And they’re being sorted by condition and circumstance to protect the healthy pups from those more likely to be sick.
It’s a move in the right direction.So is establishing indoor puppy play rooms painted with lively colors and pictures, where people can test their compatibility with a pet before they adopt.
So is cleaning out the old gas chamber room, which has long been used for storage and not euthanasia. It was a room some of the staff had avoided. Bad vibes.
Building fences, making repairs, changing the hours for the public and providing uniforms for the staff are all ways to move forward.
But changing the course of the county animal shelter, long a source of angst and a reason to be defensive, is going to take time and a lot of effort, like changing the direction of a huge ship in motion.
Those involved say it will take sustained effort and persistence.
But that may be happening, too.
There’s a three-pronged effort now with the shelter staff, the Animal Protection and Education Association and the newer Friends of the Jackson County Animal Shelter.
On April 17, at the Fountainebleau Community Center on Mississippi 57, the county will give a public update on progress at the shelter since the January public input meeting. And on April 24, there will be a major fundraiser in Biloxi. In the meantime, this week there’s an Easter sale where the adoption fee has been dropped from $50 to $35.
Nicole Grundel, the county’s information officer, is an animal lover with a lot of enthusiasm to get the word out, coordinate efforts and keep the momentum moving forward. She’s learning more about the needs, which include finding a way to elevate the pasture so the horses don’t have to be moved to the parking lot when it rains, a way to seal the concrete floors that hold water and disease, a way to bolster a staff that loves animals but works with a stigma, a way to better communicate problems and put ideas to work.
“The list is so long,” she said. Solutions get bogged down in legalities.
It is, after all, a county animal shelter. Part of its mission is to take anything that’s brought in. And when more come in than go out, animals are euthanized, by injection these days.
Supervisor John McKay has started referring to it as “animal shelter/animal control.”
He’s looking for better operations as well as a better shelter for animals. But he said it will be the next budget year before the county will sink real money into the project.
“That’s only five months away,” he said. “We need to decide what are the more critical capital items to put in next year’s budget -- expand sick care or spay/neuter or just the building so we can house more animals.”
He has been making sure the community is involved and he’s looking for ways to allow more volunteering.
Getting real statistics and tracking animals is part of the solution, Grundel explained, as is setting policy so the public doesn’t have unreal expectations.
For example, it’s important for a pet owner to know that once an animal is turned over to the shelter, he relinquishes all rights to ownership, including any further information about what happens to it, whether that’s adoption, rescue or euthanasia.
In January and February, the shelter took in 745 domestic animals. Less than half were strays, the others were brought in by their owners. Of those, 89 were reclaimed and 171 were adopted.
“Approximately 46 percent taken in were humanely euthanized,” Grundel said. “Although many of them were deemed unadoptable for various reasons, many were people’s unclaimed or surrendered pets.”
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