Skip to main content

Time to Change Old Habits




We are so proud of all the wonderful support this community has given the pets in the area.  Because of many factors, including the resource of the new Pittsylvania Pet Center, we have seen 714 fewer pets lose their lives to euthanasia in Danville and Pittsylvania in 2017 compared to 2016. That is something to celebrate! The Pet Center not only saves lives, but it also helps place a higher value on the pets who reside in the region. We provide help to pets and to the people who love them.  

Since July 1st2017, 639 stray and 515 owned dogs and cats have come into the Pittsylvania Pet Center. Of those, 892 went into homes through adoption, original owners reclaiming their pets, or by transferring them to another organization for placement. The PPC only had to euthanize 14 pets since the beginning of July, giving them a 98% save rate at this time.  

These are just numbers; I want to tell you about a dog who was recently surrendered by his owner at the age of 7. He is blind in one eye, has a tumor on his anus, and has suffered with yeast infections of the skin for most of his life. The owner felt like he couldn’t continue to deal with his medical issues, and decided to trust the Pet Center to help his beloved pet. Thankfully, we are a shelter that believes in treating pets, and we will provide medical care to fix his issues, as well as any others we find while in our care. This dog has a lot of love to give, and we are hoping to find him a great home where he can receive the attention he needs. 

We have seen recent news reports suggesting that pets are still going to the Danville Area Humane Society by residents of Pittsylvania. If this is true, we are pleading you to stop. We understand habits are hard to break. The community is used to taking pets to DAHS, but it is time to break that habit. We are urging the community to bring Pittsylvania pets to the Pittsylvania Pet Center where they will be safe. We believe that most citizens ARE bringing their pets to PPC simply based on the number of pets that have come into the center. Just looking at January so far this year, we have taken in 101 more pets than we did last January. We are hoping it is because people see that we are a safe place for pets, where they will be taken care of and find a positive outcome.   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

IS LHS UNDER ATTACK?

In 2013 the Lynchburg Humane Society (LHS) ended the year with a 92% save rate for the animals in our care, the highest year end figure since we began down the path to No Kill.   We were able to reduce the number of cats we took in by 294, compared to 2012, due primarily, we believe, to our spay/neuter efforts.   YOU made this possible.    We believe the Lynchburg Humane Society is about to be embroiled in a controversial attack by another humane organization because of all the great work we are doing.   We want our community and our supporters to know why and to be informed about this controversy because without you we could not do what we are doing.   You all are partners in our efforts.     This is long so please hang in there and read it in its entirety because there is important information throughout that you probably don’t know.    In April PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) sent us a letter asking us to change some of our life saving programs i
49 comments
Read more

They know what they know so don’t give them the facts.

I had the pleasure of having an interesting conversation with a member of another humane organization this past weekend. They are an SPCA that takes in animals for a number of localities and operates as the pound for their area. She asked how we were doing in Lynchburg and I, of course, was excited to tell her about our recent success about our save rate being 84% and having no healthy animal lose their life in our shelter in 2010 and how much the community has embraced the changes as we move toward becoming No Kill. She immediately went to defense mode and asked me loaded questions to prove I was wrong and of course explain to me how our programs wouldn’t work for them. The appointment system, wouldn’t work – pet owners aren’t responsible enough to do the right thing. People must be just “dumping” their animals in other localities.” Fact : The counties that reported their stats for 2010 in the Lynchburg area saw a reduction in the number of animals they took in and more
15 comments
Read more

Rumors can be funny sometimes

Rumors really crack us up or make us super frustrated. This Tuesday morning we got a phone call that made us all laugh out loud.  One of our partnering vet clinics in Chatham has had a few of their clients share that they heard the State Police was at the Pet Center assisting David Smitherman with removing animals on Monday, July 30th. A few clients suggested it happened last Thursday.     We had one dog leave the Pet Center on Thursday through adoption. Monday we did transfer 11 dogs and 14 cats to the Lynchburg Center, which we featured on facebook Tuesday afternoon.  We also transferred to the Lynchburg’s Center 7 cats and 6 dogs from the Appomattox shelter.  This year the Lynchburg location has seen 375 pets transferred internally from the other two facilities.  Why?  Why not?  This past weekend Lynchburg adopted out 71 pets.  Pittsylvania only adopted out 12 from Friday - Sunday.  Pets are not getting adopted as quickly in the other counties so when we have space and w
2 comments
Read more