For those that live in the Kansas City area or who do inter-city transfers for rescues, would love your help in writing the city about the conditions at their largest public shelter - Kansas City Animal Control.
They have been slowly adopting new policies that make it nearly impossible to pull animals out of their shelter. At first they disallowed an independent rescuers to take pictures of the animals. She would take pictures and send out pleas to the other rescue workers to pull the animals before they were euthanized. These pictures were also put on Petfinder to generate more interest in the animals there. Note that their Petfinder hit rate in April 2004 was 15,000 views. April 2005 had 43 views. Can't adopt out an animal that can't be seen!
Then there was a series of incidents where animals marked for adoption were "accidentally" euthanized.
Then they quit all inter-rescue transfers and told groups that if they wanted to pull an animal that they would need to pay their full adoption fee. Since they don't speuter and don't provide adequate medical care, the cost to smaller groups was prohibitive and stopped groups from rescuing.
Then they cut the budget and lost their on site vet. A part time vet does a walk thru once a day but if you have even been in there, there is no way that a vet can get thru all the animals in a brief walk thru.
Then to add insult to it all, they announced great plans to the public that they would partner with the other large shelter in the area to help their adoption process. No mention to the public that in doing this, they severed all remaining ties to the hundreds of small groups and independents that were working to place their animals.
This website sums up the issues. http://www.kcacoutofcontrol.com/ The "Join Us" tab lists the e-mail addresses of the mayor and other council members that could influence a more positive direction for this shelter. Last I heard they are running at about 70% euthanasia rate. They don't publicize that fact either.
Please write if you can. The most important points would be to rebuild the collaborative relationship with the other rescue workers across the city, and to hire a permanent full time vet to care for the animals.
I ran into a couple yesterday that adopted one of the dogs that I pulled out of KCAC last year. The dog just had puppies and she and her litter were to be euthanized. Thanks to the inter-rescue policy that existed at that time, she and all her pups are living in good homes. I hate to think of all the dogs and cats like her that no longer have a chance at life.
Thanks to all that help!
They have been slowly adopting new policies that make it nearly impossible to pull animals out of their shelter. At first they disallowed an independent rescuers to take pictures of the animals. She would take pictures and send out pleas to the other rescue workers to pull the animals before they were euthanized. These pictures were also put on Petfinder to generate more interest in the animals there. Note that their Petfinder hit rate in April 2004 was 15,000 views. April 2005 had 43 views. Can't adopt out an animal that can't be seen!
Then there was a series of incidents where animals marked for adoption were "accidentally" euthanized.
Then they quit all inter-rescue transfers and told groups that if they wanted to pull an animal that they would need to pay their full adoption fee. Since they don't speuter and don't provide adequate medical care, the cost to smaller groups was prohibitive and stopped groups from rescuing.
Then they cut the budget and lost their on site vet. A part time vet does a walk thru once a day but if you have even been in there, there is no way that a vet can get thru all the animals in a brief walk thru.
Then to add insult to it all, they announced great plans to the public that they would partner with the other large shelter in the area to help their adoption process. No mention to the public that in doing this, they severed all remaining ties to the hundreds of small groups and independents that were working to place their animals.
This website sums up the issues. http://www.kcacoutofcontrol.com/ The "Join Us" tab lists the e-mail addresses of the mayor and other council members that could influence a more positive direction for this shelter. Last I heard they are running at about 70% euthanasia rate. They don't publicize that fact either.
Please write if you can. The most important points would be to rebuild the collaborative relationship with the other rescue workers across the city, and to hire a permanent full time vet to care for the animals.
I ran into a couple yesterday that adopted one of the dogs that I pulled out of KCAC last year. The dog just had puppies and she and her litter were to be euthanized. Thanks to the inter-rescue policy that existed at that time, she and all her pups are living in good homes. I hate to think of all the dogs and cats like her that no longer have a chance at life.
Thanks to all that help!
