Does Hernando County Animal Services Euthanize Dogss
Despite some challenges of limited space and funding compared to larger counties, Tom Barrett with Columbia County animal services said he refused to let the thousands of animals that came in terminal yr just be put downwardly.
"That would mean three,600 dogs and cats would take been killed last year," he said. "I'1000 not going to do that … I'll find a fashion. There'southward people out at that place willing to help, I merely have to find them."
Public records for county animal shelters show that in contempo years, euthanasia rates for cats and dogs accept, for the almost part, been on a downward tendency in North Primal Florida.
There are a few exceptions.
In 2013, a new Florida police requiring canton agencies to brand it public record of how many animals are taken in, adopted out or euthanized went into effect. More than than 2 weeks after information technology went into effect, a WUFT News investigation institute that not all canton brute shelters in North Central Florida were keeping track of these records.
WUFT News spent the past iii months following up on this information and requested the public records of monthly animal intakes, adoptions and euthanizations from March 2013 until the about recent calendar month available. We requested the data from 12 counties – Alachua, Bradford, Citrus, Columbia, Dixie, Gilchrist, Hernando, Lafayette, Levy, Marion, Putnam, and Suwannee.
Marion Canton's euthanasia charge per unit has remained steadily to a higher place fifty percent since 2010. Of the well-nigh ten,000 dogs and cats brought in every year since 2013, more than five,000 of them were euthanized each yr.
"You don't have room to keep 8,000 animals, ix,000 animals a year," Deborah Horvath, director of Marion Canton Animal Services, said. "There's no room. There never volition exist. And, unfortunately, some of those decisions accept to be made."
Ane of the reasons why: Marion is the 5th largest canton in Florida. The 9,706 cats and dogs the shelter took in final year was more than double that of neighboring Alachua County, which had the second highest number of intakes. Marion Canton took in more animals in the month of August than Suwannee Canton did for the entire twelvemonth.
Still, Gilchrist, a much smaller canton past total foursquare miles, has also struggled with its euthanasia rates, averaging more than 40 percent since 2014. That means more than 500 of the roughly 1,300 animals the canton shelter took in last year were put downward.
Ericka Hudson is ane of two brute control officers who run the shelter. She said their kill rates are higher than surrounding counties because of the number of animals that owners bring in. Last yr that number was 609 cats and dogs on top of the 670 stray animals they took in. Most county beast shelters either don't accept animals from owners or charge a fee, but non Gilchrist.
"I'm doing the best I can. At that place may have been a time I had to pick the best dogs to salvage because of space." —Ericka Hudson, Gilchrist County fauna control officer.
"I've never turned anyone away. Everything we euthanize is because information technology can't be adopted out or it'southward feril," Hudson said. "I'm doing the best I can. There may take been a time I had to pick the best dogs to save because of space."
Like other county shelters, she too reaches out to individual rescues that assist place the vast majority of her animals.
Success Stories
Despite Marion and Gilchrist Counties, most other county shelters take seen substantial decreases in euthanasia rates since 2014 and even larger decreases when compared to 2010.
Columbia County's euthanasia charge per unit went down by 87 percentage since 2010 while Citrus declined by 70 pct. Bradford County saw a 41 percentage driblet from 2014 to 2017.
Only three counties accept been successful in nearing no-kill shelter status, meaning their euthanasia rates are less than 10 percent – Alachua, Suwannee and Putnam. Suwannee recently qualified as a no-kill for only having a 4 percent euthanasia rate since September.
No-kill shelters simply euthanize animals if the brute is severely ill or accounted likewise dangerous to be adopted.
Alachua County Beast Services has decreased its euthanasia rate by 91 per centum since 2010. It had a six pct kill rate in 2017, which means 268 animals were put downwardly out of the 4,647 taken in for the year.
Ed Williams, manager of Alachua County Animal Services, said the turn down started even earlier he came to the shelter in 2000 because the county partnered with Maddie's Fund.
"One of the things they did for u.s. is they incentivized the local rescue groups to have animals from us by giving a stipend with each animal," Williams said. "Past Maddie's Fund being a grantmaker and coming in and proverb 'for every treatable animal you take from the Alachua County Brute Services, we give y'all this stipend to help.'"
Last year'south 1 percent kill rate for Putnam County wasn't normal compared to a few years ago. Before Putnam County Planning and Development took over control of the canton beast shelter from the sheriff's role in Apr of 2015, the county euthanized about 25 percent of its dogs and cats.
"When we took over, we had commissioner Bit Laibl who really wanted to push the initiative of a no-impale shelter," Kevin Powell said. He now oversees the shelter.
Less than a year later, Powell and his staff dropped the euthanasia rate enough to qualify as a no-impale shelter. Terminal twelvemonth's ane pct kill rate meant they only had to put downward 17 animals the entire year, almost of which were either too sick or deemed too dangerous to live.
