Animal no-kill not possible in Mount Pleasant shelter

The Isabella County Animal Control Department has no plans for changing its policy on animal euthanasia, despite promising results from a no-kill county in northern Michigan.
The Otsego County Animal Shelter adopted a no-kill policy last year, and after a full year of tabulation, a 90 percent adoption rate was recorded.
Officer Keith Huff, director of the Animal Control Program of Otsego County, said all adoptable, companionship animals were saved last year.
Huff said the animal adoption rate of the shelter is actually higher than 90 percent.
The total number of animals handled at the shelter in 1999 was 1,059. The total number of animal deaths, which includes deaths of ill and elderly animals, was 45, Huff said.
"I saved 941 animals last year," he said.
Patty Lentz, Isabella County Animal Control director, said from January 1998 to January 1999 the Isabella County Animal Control Shelter handled 2,402 animals. Of these animals, 468 were adopted, 157 were returned to their owners, 114 were determined dead on arrival and 1,624 animals - over 67 percent of all of the animals handled - were destroyed.
Lentz said Isabella County is not looking to adopt any new policies.
Instead, it will be building a new animal shelter that will enlarge its capacity for holding adoptable animals longer.
"The new shelter will be about double the size, which we need desperately," Lentz said.
Lentz said construction of the new Isabella County Animal Control Department, 1105 S. Isabella Road, will commence on the same lot as the current facility in the spring as soon as the frost is gone.
The current shelter can hold approximately 29 dogs and 30 cats, but on Thursdays, which are euthanasia days, the shelter is usually filled to capacity.
"Thursday is the day we choose who can stay and who can go," Lentz said.
There is no set amount of time that animals can stay in the shelter, Lentz said, but every Thursday, older, sicker or weaker dogs are chosen for termination.
"No one wants to have to put them down. We'll give them every chance we can give them, but after a while they have to go," Lentz said.
Lentz said a no-kill policy has never been discussed in Isabella County.
"As far as a no-kill policy, that's not something I would want to get into. There would be too many problems," Lentz said.
She said she could not comment further on the issue, nor could anyone at the shelter.
Huff said two main initiatives must be implemented in a county to adopt a no-kill policy. First, corrective sterilization must be put into action for all animals that enter the shelter and the cooperation of veterinarians who will offer reduced sterilization prices is needed.
The second necessary initiative is to create an active organization for community involvement and fund-raising efforts to make the no-kill policy viable.
Huff said Otsego County spent $21,000 last year on sterilization. In Otsego County, Friends For Life is a volunteer group that raises funds for more sterilization and offers volunteer services to the animal shelter.
"It's a united effort," Huff said.
"This really is a new adventure that I've survived with trial and error," Huff said.
One main problem, Huff said, about the no-kill policy is people's assumptions that no animals are killed in the county. This causes people to bring their unwanted animals to Otsego County and abandon them.
"My county has become a dumping ground for no-kill animals. We've really been burdened," Huff said.
Huff said that after his no-kill policy was implemented, he received at least 50 calls from citizens asking if they would house their elderly dogs. Huff stressed his shelter is not a convalescent home and that they do put down animals who are vicious, have major medical problems or are too elderly to be adopted by another family.
"We only concentrate on adoptable companionship animals. My shelter is not up to speed for that particular problem. My facility is small here," Huff said.
Some animals have spent 120 to 130 days in the shelter, Huff said. Thirteen million to 15 million animals are born unwanted in the United States every year, Huff said, and the government has not taken any initiative to stop it.
There are numerous grants for everything under the sun, Huff said, but there are no grants to protect unwanted animals. Huff said if he's given $100,000 by a county he can implement a no-kill policy with no problem.
"Shame on this nation for not taking huge steps to reduce this animal population. We have not addressed this problem politically or socially," Huff said.
"These animals have feelings, they have life, they have so much to give," he said.