Pet Talk: Portland-area shelters each play role in reducing ...

When a coalition of six local animal shelters joined forces in 2006, they had a variety of goals, but reducing euthanasia among healthy animals was at the top of the list.

By their measure, the Animal Shelter Alliance of Portland (which also includes local animal-welfare and veterinary organizations) is succeeding. The ASAP coalition recently announced it has slashed euthanasia rates by 65 percent between 2006 and 2012.

?We're working together and helping each other, and that allows the success rates of the open-admission shelters to improve markedly each year,? says Britta Bavaresco, a co-founder of the coalition.

Because none of the shelters in the coalition has euthanized a healthy cat or dog for more than two years, ASAP meets the criteria for a $1 million award from Maddie?s Fund, a California-based nonprofit dedicated to stopping euthanasia nationwide.

One contributing factor is an alert system that tracks capacity throughout the shelters.

When the county shelters run out of room, limited-admission shelters such as Oregon Humane Society and Cat Adoption Team can stop taking animals from the public in order to take on the overflow.

Aside from space, OHS helps in a variety of ways: it provides specialized medical care, as well as training and mentoring to staff at other shelters, says executive director Sharon Harmon. The organization also hosts and provides funds for ASAP?s Spay and Save program, purchases items like cat carriers and microchip scanners, and shares resources whenever possible.

That assistance is invaluable, especially during the busiest period between April and October, when open-admission shelters are taking in more animals than they can adopt out, says Deborah Wood, animal services manager for Washington County.

?When we get to an emergency, if we didn?t have help, we?d have to euthanize a healthy animal,? she says. ?We say, ?We need help.??

Washington County's Bonnie L. Hays Small Animal Shelter transferred 622 animals to ASAP shelters last year, and 221 animals to other groups, such as Indigo Rescue.

Likewise, Multnomah County Animal Services also transfers animals to shelters or ?to a network of about 150 rescue groups.

One of those groups is the Pixie Project, a small nonprofit animal rescue based in Northeast Portland. The rescue has taken on adoptable animals from over-crowded county shelters since 2007.

Recently, executive director Amy Sacks has noticed a dramatic decrease in the number of adoptable animals the shelters ask her to take. As a result, groups like the Pixie Project are taking on more animals from outside of Oregon.

Aside from transferring animals, the Multnomah County shelter has focused efforts on decreasing its cat intake while engaging the community to help, says MCAS director Mike Oswald.

During kitten season, the shelter offers resources to people who find kitten litters, such as food and a ?kitten kit? full of supplies, in exchange for fostering them until they?re old enough to be adopted. The shelter will also provide any necessary medical care from its veterinary staff.

The shelter?s Apartment Cat Team has also been stepping up its trap-neuter-return efforts at area apartment complexes and mobile home parks. The group has been spaying and neutering about 50 cats a month since November.

Last weekend, the shelter offered a free community workshop addressing how to care for and tame feral kittens. Feral felines that are socialized young enough can become adoptable pets and are much less likely to be euthanized at a shelter.

The shelter?s Neighborhood Cat Adoption Partners program now allows Portland-area residents to adopt a cat from MCAS at five retail outlets within the city, from Sellwood to North Portland.

And in April, the shelter will revamp its online lost and found system to make it easier for people to look for and post information about lost and found animals.

?Our philosophy is really about how to raise awareness, engage cat lovers in the community and give them the tools to help out,? Oswald says. ?All of those things combined are paying off.?

In 2006, the shelter took in 5,146 cats; last year, it took in 3,292, Oswald says.

Meanwhile, live-release rates have gone up: the rate for dogs last year was 90 percent, compared to about 71 percent in 2006. The live-release rate for cats last year was about 62 percent, compared to about 38 percent in 2006.

Yet the co-founders of a local nonprofit believe the shelter can do even better.

Gimme Shelter Portland, founded by Barbara Spears and Jon Gramstad, is devoted to ensuring live outcomes for at least 90 percent of MCAS dogs and cats.

Spears commended the shelter for its high live-release rates for dogs last year. She and Gramstad have come up with a solution that they say would achieve a similar rate for cats.

They propose an off-site adoption facility just for cats located in inner Southeast Portland that would be written into the shelter?s FY 2014 budget.

?I think it is the one immediate thing that could make the most difference in our save rate,? Spears says.

She and Gramstad say it would help the shelter gain visibility, promote adoptions and serve as the first step in building a new downtown shelter.

They believe that MCAS could achieve a 90 percent save rate this year by following a formula used in other communities, such as Washoe County, Nev.

As for ASAP?s goals this year, it hopes to continue saving all healthy animals, as well as all those considered treatable and rehabilitatable.

?If you are a homeless animal,? Wood says, ?you really want to live in our community.?

How you can help:

• Adopt an animal from a shelter.
• Consider adopting ?the perfect imperfect pet? ? perhaps a special-needs animal requiring a special diet or an older cat.
• Volunteer at your local animal shelter. You can help socialize animals, write adoptable pet descriptions?or provide foster care for an animal.
• Donate to your local shelter.
• License your pet. It will increase the chances that you?ll be reunited with your pet if it gets lost, and county shelters rely on license fees to provide necessary services.

Resources:

Cat Adoption Team: catadoptionteam.org; 503-925-8903

Clackamas County Dog Services: clackamas.us/dogs; 503-655-8628

Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon: feralcats.com; 503-797-2606

Humane Society for Southwest Washington: southwesthumane.org; 360-693-4746

Multnomah County Animal Services: multcopets.org; 503-988-7387

Oregon Humane Society: oregonhumane.org; 503-285-7722

Washington County Animal Services: washingtoncountypets.com; 503-846-7041

Gimme Shelter Portland: gimmeshelterportland.org

The Pixie Project:?pixieproject.org; 503-542-3433

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/pets/index.ssf/2013/03/pet_talk_portland-area_shelter.html

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