| Unwanted Pets Crowd Shelters | ||
| Owners urged to spay, neuter animals | ||
| By Jackie Sheckler, Sunday Herald-Times |
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| Arriving at the Morgan County Animal Shelter one recent morning, a worker | ||
| heard strange noises coming from the dumpster.When she opened the lid, | ||
| she saw a pair of frightened eyes peering from a tiny furry face. Searching | ||
| through the dumpster, the When she opened the lid, she saw a pair of | ||
| frightened eyes peering from a tiny furry face. Searching through the | ||
| dumpster, the worker found three small Shepherd-mix puppies. | ||
| "If our worker hadn't heard them, the puppies would probably have been | ||
| crushed to death when the trash truck emptied the | ||
| dumpster," said Lora Hoff, shelter volunteer. | ||
| All animal shelters have similar horror stories — pets dumped on animal | ||
| shelter doorsteps, chained to shelter fences, left in | ||
| sealed boxes, deserted on roadsides, tossed in gunny sacks in creeks or | ||
| abandoned in houses and apartments. | ||
| Many more animals are delivered to animal shelters by people who don't want | ||
| them or who can no longer care for them. Still others are picked up by animal | ||
| control officers or police as strays. | ||
| Many animals have no tags so it is difficult to trace their owners. | ||
| "I have been working in this business for nearly 25 years," said Jim Lang, | ||
| director of the Bloomington Animal Shelter. | ||
| "When I started, I thought that by this point in my career, we should have | ||
| solved the overpopulation problems of dogs and cats," | ||
| Lang said. "It's sad, but we're nowhere near a solution." | ||
| The main step in dealing with the problem is simple — dogs and cats should | ||
| be spayed or neutered. If not, they should be restrained | ||
| and not allowed to run free to create litters. But irresponsible pet owners | ||
| don't take such preventive measures. | ||
| And there is no excuse for the huge number of unwanted animals, local | ||
| animal shelter officials say. | ||
| The average cost to spay or neuter a dog or cat runs from $30 to $75 or | ||
| higher, depending on the size of the animal. Animal | ||
| shelters have programs to help pay the cost for people who can't afford it. | ||
| Shelters also require that people sign a form agreeing to | ||
| spay or neuter a dog or cat before adopting it. But the new owners don't | ||
| always follow through. | ||
| "Some people are just so damned lazy that we have to spend tax dollars to | ||
| take care of animals they don't want," Lang said. | ||
| It doesn't take much time for one male and one female dog or cat to breed a | ||
| whole barn lot of offspring, Lang said. | ||
| "Dogs can go into heat every six months and litters can sometimes have up | ||
| to 13 puppies," he said. "It doesn't take long to add up." | ||
| Earlier this month, 54 dogs were confiscated from an Owen County | ||
| residence. Since Owen County doesn't have a humane society or animal | ||
| control officer, the dogs were taken to the Clay County Humane Society. | ||
| The dogs were immediately killed by injection, said Steve Cox, manager of | ||
| the Clay County Humane Society. | ||
| "They had to be put down immediately because they were so diseased," he | ||
| said. "It was just like a slaughter." | ||
| The owner of the property had apparently left town, taking six dogs with him. | ||
| Those left behind had not been fed for more than a week. Due to neglect, | ||
| flies had settled in the coats of the canines and maggots were eating the | ||
| dogs alive, Cox said. | ||
| Two dogs had to be shot after they tried to attack officers who went to pick | ||
| them up. The carcasses of an uncounted number of dogs were found in the | ||
| yard, the house and basement. | ||
| A little more than two years ago, Cox said, the owner had two white | ||
| mixed-breed dogs. That's when the problem started. | ||
| "All these dogs came from the same two dogs. They were all inbred," he | ||
| said. "This should open people's eyes about how important it is to spay or | ||
| neuter their pets." | ||
| Of the area counties, all but Martin and Owen have humane societies and | ||
| animal shelters. All of them use lethal injection to kill unwanted animals — | ||
| either done at the shelter by employees or at a veterinarian's office by a vet. | ||
| The bodies are then disposed of in a landfill, burned in an on-site | ||
| crematorium or given to a fertilizer company for fertilizer. | ||
| For most of the shelters, it is often a daily or twice-weekly chore to kill the | ||
| animals that are sick, injured or have not been adopted. | ||
| "There is really no excuse for this," said Eliza White, manager of the White |
