The Lucas County Dog Pound as well as other animal shelters across the state and Ohio are faced with the problem of not enough space, it’s the main reason why dogs are killed. So it was a bit surprising to read the comments in the Blade from the two candidates for Lucas County Commissioner LINK:
In an interview with The Blade, Democratic County Commissioner candidate Carol Contrada said, “if you are euthanizing based on capacity, then I think it’s incumbent on the commissioners to find a way to expand capacity within your budget.”
Ms. Contrada said she’d like to have advisory committee Chairman Steve Serchuk and Ms. Lyle testify on whether the advisory committee should be kept in existence.
“If the dog warden doesn’t recommend it and the committee doesn’t recommend it then I see no reason to keep it there unless there is another reason I don’t know about,” Ms. Contrada said.
Republican candidate George Sarantou said it would be an appropriate issue to have the advisory committee study.
“I was not aware that there’s a limit on how many dogs they can handle. Let’s see what other counties are doing,” Mr. Sarantou said. “I don’t think we should abolish this committee. These are experts that have been volunteering. We ought to seek their input.”
Almost every humane organization in the nation has a similar statement such as this one easily found within seconds on Google:
While estimates vary slightly, no matter how you look at it, pet overpopulation is nothing short of a crisis situation. Every year, between six to eight million dogs and cats enter U.S. animal shelters; devastating estimates of between four to five million of these animals are euthanized because there are simply not enough homes. The animals killed in our shelters each day include kittens and puppies that never had a chance, adults, seniors, purebreds, owner drop-offs and strays alike. Many shelters are so full that any animal that is an owner surrender is immediately “put to sleep”. The number of animals killed each year in shelters does not include animals that die on our streets and in our neighborhoods due to abandonment, injury, starvation, or neglect. Spaying and neutering is a simple and proven humane solution to reducing pet populations.
Increase the number of kennels/cages or increase the number of adoptions. The only other option is to continue to shuttle animals to other animal organizations where the ones that don’t have a no kill policy will kill some of them, or the ones with no kill policies will eventually have to refuse new ones.
