In our area, we are fortunate
to have many great rescues, shelters and humane organizations working to end
the needless death of pets. We each have
our own role and we each do our part. We feel it is much more productive to work
together and put differences aside and help one another do what is right for
the pets rather than publicly rant about what we disagree on. We also believe that
statistical information is important and speaks to one set of truths much more
strongly than anecdotal stories that may show a small percentage of situations
but not the greater whole.
That is why we were
disappointed on May 5th when a long standing board member of the Humane Society of Amherst County posted a Facebook post criticizing a number of
things at LHS. The main focus of the post was about our free and low cost
adoption specials we run. The title of
the post was CATS LIVES MATTER. They
speak about a certain situation around a cat named Daisy who was adopted from
us as a free cat; she is 10 years old. To read the entire facebook post click here.
They write: “Yeah sure
the LHS would have taken her [Daisy] back and adopted her out yet again as a
“free” cat. But how many times should Daisy be free? Is there no value to her life? “
Then later in the post they state,
“Today is $5 adoption day at the shelter, God only
knows how many animals will be snatched up, let alone all “Elderly” animals are
ALWAYS free. Where is the justice for an animal who is 6 or over?
They have no say…”
knows how many animals will be snatched up, let alone all “Elderly” animals are
ALWAYS free. Where is the justice for an animal who is 6 or over?
They have no say…”
So I will first address this
concern in hopes of educating them and the rest of our community
who have
questions and bad feelings around this concept.
We still talk to and screen
the adopters and have declined people during these specials just like we do
when we have no special going on. But we find that these adoption fee reductions
bring a lot of great adopters to us and most people who come to our shelter are
here because they want a new pet to love and they want to help these pets. Our returned adoption rate is between
6-8%. The national average is between
10-15%.
Research has been done on the
national level and the experts find that people who get a free pet don’t care
any less for the pet and it isn't a factor on how long they keep the pet during their lifetime. Follow this link to learn more. http://www.aspcapro.org/resource/saving-lives-adoption-marketing-research-data/research-fee-waived-adoptions
They write: “…the adopter lived in small apartment room and did
not have permission from her landlord to have a cat. It’s that something that
should have been checked prior to adopting her out?”
We do not check with
landlords because we are not the landlord police. We trust people to do the right thing and
check themselves. Out of 2,511 adoptions
last year only 11 people returned their pet due to landlord issues. Most people will do the right thing and we do
check if we feel uncomfortable or are unsure of a situation in order to learn
more about the home.
They write: “…the last adopter tried to return her to LHS after
3 weeks. She was told there would be a $20 surrender fee.”
Adopters can return the pet
within 30 days under our satisfaction guarantee program. We do not charge surrender fees to people
returning or make them wait if it is within a number of months of adopting or
if we have space. We want the pets
returned to us so we can help the person either find a more suitable match or
because we can better place the pet in another home. But the difference is that we don’t require
it. When you sign a contract to give you
ownership of the pet, you are the owner.
That is it. You are the pet’s
guardian and you get to make decisions on the welfare of the pet. We do have recourse if the adopter is not
conforming to animal laws but those cases are very few. The adopted pet’s new owners can find new
homes for them if they do not want to return them. We help owners re-home their
pet on our website and suggest other online websites. We trust people and we are a resource when we
need to be.
One of the other items they questioned was why we were taking in pets from counties outside of our general area when dogs are dying right here. They refer to a dog we took from a shelter in Alleghany County. It was an American Bulldog mix that the volunteers and staff there loved and they were desperate for help. Our intake supervisor wanted to help and accepted the dog, knowing we had space and could accommodate this special request.
As for
the other counties around us last year, we took in 649 cats and dogs from
Amherst, Appomattox, Bedford and Campbell County combined. From Amherst County alone we took in 44 owner
surrenders, 17 strays and we transferred in 1.
Amherst Humane Society is unwilling to transfer pets to us unless the
animal came from us originally and they choose to notify us. Along with other counties around us we choose
to help some of the more impoverished areas of Virginia when we have enough
space to do so. When asked to help we usually do. 
