Wednesday, May 12, 2004

County animal shelter urges pet owners to be more considerate By MICHAEL BOYLAN mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com After a letter in a recent Free Speech column about the Coweta County Animal Shelter and its euthanasia policy, many wondered what is the policy of the Fayette County Animal Shelter. Director Bill Newman said that animals don’t get euthanized at the shelter if they are healthy and there is space available, but added that the longer an animal stays in a shelter, the more the chance of getting sick increases. “If the Georgia Department of Agriculture comes to the shelter and finds a sick animal on the premises, they can shut us down,” said Newman, who added that most animals will come down with kennel cough or parvo, which is extremely contagious, if they stay over two weeks. Unfortunately, the shelter sometimes has to destroy healthy animals because there is not enough space, but they cut down on the numbers of animals they impound or euthanize by working with rescue leagues and the Humane Society and not taking in owned pets. In a 2002 issue of Metro Pets magazine, Fayette County had the second lowest number of animals euthanized in metro Atlanta, 711 to Newton County’s 600. Coweta County was the fourth lowest with 2,117. The Fayette County Animal Shelter euthanizes animals by injection. Newman said that lots of shelters do take in owned pets, meaning pets from families that no longer want them, and that is part of their space problem. “There is no overnight solution to this,” said Newman, who said that they stopped doing this close to seven years ago and advertised this change in policy in local papers for several months. People who wanted to get rid of their pets would have to find another solution and if their pets were just abandoned, Newman and the Animal Shelter would go after the irresponsible pet owners. This policy seems to be working. The shelter used to have puppy pens and Newman said they hardly ever see puppies now. He has also seen a decline in cats and expects to see a decline in kittens this year as well. Newman traces most of the problems with shelter overcrowding to irresponsible pet owners, people who choose a pet without consideration of the cost and how much care and attention a pet needs. “If there were more responsible people, these animals wouldn’t be there to start with,” added Newman. “People should stop and think before they get an animal. Do they have the finances, the facility and the time to take care of a pet? Today, everyone is in a hurry and they don’t have time for an animal.” “People get mad when we pick up one of their animals running loose, but we may have saved them a civil suit,” said Newman. He gets mad when people tell him that he and his staff must get used to euthanizing animals. “You don’t ever get used to it. If it doesn’t bother you, then its time to find another job.” Newman, who has spent 41 years working with animals all over the state, including over 20 years at the Fayette County Animal Shelter, is set to retire at the end of June. The shelter is open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and the staff rotates one week a month where they are on call for 24 hours. These long hours and the danger and stress of their job is why they shelter is not open on Saturdays. “We tried it for awhile, but we didn’t do anything on Saturdays and there were not enough volunteers to help out,” said Newman. Newman is an animal lover, which is clear by the way he treats all of the animals at the shelter, including his dog and the shelter mascot, B.J., as well as his cat and horse. He said that there are a lot worse things than death for animals. “I’d rather see an animal put to sleep humanely then have them tied to a tree and abused.” Fayette recently observed “Be Kind to Animals Week,” established by the American Humane Society to foster kindness and humane care towards animals. Newman pleads for everyone to treat their animals responsibly throughout the year and for prospective pet owners to seriously consider what it takes to properly care for an animal.