Hope at Sonoma County’s pound

According to a report by Press Democrat reporter Bleys W. Rose, the number of animals killed at the Sonoma County Animal Shelter dropped in the last quarter of 2009. The figure reported to the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors Tuesday indicated instead of 43-percent of the animals at the shelter being euthanized, the average for 2008-2009, just 28-percent were put to death. While it’s encouraging and we wish to applaud Amy Cooper’s efforts to turn around a maligned and previously poorly managed county agency, there is still a long way to go for this county.

Cooper wisely pointed out that reducing the number of animals being euthanized will always be a challenge. The county shelter is a place of last resort for most animals. It’s no secret that other shelters and rescues “cherry pick” the best animals from county shelters. One rescue operator in eastern Sonoma County person last fall flatly admitted they will not take certain dogs, like pit bulls, because of the difficulty in finding them homes. One dog sitting in a humane society or rescue really skews their “rescue” numbers and hurts donations.

The Sonoma County “pound” does not have the luxury of turning away animals. They take in the sick, injured, behaviorially challenged and iffy animals of all kinds. So it’s a credit to Cooper and her staff that they have taken the time to go through these creatures, great and small, and managed to cut the number euthanized. Having been on the inside of making decisions on which animals live and die, rest assured, it is not a decision taken lightly by anyone involved.

But the “pounds” cannot do it all, which is why in order to get the numbers down even more, and that is still possible, Sonoma County’s other shelters and rescues need to step it up and take in more of the not so pretty creatures.

Kiska Icard, the recently appointed director of the Sonoma Humane Society was quoted recently as saying this county cannot “adopt its way” out of pet overpopulation. Icard and Cooper and other shelter and rescue operators need to be more aggressive on spay/neutering. The Feline and Pit fix events are terrific steps in the right direction. Better cooperation between the shelters and rescues is another.

But the ultimate step in the right direction is right in front of this computer screen. You, the pet owning public. Animals are in these shelters because someone let them down. Not letting them down again should be the job of every Sonoma County resident, not just the ones tasked with making the tough, end of life decisions.

Adopt, don’t buy, while shelter pets die.