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furry Friday
2008-Nov-08, Saturday 10:28 amOkay, I'll have to do these posts on weekends when I don't have plans for immediately after work on Friday, otherwise it gets bumped back to Saturday morning. Also, there's both good news and bad news for this post, unfortunately.
I'll start with the good news. Last week, our organization adopted out 327 animals. That's a lot of activity for only 7 days. It's a bit less than the previous few weeks, but it's still a whole lot of animals that found new homes. I don't deal with the animals directly, but I do work on the technology infrastructure that they need to record medical information and track boarding or training appointments. I'm glad to help out where I can.
It seems to me (I don't know an official position on these matters) that two factors conspired to make this year an unusually busy one for animals being brought to our doors. First, the long warm weather this year kept the cat breeding season producing new kittens for longer than usual. Second, the housing foreclosure problem is affecting pets as well as humans. We have started recording specifically if foreclosure is the reason that animals are being surrendered to us.
Here is the bad news. We've been swamped by both cats and kittens. The animals adopted out last week included 72 cats and 162 kittens. Yet, according to news released this week, we have over 1,000 felines waiting to find homes. That number includes 371 cats on adoption floors, 459 in holding areas, and 190 in foster care in private homes throughout the metro area. This news is very bad. My organization does euthanize animals, so these backlog numbers do worry me a lot. No animals here have to be adopted within a certain timeframe. As long as we have room, we continue to feed and care for animals until they find a home. We are running out of room, though, and that limitation can only mean that some animals are being euthanized that are otherwise adoptable. I dislike it, and I expect that most other people would too.
We are an open admission facility, which means that we never turn people away who want to surrender their animals. I approve of that philosophy, but it means that we need community help in making sure these animals find homes as fast as they are brought to our doors. If you know someone considering a pet, please suggest that they visit their local humane society shelters. If a previous or current pet owner doesn't want the long-term responsibility, have them consider a Foster program with their local facilities.
No pictures for today, sorry. Some really pretty guinea pigs made it to the adoption floor on Friday. They arrived with us because their owner lost a home to foreclosure. Their photographs have not been uploaded to the website yet, so I'll just have to encourage you to go visit them in person at the Golden Valley site. :)
I'll start with the good news. Last week, our organization adopted out 327 animals. That's a lot of activity for only 7 days. It's a bit less than the previous few weeks, but it's still a whole lot of animals that found new homes. I don't deal with the animals directly, but I do work on the technology infrastructure that they need to record medical information and track boarding or training appointments. I'm glad to help out where I can.
It seems to me (I don't know an official position on these matters) that two factors conspired to make this year an unusually busy one for animals being brought to our doors. First, the long warm weather this year kept the cat breeding season producing new kittens for longer than usual. Second, the housing foreclosure problem is affecting pets as well as humans. We have started recording specifically if foreclosure is the reason that animals are being surrendered to us.
Here is the bad news. We've been swamped by both cats and kittens. The animals adopted out last week included 72 cats and 162 kittens. Yet, according to news released this week, we have over 1,000 felines waiting to find homes. That number includes 371 cats on adoption floors, 459 in holding areas, and 190 in foster care in private homes throughout the metro area. This news is very bad. My organization does euthanize animals, so these backlog numbers do worry me a lot. No animals here have to be adopted within a certain timeframe. As long as we have room, we continue to feed and care for animals until they find a home. We are running out of room, though, and that limitation can only mean that some animals are being euthanized that are otherwise adoptable. I dislike it, and I expect that most other people would too.
We are an open admission facility, which means that we never turn people away who want to surrender their animals. I approve of that philosophy, but it means that we need community help in making sure these animals find homes as fast as they are brought to our doors. If you know someone considering a pet, please suggest that they visit their local humane society shelters. If a previous or current pet owner doesn't want the long-term responsibility, have them consider a Foster program with their local facilities.
No pictures for today, sorry. Some really pretty guinea pigs made it to the adoption floor on Friday. They arrived with us because their owner lost a home to foreclosure. Their photographs have not been uploaded to the website yet, so I'll just have to encourage you to go visit them in person at the Golden Valley site. :)