wide
Web, which displays adoptable animals and
animal control pickups around the clock.
Michigan Humane Society volunteers
now call people who offer free-to-goodhome
puppies to inform them that they can
“trade” the litter to the shelter for free sterilization
and vaccination of the mother (and the
father, if both animals are in the household).
The program doesn’t extend to cats because
while MHS no longer has a puppy surplus, it
still can’t guarantee a home for every kitten.
The Neponset Valley Humane
Society, of Canton, Massachusetts, o n
January 5 announced the formation of the Cat
Action Team of Foxboro, following the formation
of the Cat Action Teams of Norwood
(1994) and Sharon (1995). Each team carries
out supervised neuter/release to bring local
feral cat populations under control, and to
make cat-feeders part of the solution rather
than part of the problem, as is often the case
where catch-and-kill policies polarize community
attitudes. The Cat Action Team of
Foxboro is co-sponsored by Just Cats, a nonprofit
group based in nearby Mansfield.
Three and a half months after the
October 21 death of Love & Care for God’s
Animalife founder Ann Fields and the public
discovery that millions of dollars raised for the
animals never went to them, relief efforts for
the animals and legal action trying to recover
some of the money continue. At recommendation
of ANIMAL PEOPLE, the Alabama
Office of the Attorney General asked the
North Shore Animal League to take charge of
placing those animals who might be adopted
into homes from among the 600-odd dogs and
cats left at the Love & Care stockade near
Florala, Alabama. The Montgomery
Humane Society, of Montgomery, Alabama,
recently moved into a new shelter, and made
the old one available as a temporary adoption
center. North Shore personnel spent about a
month and $50,000 in Alabama, said outreach
coordinator Perry Fina, managing to place 45
animals directly into homes while parcelling
out 104 dogs and 121 cats to other agencies.
That still left 295 dogs and 80 cats slated for
euthanasia due to health problems, including
exposure to feline leukemia, amounting to
lack of adoption prospects. As A N I M A L
P E O P L E went to press, the American
OnLine Pet Care Forum staff and a variety of
other grassroots organizations were still trying
to find homes for these, and the Alabama
Office of the Attorney General was apparently
willing to wait until all hope was exhausted
before putting any of the animals down.
Pathway, the Pets and Housing
Working Group of the All-Party
Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare,
representing 17 major British humane organizations,
on January 23 published G u i d e l i n e s
for Housing Providers, a handbook intended
to ease landlord/tenant relations––the leading
reason why people give up or don’t adopt pets.
The handbook was introduced at a reception in
the House of Commons.
Two years after the Louisiana
SPCA in New Orleans began neutering all
a d o p t i o n s before letting them leave the shelter,
the cat intake is down from 5,171 in 1994
to 4,337 last year, a 16% drop, while the dog
intake fell 7%, from 6,997 to 6,519.
The SPCA de Mont Regie, one of
the few functioning humane societies in
Quebec, must relocate by April 30 after five
years in a rented barn at Notre Dame de Bons
Secour. The SPCA de Mont Regie holds the
animal control contracts for the Montreal suburbs
of St. Lambert, St. Bruno, and Ville Le
Moyne, with an average of 300 animals in
custody at any one time, according to founder
and executive director Linda Robertson.
New York State Agriculture
Commissioner Donald Davidsen, DVM, on
January 15 proposed to revive a statewide dog
census last undertaken in 1982. The purpose
of the census would be to encourage compliance
with licensing and vaccination requirements.
Formerly a member of the State
Assembly, Davidsen once introduced an
unsuccessful bill to revive the dog census.
Arkansans for Animals r e c e n t l y
introduced Spay/Neuter Arkansas, a program
which according to founders Joyce Hillard and
Marilyn Baker will arrange for any dog or cat
to be neutered, subsidizing the operations as
neccessary. Spay/Neuter Arkansas is endorsed
by the Arkansas Veterinary Medical
Foundation, and about 20% of the practicing
vets in the state are enrolled in the program.