LCHS Rescue Podcast Ep. 9 - Rescue and Shelter Intake

In this episode we discuss how we make intake decisions and the difficulty that comes with trying to support our community while remain responsible with how much we choose to take on. 

Guests: 

Lisa Glunt - Executive Director

April Rider - Director of Operations 

Katie Stryker - Director of Advocacy and Community Education 

Amy Raddar - Dog Program Coordinator

Mars Carnes - Cat Program Coordinator 

Lynne Rahman - Financial Administrator 

We are a life-saving, limited intake facility. This means that we prioritize saving animals who would be at risk of euthanasia in a shelter facility. Unfortunately, we're seeing so many owner surrenders that we find ourselves struggling to find fosters for the ones who really need us. With more and more shelters in the US moving toward a no-kill status (a new wave of shelter management that ultimately prioritizes saving lives, but along the way has sown mistrust in shelters and may be leading to more cases of abandonment and unintentional neglect, because it's branded shelters as the worst possible place for animals.) Especially in northern cities who have fewer stray animals and more resources for spay/neuter, along with initiatives like animal registration, they are able to implicate no-kill techniques and see great success through managed intake and community education on rehoming. In the south, these methods are instead leaving animals to be left outside or without care, with many of them reproducing and adding to the cycle of unwanted animals. 

We view our city shelter as doing incredible work but find the growing stigma of fear associated with shelters who may be forced to euthanize for space when their community is creating or surrendering more animals than they're adopting or fostering as a way to villainize people who would prioritize humane care. 

There are several fates worse than death, and they're often seen as an acceptable risk over utilizing a community resource. 

Rescues are often left to work in overdrive so that shelters aren't utilized, which skews numbers and data that show community need and help make decisions for funding that could include TNR initiatives, low-cost vetting opportunities and need, and animal control support and staffing. 

Ultimately, we need more data to be captured to truly show what choices and initiatives are helping animals end up in safe spots, and we are working to document these cases to help animals in Leon County and surrounding areas, so we have a better sense of how many animals are being turned away to encounter a fate that may be worse than a shelter. 

Here is the link to the Tallahassee Animal Services Statistics. 

Here is the link to the UC Davis Study on When to Spay and Neuter - this study does not include information on genetic testing done on these breeds of dogs or whether they were well bred/genetically inclined to have these issues regardless of their spay/neuter timeline. This study will undoubtably have a negative effect on pet overpopulation - most pet owners want what's right and healthiest for their animal, but not all of them are reliably able to prevent accidental litters as we see anecdotally time and time again. Thousands of unwanted dogs are reproducing in the panhandle and south and many of them are being poorly and irresponsibly bred by backyard breeders (those who breed dogs for profit or without testing/a lifelong support for the dog,) rather than by preservation breeders (those who research, test, and breed out of a love for that breed of dog). 

Feel free to reach out with questions or concerns to kstryker@leoncountyhumane.org