Letter to the Editor

There's been a lot of complaints in the Letter to Editor section of our local paper The World, here is my response:

Coos County Animal Shelter Does A lot for the Community

There have been a lot of letters lately complaining about the Coos County Animal Shelter and the staff. I have an opinion of CCAS that I’d like to share.

My daughter and I have been volunteering at the animal shelter since last spring. We started as part of my daughter’s Girl Scout’s Bronze Award, but after we’d completed the necessary hours, we realized that we didn’t want to stop. We go out several days a week and walk dogs, socialize with the cats, and recently have been bathing Beagle puppies.

People need to realize that the job that the Shelter Operator and the Animal Control Officers do is not easy. Basically, they spend a lot of time cleaning up other people’s messes. Probably 90% of the animals that end up at the shelter are there through no fault of their own, it comes down to people not taking care of their pets. You want something to complain about? How about complaining about the people that don’t spay or neuter their pets, or about the ones that let them run around at large? Or my favorite, the ones that are physically abusive or neglect their animals to the point that they are starving and dehydrated?

We are fortunate that our shelter is “low kill” for the dogs…well, the dogs are fortunate. But, this also means that the Shelter Operator has to be creative, because the shelter gets full fast. Our Shelter Operator has set up programs for our dogs, and some of our cats, to go to the Oregon Humane Society in Portland. She also has had dogs taken in by rescue groups, FOCCAS, and even by other shelters occasionally. This gives these dogs and cats a second chance at adoption if they don’t get adopted here.

It should also be pointed out that the reason that Oregon Humane Society is a “no kill” is because they can pick and choose what animals they will take, while municipal and county animal shelter have to take everything brought in…including animals that are very ill and injured and can’t be saved. But our shelter does try to save even the ill/injured animals. I can think of several right off the top of my head that received veterinary services for injuries or illnesses…in fact I fostered one of these dogs. Often when the shelter is full, people will be asked to wait a few days or a week for space to open up before leaving their animal. Some people will do this, some won’t.

Unfortunately, our shelter is not yet “low kill” for the cats. Conditions have improved a lot. The new programs have insured that some cats go to rescue groups or to the Oregon Humane Society in Portland, but there are still cats that will get euthanized when the shelter runs out of room. When 27 cats are brought in to the shelter in one day-as happens more often than it ever should-and there’s not enough room, some are unfortunately euthanized. No one who works or volunteers at the shelter wants this to happen, and EVERYONE out there works hard to try to prevent it, but the “pet owners” have to do their part too.

In order to get the shelter to low kill status for the cats everyone in the community has to play their part. Get your cats spayed or neutered. S/nipped will be up and running soon and will offer low cost spay/neuters. They are already out there working on several feral cat colonies making sure that they don’t get any larger. Also, if you get your cat micro-chipped you will save its life. They check for microchips when any animal is brought out in the hopes of reuniting it with its owner.

Another way to help-volunteer. The shelter can always use loving people to foster cats or dogs, or just animals that don’t do well in a shelter situation. Some animals just find the shelter too overwhelming and get stressed. Fostering also gives the animals some extra time to not only find homes, but sometimes just to be socialized. There’s lots of other ways to volunteer if fostering isn’t an option.

Also, if you can’t afford to get your animal spayed or neutered, you can volunteer at the shelter to get it done. It varies for males/females and cats/dogs, but there’s lots of ways to volunteer. You can help clean kennels, walk dogs, laundry, bathing, grounds upkeep…there’s never an end to the work that needs to be done.

Bottom line, before you point your finger at the employees of the animal shelter for something unfortunate happening to your pet, remember that there are three other fingers pointing right back at you. Take responsibility for your pet and then someone else won’t have to.

Michelle Kirby