St. Tammany works to curb euthanasia rate

St. Tammany News

Officials say residents can help

It appears as a black eye for the parish that the St. Tammany Parish Animal Shelter has one of the highest euthanasia rates in the state. But officials are working to heal that problem and are asking the community for help.

In 2006, the rate of animals in the shelter being put down was as high as 80 percent, according to parish spokesperson Suzanne Parsons-Stymiest. But that number has dropped to 73 percent through the first five months of this year.

Stymiest said it's hard to use the figure to compare St. Tammany to the rest of the state because it includes both adoptable and non-adoptable pets.

"Nationwide, this is a problem," Animal Services Director Dr. Brent Robbins said. "We will never adopt our way out of this problem."

But we can "fix" our way out of some of it, he said.

Both Robbins and Stymiest stressed the importance of getting cats and dogs spayed or neutered. There have been instances at the shelter where people have dropped off entire litters of pets, in some cases multiple times a year. Robbins said he recently saw 37 animals brought to the shelter in just one hour's time.

The problem directly affects another hill the animal shelter has to climb - space.

The current shelter, located in front of the St. Tammany Regional Airport on Louisiana Highway 36, has limited space for the animals it receives. Robbins said the shelter only has 31 dog runs and 62 cat cages, and they can't exactly be packed to the gills.

"We don't want to overcrowd them," Robbins said.

When the runs and cages get too crowded, problems are more likely to occur, such as infighting and disease. Overcrowding causes workers at the shelter to have to make the tough decision to put an animal down.

May and June are the worst months of the year when it comes to a proliferation of kittens at the shelter as cats typically breed in the early spring and kittens are born this time of year.

"No one that works here wants to euthanize an animal," Robbins said.

There are times when animals are not even given a chance to be adopted before being put down. About one-third of the animals brought to the shelter are not adoptable because they are either feral or dangerous, Robbins said.

As a means to fix the space problem, the parish is constructing a new shelter farther east down La. 36. The project, which was delayed in part because of Hurricane Katrina, will have two- to three-times the capacity of the current facility when completed.

In order to tackle the spay/neuter problem, Stymiest said the parish is looking into ways to make getting pets fixed affordable to all.

"The solution lies in the hands of pet owners," she said.

Animal Services is also planning to step up efforts to cite people who let their pets run astray. Robbins said legislative action has even been taken in places such as Los Angeles to help control the pet population.

"We're going to get aggressive on our citation system," he said.

Reaching out

"We'd love it for people to come to the shelter if they want to adopt a pet," Stymiest said.

Aside from combating the problem internally through new facilities and spay/neuter program affordable to all, the parish is reaching out to the community to get as many pets adopted as possible.

"We have some wonderful pets," Robbins said.

Parish officials are traveling several avenues to get the word out on what pets are available for adoption. These avenues include online and broadcast media, among others.

"Pet Connect" airs on Access St. Tammany Channel 10 at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. daily, Stymiest said.

Anyone looking to adopt a pet can go online to www.stpgov.org to see what pets are available, too.

Robbins said the Web site www.petharbor.com features pictures of every pet brought through the doors of the shelter.

The parish also has an adoption trailer that can take between 40 and 45 animals to an outside location for the public to see and possibly adopt. And some members of the community are acting as foster parents to younger animals not yet ready for adoption.

Robbins wants to dispel the notion that the only animals at the shelter are the sick and dirty. He stressed there are many clean pets available for adoption, including some purebreds.

If you're not looking for a cat or dog, Stymiest said even turtles, horses and snakes have been dropped off at the shelter.

And Robbins said animals at the shelter are a good bargain, too.

All cats and dogs brought to the shelter undergo hundreds of dollars worth of services, including vaccinations, spaying/neutering, temperament tests and a microchip for tracking. But the adoption fee for dogs is just $65, $40 for cats and $10 for rabbits.

Both Robbins and Stymiest said they have adopted pets at home.

For more information on adopting a pet, call 809-0183.