What Do Animal Shelters Say about Quality of Life Your Community?

While researching our book about animal rescue, RESCUED: Saving Animals from Disaster, we gave a lot of thought to animal shelters. In the past we have volunteered at local shelters and had mixed emotions about what went on in them.

Now, after discovering so many possibilities for what primo shelters can do for a community, we are still wondering what is best for the animals. On what programs and facilities are charitable donation dollars best spent?

In a world that hopefully is moving toward more enlightenment and viewing animals as spiritual beings, how do our animal shelters reflect changing attitudes and deeper understandings?

If you took an informal survey around your place of work, you would find that most people have never been to an animal shelter. They know shelters exist and that if a person wanted to adopt a mutt, an animal shelter would be a good place to start looking for one.

But there's all those sad eyes peering out of cages, pleading for a stroke of kindness, hoping to be liberated. And how do people feel coming into a place, not finding a pet they want to take home, and leaving? Do they feel guilty, thinking that the ones they didn't choose might die? It's just too off-putting.

Fifty years ago, dogcatchers ruled the animals in cities, striking terror in the hearts of pet guardians and animals who roamed much more freely than they do today. If a dogcatcher saw an animal on the streets, he would swoop up the hapless creature, throw him into the caged rear of a truck that looked like a paddy wagon, and take him off to the pound.

If the animal's guardian didn't realize that Fido or Felix hadn't come home that night, he would call the pound to inquire. If no one claimed an animal within twenty-four hours, the animal would be gassed. It was called "catch and kill."

In the bad old days, in the '70s and '80s, Jan Herzog and her friend, both animal lovers in their early 20s, decided to start a humane society in their small rural Texas town. They got a contract with the city to do animal control.

Jan told us, "It's a stressful thing to take a case to court. You testify and have your word questioned. The other side tries to make like you don't have the facts and aren't telling the truth. If you lose, an animal's life is at stake.

"We got a report of a farmer who was letting his cattle starve. The farm was twenty miles from town. My friend and I drove out there to check on the situation. I had my baby daughter with me.

"The owner of the cattle and his friend saw us and figured out what we were probably doing," Jan recalls. "They got in their vehicles. One was in an 18-wheeler truck and the other was in a semi-truck. They ran us off the road. I thought they would smash and kill us. We were terrified. They intended to intimidate us because we went out to look at their skinny cows.

"For my own emotional and mental health, I had to get out of the shelter business. I even left that town and with my husband, moved away to start a new life doing something else."

Thanks to sworn police officers, known as "the animal cops," city and small town shelter personnel have fewer of those kinds of experiences today. The bad old days are not behind us, but they are getting better, even in the less affluent areas.

Niki Dawson is the shelter manager for the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City in an inner city area. She has a program in her shelter called "Pet it, don't sweat it" that does free neutering for dogs and low-cost spay/neuter for cats.

The shelter works with human food banks and social service agencies to get pet supplies to people who need them and to counsel those who have problems with their pets. Niki says, "We don't only help animals. We help people with animals."

In addition to all Niki does locally, she spent over two weeks volunteering in New Orleans and bringing back Katrina dogs for fostering and adoption. She also did Internet work to help with reunions. Hers is a shelter that operates on a limited budget and does the best it can to serve the community while striving to change citizens' attitudes toward animals as being disposable.

The animal shelters of the future and the more progressive (and well-funded) ones today enhance quality of life of in their communities as well as rescue and re-home animals. They are educational hubs offering classes that teach people about animal behavior, show children compassionate animal care, and help bereaved owners through pet loss.

Thriving animal shelters provide positive exposure to animals. Their trained volunteers take animals to hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and schools. Their staff and selected volunteers are extensively trained to assist in evacuating animals safely after disasters.

These shelters work together with animal control to offer cruelty investigation services and intake. They use innovative programs to reduce animal overpopulation for domestic and feral animals.

What are the shelters in your town doing to improve quality of life for animals and people?