AR-News: (AZ - US) Last stop for thousands of pets: county dump

Mon Jun 7 15:45:20 EDT 2004

Last stop for thousands of pets: county dump 
19,000 put to death last year; too few animals are being spayed or neutered

POLLY HIGGINS
Tucson Citizen 

The Humane Society of Southern Arizona cremated more than 10,000 euthanized pets last year.

More than 19,000 unwanted dogs and cats were euthanized in Pima County last year, with many of the carcasses winding up at the dump like so many discarded egg cartons, dirty coffee filters and mounds of junk mail.

Those numbers are not expected to decrease, despite the efforts of local animal groups and politicians.

The Humane Society of Southern Arizona and the Pima Animal Care Center are suffering from budget constraints, and far too few people are spaying or neutering their pets.

"All citizens in this community should be concerned about the animals we euthanize because it costs the taxpayers money to euthanize, it costs money for the landfill," said Kathleen Dunbar, Ward 3 City Council member.

The Pima Animal Care Center, 4000 N. Silverbell Road, dumped the carcasses of 8,999 euthanized animals at the Tangerine Road Landfill, west of Interstate 10.

The grotesque scene is quickly covered to prevent public shock.

The Humane Society of Southern Arizona, 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd., cremated the 10,321 pets it euthanized last year.

Abandoned and stray pets were reduced to little more than smoke and ash.

The problem of pet overcrowding is not new to Pima County.

Marsh Myers, director of eduction and community outreach at the local Humane Society, recalls a 1921 newspaper article reporting a roundup of stray dogs in Pima County.

Once caught, the animals were drowned, in accordance with the method of euthanasia at the time.

"The article was pretty much a scathing thing about these poor animals. They're homeless already, and now they're having to be killed, and this is a very cruel way to kill them, and shouldn't we all be ashamed of ourselves?" Myers said.

"And I thought, 'Wow, you know if we changed the date and some of the wording and the method of euthanasia, that's basically the same problem we've got today.' "

Local animal groups are looking for solutions.

On Aug. 1, the Humane Society here began charging for animals brought to the shelter.

The fee for cats and dogs is $25 each, $35 for litters of kittens and puppies, and $10 for other animals, such as hamsters. The fee for fowl is $5.

Since instituting the fee, the kennels have been less crowded.

"We were reaching such a capacity that we were ... drowning on our own animals," said Myers.

"We've actually gone a few days where our euthanasia has been almost nil, because we're not having to pull for overcrowding."

The Pima Animal Care Center, (formerly the Pima Animal Control Center), which does not charge an intake fee, has experienced a "slight increase" in intake of animals as a result of the Humane Society's fee, said Rodrigo Silva, animal control manager at the PACC.

The number of animals euthanized here has remained fairly consistent over the past few years, local officials say.

Nationally, pet euthanasia numbers have decreased from about 20 million to between 4 million and 11 million, according to Lou Guyton, director for the Southwest Regional office of the Humane Society of the United States.

No one agency tracks such numbers, however, so accurate figures are elusive, she said. Local Humane Societies, including the one in Tucson, are not affiliated with the Dallas-based Humane Society of the United States.

"We've seen a reduction, but we're still killing animals," Guyton said.

Myers said the reported number is just "the tip of the iceberg" of pets killed each year by unnatural causes.

"The Humane Society of the United States right now estimates that the shelters in your community only see approximately 10 percent of the homeless animals that are in that community, because so many are passed from person to person to person; they may be abandoned cruelly, they may be euthanized through veterinarians, or victims of violence," Myers said.

The challenges

Kathleen Reid, one of 22 PACC field officers, was headed to a call on the Southwest Side when a plea for backup came from fellow officer Elaine Klein over the radio.

Klein had gone to a South Fourth Avenue auto shop to see about an injured dog, but it turned out the canine was actually in heat. And soon the dog had a following.

"You've sent me into a war zone," Klein said. "There are 12 dogs here."

By the time Reid arrived, all but a muscular, chocolate-and-white and obviously unneutered pit bull mix and a mid-sized shepherd mix remained. Reid and Klein trailed the dogs to a home near East 29th Street and South Second Avenue, from where they had escaped.