In the
post they state that “When the LHS adoptions don’t
work out, the animals end up in surrounding shelters where the adopters live.
This overwhelms the other shelters.”
I refer back to my chart and
our feelings on owned pets. We took in
649 pets from surrounding counties last year and with only a 6-8% return rate
that far exceeds any direct impact on the shelters. Plus, if the owner lives in Amherst and after
some time need to surrender their pet, they may choose to go to Amherst, the
county in which they are tax payers of their shelter system. And if the private
humane organizations want to take in an owned pet like Daisy into their system,
they can. We all have choices and have
made it very clear time and time again that we will take back an animal that
was adopted from us, they just need to notify us. Last year, we had volunteers drive down to
North Carolina to pick up a dog that an adopter surrendered down there last
year.
They write: “Where is the justice for an animal who is 6 or
over? They have no say…”
Our save rate is 91% compared to Amherst’s 31%. I think the numbers speak for themselves.
They write:” Did you know that HSAC has a 96% dog adoption save
rate? That is the same as LHS yet we don’t constantly shove our face in the
public tooting our horn about how much we do for our community.”
They are correct; our dog
save rate for 2015 was 96% and right now it is 98%. But I want to note that we don’t just look at
dog save rate we look at all of the pets we take in: the comprehensive save
rate. Our combined dog/cat save rate for 2016 is currently 96% compared to
Amherst’s 57% in 2015.
They are correct that we do
publicize our success, not because it is OUR success but because it is the
community’s success. We celebrate our good work because we don’t do it
alone. Our community members are the
ones doing the heavy lifting. We feel everyone should know how much they are
helping the over 3,000 pets we assisted last year. We love people and we love the help provided
by our adopters, volunteers, donors, and leaders in our community. We need people to fix the problem we face and
we will always stand up and scream it from the roof tops; Thank you Lynchburg
for helping us help the needy pets! 96%
SAVE RATE!
No one organization cares
more. No one organization can fix the
problem of pet over-population. We are
all needed and we all do things in our own way which makes us unique. We just wish the dramatizing of false
information in an effort to discredit us would stop. If they or anyone else would like to have a
respectful conversation, please contact us.
We will happily share why we do certain things and if you don’t agree
with our philosophy, we are ok with that. When humane organizations fight with
each other it just takes away from our life saving efforts and sets a negative
tone in the public which distracts from the great work we are all doing. Let's put the past in the past and begin to work together to save lives.
"Our (cat) save rate is 91% compared to Amherst’s 31%." I think you could have just stopped there. :-)
ReplyDeleteWe had someone surrender two Maltese puppies to our shelter. They bought them from a pet store for $800 each. They realized that two puppies were just too much for their home, so they surrendered the puppies, their brand new carriers, all toys, etc. to the shelter.
ReplyDeletePaying a lot of money for a pet does NOT guarantee a great home for that pet. Conversely, paying little to nothing for a pet does not guarantee a poor situation for that pet.
Cat lives do matter - which is why you do whatever you have to to get them out of the shelter alive and into homes!
Wow, Sounds like people at HSAC are feeling really defensive about all the cats they needlessly kill but instead of doing something constructive about it (i.e., implement more cat-saving programs and treat cats as if their lives really matter), they have decided to do something destructive and tear down an organization that has proven success saving cats. Note to HSAC: trashing another organization in an attempt to make yourselves look better actually makes you look really bad.
ReplyDeleteMe and my mom are very proud volunteers of LHS and we have made great progress from the time we first started. I am excited about what the future holds for us. I would not be a volunteer or even donate if I did not believe in LHS. I am very proud of this organization but I am disappointed with the people who have chosen to attack LHS. Get your information correct before making accusations or statements and that means going to a member of LHS. I have always felt very comfortable going to Makena when I had a question. The save rates speak for themselves
ReplyDeleteI love my LHS kitty. Alas, I don't remember if I paid $5, $10 or got him free. I also love my current dog - also adopted from LHS, and the two previous dogs who were proud pound puppies. Chin up, some people are just negative.
ReplyDelete