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Recession taking a bite out of local animal shelters’ adoption rates

September 26th, 2009 Posted in Opinion

by Cassidee Cline

MILLVILLE — The recession is not only hitting home, but also hitting local animal shelters.

Four Paws has been rescuing abandoned animals for the past nine years. Director Lisa Shaw from Millville has been working with co-founder Kitty White on the rescue and adoption of both dogs and cats within this non-profit organization.

The money they receive from donations and from fundraisers doesn’t even begin to cover the cost to take care of these animals, Shaw said. Each adoption helps to pay for the animals to be spayed or neutered. It helps to cover costs for dog and cat vaccinations, rabies shots, ID tags, and other items used to help the owner get started on taking care of their new pet.

Shaw said Four Paws was started because she saw a great need in the valley. Many stray animals in Cache Valley are taken to an impound where they are euthanized after three to five days, and Shaw wanted to find these animals a home.

It was a long process, Shaw said. In order to become a non-profit organization, she and White hired a lawyer to help them obtain a 501c3 status. According to the IRS web page, a 501c3 status is obtained when an organization is operated with exempt purposes, meaning they are an organization for the purpose of charity and not
for self-benefit.

Once Shaw and White acquired that status they were able to work through donations and volunteers to build a facility used to help house and take care of the adoptions. Shaw would not disclose the exact location of the facility.

Shaw said that most of the adoptions are done online. The adoption process is fairly strict, Shaw said. The potential owners have to go through a screening process where they are asked questions about what animal they are looking for and the lifestyle they live. Shaw said they do this because Four Paws wants to make sure people can take care of the animal properly.

Shaw said even though Four Paws tries hard to match the family with the most compatible pet, the economy is really starting to make it hard to adopt any pet out.

Four Paws takes trips down to Layton with about 10-15 dogs every Saturday, Shaw said.

“In the past” she said “we could take 15 dogs and come back with two or three, now we are lucky to adopt out one or two.”

Another reason why people won’t adopt in Layton is because of Davis County laws restricting more than two dogs per home, Shaw said. Many of the people who would adopt already own two dogs.

On top of having difficulty adopting out an animal, many of the families who are adopting from Four Paws are returning their pets. Shaw said the rate of animals returning to the shelter is about 30 percent because people can no longer take care of them.

At the Cache County Humane Society, Director Michael Bishop noted there are two main reasons why people are giving up their pets. One reason is they can’t afford to take care of the animal, Bishop said, and secondly because the family is moving and can’t take the pet with them.

“It’s all economics,” he said.

Both shelters are working hard to find homes for the animals in Cache Valley. The Cache Humane Society has six different programs geared towards educating people on taking care of animals and towards making their animals more presentable for adoption. “It’s our intent on serving the community,” Bishop said.

Four Paws and Cache County Humane Society both have a foster care program. The foster program allows people to house and take care of many of the animals at the shelters for a short period of time until that animal is adopted.

The problem is, Shaw said, they lose a lot of foster homes because the families end up adopting the pet they are taking care of. It’s good for the animal, Shaw said, but sad for the others who must remain in the shelter.

Bishop said places like Four Paws are in for the same good cause as Cache County Humane Society. “If we all get on the same board,” he said, “we can affect long term change.”

The shelter’s biggest goal, Shaw and Bishop mentioned, is educating the public on the rising animal problem. “Get your animals spayed and neutered; there are way too many of them,” Shaw said. “If there weren’t so many animals they would have more of a value.”

Bishop and Shaw agreed that spaying and neutering animals is the key to keeping them off the streets, out of pounds and in caring homes.

To help this cause, Bishop said Cache County Humane Society is allowing the public to get their pets spayed and neutered at the shelter for a third of the cost. He said they are offering the same discount to Four Paws and other similar facilities. Bishop said he doesn’t want to take business away from veterinary clinics. He said it’s a way to help families who can’t afford the surgery at full cost and to help quiet down the animal population as a whole.

Tags: adopt a pet, Cache Humane Society, Four Paws, recession