"By being a no-kill shelter, the relationships nosotros have with the various animate being rescues throughout northeast Florida [allow us] to place the animals." — Kevin Powell, Putnam County planning department
"By being a no-impale shelter, the relationships we accept with the diverse animate being rescues throughout northeast Florida [allow u.s.a.] to place the animals," Powell said.
Dixie County was the only one to non fulfill WUFT's public records request for intake and euthanasia numbers.
Vernon Long, a Dixie Canton Sheriff'due south Office brute control officer, said he keeps records of intakes and euthanizations merely not adoptions because the county does not adopt out whatever animals. Whatever dogs and cats the county receives are either claimed by the owners or euthanized. Long and the sheriff's office would not provide WUFT with whatever numbers, despite multiple requests.
Levy County provided numbers for 2014, 2015 and 2016, merely did not provide any records for 2017 or 2018.
The Lafayette County Sheriff's Office said it has non had a county animal service in years and does not handle whatever devious animals.
'It'south a People Problem'
With each county comes new challenges, different resource and unique situations that a one-size-fits-all-solution doesn't solve.
But Dr. Julie Levy, a professor at the University of Florida'due south College of Veterinary Medicine, said through her years of piece of work with shelters and tracking statistics across the state, in that location are some common solutions:
- Work with local rescue shelters.
- Make information technology as like shooting fish in a barrel and cheap equally possible to prefer an brute.
- Promote pets online that are up for adoption.
- Have a robust trap, neuter and release organization for stray cats.
- Garner support from the community and local policymakers.
Every few years, Dr. Levy assembles a small squad that sets out to collect public records from every single animal shelter in the land. In 2016, the 151 shelters she received data from showed the land had a 27 percent euthanasia rate, with shelters bringing in more than 400,000 cats and dogs.
The Suwannee County Animal Shelter has simply put down nineteen animals since September. Before that, it had a kill charge per unit of more than thirty percent, euthanizing dozens of cats and dogs per month.
But September was also the month Meghan Hale was hired equally one of two brute control officers for the county. In only eight months, she's helped save endless animals.
"I decided to start using rescue [shelters], and so I reached out and I contacted several rescues," she said. "We visited another animate being shelter and from at that place I built relationships with rescues, and slowly only surely they've been pulling our dogs."
Hale also enlisted the aid of Dr. Levy when she commencement came on the job last year.
"A groovy case is Suwannee Canton, which is a very small rural shelter with just a few staff." — Dr. Julie Levy, UF Veterinary Medicine professor
"A corking instance is Suwannee County, which is a very small rural shelter with only a few staff," Levy said. "But they've pulled together volunteers from the community and local veterinarians and their lifesaving has skyrocketed this year."
So now, Marion County is also asking for Dr. Levy's help to solve its overcrowding and loftier kill rate.
"I'm hoping Dr. Levy has those answers," Horvath said. "She's going to be sending people downwards hopefully in the next couple of weeks. They're going to spend a couple of days here and spotter our operations and see if in that location'south something we can do to fix those numbers."
Tom Barrett said local politicians and the public may non always retrieve as much equally they should virtually what happens to animals later canton services takes them off the streets. And while this problem may have a lot to do with cats and dogs, he says information technology'south a much larger issue.
"Is it the county'southward trouble? No," Barrett said. "It'southward a people problem. That's what this is."
A Law Without Ability
The goal of Senate Bill 674 in 2013 was uncomplicated: Reduce euthanasia rates and stray animals while increasing adoption rates.
"But if they're not keeping records at least on an Excel spreadsheet, I don't know how they operate. I await at our figures all the time." — Deborah Horvath, Marion County Animal Services director
It garnered bipartisan back up, passing both the Florida House and Senate unanimously that year and Gov. Rick Scott signed information technology into law.
The theory was that past requiring canton animate being services to go along track of monthly records, shelters would exist more careful of adoption and euthanasia rates. The law also required for that information to be made available to the public.
"We need to make sure that throughout Florida, we have correct data and accurate information and make sure information technology's available to the public," Sen. Bill Montford, one of the bill's authors, told News4Jax in 2013 afterward the constabulary took effect.
It did non include any type of enforcement for agencies who either don't keep records or fail to provide them to the public. Information technology's essentially upwards to each county whether they choose to follow the law or not.
WUFT reached out to Sen. Montford to ask what he idea of the implementation of his bill five years after information technology became law, but we were unable to accomplish him equally of Monday.
Deborah Horvath said information technology's crucial to keep track of monthly records, so much so that Marion County even has their own software programme to keep track of every animal they come in contact with on a daily basis.
"It's an awfully expensive organization, and then I would figure that smaller organizations just can't afford it," she said. "Only if they're not keeping records at to the lowest degree on an Excel spreadsheet, I don't know how they operate. I look at our figures all the fourth dimension."
Source: https://www.wuft.org/news/2018/04/24/1-county-animal-shelter-kill-rates-on-downward-trend-for-north-central-florida-counties/
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