Earlier this year, information regarding the number of animals being euthanized at the Sedalia Animal Shelter was circulating on social media. A citizen requested information from the City of Sedalia regarding how many animals were put down from July 1, 2015, (the day the Sedalia Police Department took over operations) to Dec. 31, 2015.
However, no other information was requested as to why each animal was euthanized, so the Democrat sat down with Shelter Manager Andrea Martin and SPD Chief John DeGonia to learn more about the shelter’s policies.
When viewing those numbers on social media, one should consider the number of intakes the shelter has each year. Since Jan. 1, 2016 the Sedalia Animal Shelter has taken in 1,396 animals. That turned into 475 adoptions — 330 dogs and 145 cats — 231 returned lost pets and 38 sent to a rescue organization. Many animals are still at the shelter awaiting adoption.
When any animal is brought in, either by Animal Control or a citizen, they are placed on hold for five business days so an owner has a chance to claim their lost pet. If the animal remains at the shelter after five days, it receives a veterinarian exam before being eligible for adoption.
“I have one right now we’re treating for an ear infection. If we know there’s an issue we send meds home, we typically schedule a follow-up with the vet. We really want to set the both adopter and the pet up for success,” Martin said.
Once an animal is ready for adoption, it remains in the shelter until it finds a new home, or is transferred to a rescue organization, such as Second Chance in Columbia, which helps place older dogs, or Puppies for Parole. Martin said they do not euthanize animals because they have been in the shelter for a certain number of days — they stay at the shelter as long as is needed.
“Really we place them pretty quickly, our turnaround is pretty quick,” Martin said. “We try very hard to place them with a rescue if we have one that gets stagnant.”
Many Sedalians have recently voiced concern about the shelter euthanizing animals. Martin assured citizens a lot goes into each decision to put an animal down.
“First and foremost, the vet exam weighs a lot. If they’re not healthy, then we make the choice to put that animal to sleep,” Martin explained. “Now there are different cases — if it’s an ear infection, we’re going to treat that ear infection. But if it’s an ear infection on a 14-year-old dog that also has a tumor on its neck or something, you have to weigh how much money can I really afford to put into this dog and how adoptable is this dog. You have to use educational decisions when making those choices.
“… We spend a lot of time with the animals so how social they are weighs very much into that as well because I take it very seriously. I want an animal that goes out into our city to be social. … And then of course overall adoptability does come into play.”
Martin added that while it’s not a cat’s fault, the city’s issue with stray cats due to cats not being spayed or neutered can sometimes also be a factor.
“There are more cats than there are homes for them,” Martin said. “There are days especially in kitten season when we may take in 20 cats in a day and on a very good month we may place 20 cats. You have to look at what’s going to be placed and what’s not.”
The new Sedalia Animal Shelter on South New York Avenue opened its doors Nov. 4. Martin said that while the building is much larger than the previous shelter, they typically don’t fill up every kennel.
“If you fill up all 60 of those cat cages, the chances of disease, upper-respiratory infection, those cat diseases are going to be more prominent because it’s overpopulation,” Martin said. “It’s just like people. If we would fill every kennel up, we would backslide. … A lot of folks say you have 60 cat cages, why don’t you have 60 cats? It’s because we want to keep the 30 we do have healthy.”
For the month of November, the animal shelter had 109 intakes, had 38 animals adopted, returned 17 lost pets and sent one to Second Chance. Fifty-eight animals were euthanized, but Martin pointed out that number includes several bite cases and a hoarding case where only one rescued animal was healthy enough to be adopted.
While the shelter does euthanize sick animals, Martin pointed out that those statistics can be skewed by special cases, such as the two to four bite cases she has each week or animals taken from hoarding situations that are unhealthy and “too far gone.” She added that Animal Control has to pick up every animal reported, such as an animal hit by a car that is euthanized because it’s not going to survive.
“People need to be responsible pet owners,” DeGonia said. “If people got their pets spayed or neutered, we wouldn’t need an animal shelter, but because somebody did not spay or neuter their pet, it falls upon the city then to cure that problem. It would go a long way if they would just spay or neuter their pet.”
The Sedalia Animal Shelter will have an open house from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday for the public to take tours of the new facility. Martin encouraged citizens to take the tour to find out the dogs are walked three times a day, plus get time in a large exercise pen not visible from the lobby. Some are housed in indoor/outdoor kennels in the back of the building.
“Our community support is amazing and we try to give back to that a little too,” Martin said, noting the shelter donates pet food to the Sedalia Senior Center to help the elderly feed their pets. “The amount of volunteers, I’ve had so many folks interested in volunteering. Before at the old shelter it was scattered out and now I’ve had to start scheduling people because we had more volunteers than I have work for them to do at times. I think everyone’s really excited about (the new shelter).”
