90% of these animals, thanks to Austin's status as the largest "no kill" city in the United States, will eventually find homes. Unfortunately, the designation of "no kill" still allows for up to a 10% euthanization rate. In an act of desperation to rehome these animals and free up space in the shelter, the center has waived adoption fees to make them available to more people under the guise of Black Fur Day (a day only available on Black Friday). However, an adoption specialist admitted to me that they had been giving away thee animals for weeks to compensate for the overcrowding. I entered the shelter unaware of the overcrowding or the waived fee... simply to open my heard to another dog.
My instinctual suggestion to humanely resolve the problem of animal homelessness plaguing Austin was for the city to enact Spay/Neuter laws. The feral cat population alone is nearly unmanageable due to "cat mathematics," which is the horrifyingly real possibility of one intact female cat multiplying into 370,000 cats over the course of 7 years!
This potential exists because female cats go into heat every 3 months after the age of 6 months. The Austin Humane Society battles this potential for a feral cat explosion with its free Trap-Neuter-Return program. A mandatory spay/neuter law for pets seems like the obvious solution in order to eliminate the possibility of intact cats mixing, breeding with, and contributing to the feral cat population, but the statistics for cities with spay/neuter laws show an overwhelmingly reverse effect. Overcrowding, homelessness, and euthanization actually appear to increase in such cities. This effect is likely due to harsh fines for the failure to spay or neuter a pet causing poorer families to give up their pets.
So what is the solution? Calgary, Canada is the closest to an existing Utopian model for no kill cities. It has no mandatory spay/neuter laws, no specific breed legislation, no pet limit laws, no anti-tethering laws, emphasis on responsible pet ownership through education and public relations campaigns, and law license fees with a modestly higher licensing rate, meaning lost pets do not clog the shelter and instead are directly returned home by Animal Control.
Austin certainly is on its way to becoming a Calgary, but it needs a more organized and aggressive effort among the city's shelters to make the animal overpopulation problem understood by the public. Emphasis should be placed on currently available low-cost services (i.e. microchipping and neutering). The last great frontier for Austin in regard to addressing animal homelessness is completely ending breed discrimination. Pit bull breeds -- the bulk of the shelter population -- are alienated from the adoption process because of so many rental homes following archaic breed restrictions. When I discovered Sweet Pea, labelled as a lab mix, I was forced to overlook every potential pet labelled as a pit bull mix. As a progressive city and one of the most dog friendly in the nation, it is vital to focus on lowering the 10% euthanization rate of shelter pets to 0%. This can be achieved through more aggressive public education and, perhaps counter intuitively, leniency with spaying/neutering and breed restrictions.
My Resources:
Does the Future of Austin's 'No Kill' Animal Policy Lie in Creating a 'No Birth Policy?
Austin Animal Center waives adoption fees as continued pet influx increases overcrowding
Free Cat Spay/Neuter Program to End For Those Outside Travis County
The Best Animal Control Program in North America
My Mutts:
From the beginning the author of Gerrymandering Blues cleverly and effectively used a personal story to grab her readers in Pet Overpopulation Still a Problem in Austin. After all who can rest the story of cute little doggies, especially during the holidays? Once intrigued to continue reading she gets down to business and lets her readers know just how much of an issue overcrowding really is at the shelters. 700 lost pets since November 1st? Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteI like that she gave a solution that would seem the most logical but then provided the actual outcome for cities who have enacted mandatory spaying/neuter laws. I must admit she did lose me a little when she started talking about cats. Yuck! Kidding. The introduction of "cat mathematics” was a simple yet successful way of painting the picture of cats running all over the city “370,000 cats over the course of 7 years!” This made for an easy transition for her proposal to nearing a “utopian model for no kill cities”. Overall the author did an excellent job at bringing up an issue many people might not think about. And she closed it off with a feel good picture of her doggies and links to her sources.