The unlicensed dogs were captured and put into the cages in the back of Reid's white truck.

"We have a lot of dog problems here. We get a lot of complaints of dogs at large," South Tucson police Officer Sean Masters said. "A number of people we deal with seem more responsible with their pets, but we still deal with people who don't want to spend the money on spaying and neutering."

Low-cost spay and neuter options are available throughout Tucson, and those who demonstrate need can pay as little as $5.

A mobile sterilization unit similar to Maricopa County's "neuter scooter" could help increase the numbers of spayed and neutered animals. But of course, that costs money, as does educating the public.

The education budget at the Pima Animal Care Center was $26,357 during the last fiscal year, which ended June 30. That accounts for 0.84 percent of the center's $3.16 million total expenditures.

The local Humane Society spent $172,369 on education during the same period, or 5 percent of its $3.67 million budget. This year, however, the education budget has been reduced to 4.1 percent, and Myers said he had to reduce the staff from four to three employees.

Both agencies provide outreach to schools, neighborhood associations and businesses. But their resources are stretched. Myers and his staff are booked through November.

A lifelong commitment

Most animals released to the Humane Society here are brought in by their owners. Of the 20,574 animals received during the fiscal year 13,232 - or 64.3 percent - were owner-released. The rest were strays.

Last Thursday, a young, caramel-colored Rhodesian Ridgeback mix named Attila shook vigorously as his owner turned him over to the Humane Society. After a year with Attila, the man and his wife no longer had time for him because of school conflicts.

Bee-Jay Jones, a shelter technician at the Humane Society, said that the most common reasons she hears for turning over pets are related to moving or economics.

"They've moved into an apartment where they don't have animals. That's our biggest one," Jones said. "Or, 'Can't afford.' A lot of them, with the economy the way it is, they'll just say, 'I can't afford it.' "

Owning a pet is not easy, Silva reminded.

"In many instances, pet owners do not plan ahead, and that's why we hear, 'I can't afford it,' or 'we're moving,' or 'someone in the house is allergic,' " he said. "Pets have become a disposable commodity. It's just become very easy to get rid of them."

Shelters are overcrowded. This includes the smaller facilities around town, such as The Hermitage No-Kill Cat Shelter, 5278 E. 21st St.

"Right now we have just over 400. We're overcrowded for the space we have. We prefer to have not over 350," said Lori Poppa, Hermitage facility director.

Pima Animal Care has not euthanized any adoptable animals since the beginning of the year, Silva said.

Not yet, anyway.

"We're getting into trouble. We're getting full," Silva said. "Over 100 animals are ready to go home, and they are taking space that we don't have."

The facility, built in 1968, is not suited for long-term care, Silva said.

Friends of animals

"The Animal Care Center in Pima County has been consistently underfunded and consistently overpopulated," said county Supervisor Ray Carroll.

Carroll has been looking to other communities' models for improvement - including Maricopa County Animal Care and Control, which has three facilities, one of which is strictly a no-kill adoption center.

Another innovation has been the Special Treatment and Recovery, or STAR, program, with a focus on rehabilitating animals with injuries and from abusive backgrounds.

"In the past, those animals would be automatically euthanized," said Julie Banks, Maricopa County Animal Care and Control spokeswoman.

The creation of such programs mandated a revamping of Maricopa County Animal Care and Control's "mission, vision and values" about five years ago.

But the success is in the numbers: a steady decrease in animals coming in, an adoption increase of 23 percent and a decline in euthanasia numbers of 50 percent since 1992.

Carroll said he wants to see the creation of a Friends of the Animal Care Center, modeled on a similarly named program in Maricopa County, by the end of the year.

He said such an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization could set up adoption centers in boarded-up stores to get animals in circulation so they can be seen.

"What we have learned is that there are people out there in the community who want to help. We just had to create the mechanisms to allow them to help," Banks said.

Dunbar has been working with Carroll and others in the county to increase the registration fee for unaltered animals.

Tucson residents pay $75 for unspayed and unneutered dogs, $8 for altered; the county fee is $20 and $8, respectively.

Both Dunbar and Carroll said they would like to see a common fee - perhaps $40 - for both the city and the county as motivation to spay or neuter pets.