www.houltonanimalshelter.com
There is always so much to tell you every week that I run out of room before I run out of words! This week I want to have a brief discussion about how the animal shelter works, because there seems to be some serious misunderstandings at times, and I’d like to clear those up.
For instance, we had a lady come in last week who was upset because she wanted to adopt a cat but the cat she wanted wasn’t ready to go yet. As you know, we spay and neuter everything before it leaves the Shelter.
The new state law requires that all animals leaving the shelter are already fixed, and we were doing that years before the law changed, but what is difficult is finding the money to fix 170 cats before the 170 cats are adopted. In other words, we have to front the money for the Vet bill – 170 spay/neuter surgeries, including rabies shots, distemper, wormers, etc., runs us about $10,200. As you know, we don’t have $10,200. As I’m sure you also understand, we don’t have any Vet out there who can take all our animals in and fix them at once. So what we do is we take a batch every week, maybe 15 animals, and at any given time there are probably 50 to 75 cats and dogs that are ready to go, all fixed, all the shots, etc.
You might come in today and find Lightning, a beautiful friendly healthy little gray tiger who is about a year old. You might fall in love. Lightning, however, has not been fixed yet. So what we do is we have you fill out an application to see if you are eligible to adopt Lightning and if you are, we put your name on her and we call you when she’s been to the Vet and she’s ready to go.
So no, not every single animal in the shelter is “ready” right now. We know this can be an inconvenience but going to an animal shelter is not a trip to Wal-Mart and a pet adoption is not an impulse purchase. If this animal is meant to be a part of your life for the next 20 years, then waiting a week for us to schedule surgery should not be a problem.
The next thing I want to briefly mention is that we don’t take owner animals unless there is a dire emergency. We are there for stray and abandoned animals. If we were to take every cat and every dog from every owner who didn’t have enough time to train, we would need a building ten times the size we have now and we’d be running a budget close to half a million dollars. If you have issues with your pet, then please research alternative placements, or enroll them in a training class, or try to work with your situation in a way that best supports the welfare of your pet. You took him into your home, you made the commitment, and it’s not fair to the animal to just dump him when he’s not cute any more.
The Shelter continues to struggle from week to week to find the funds to pay staff, oil bills, plowing bills and Veterinary bills. Please support our upcoming fund raisers. During the month of March the Varney Agency will be doing a state-wide bottle drive. Please drop your bottles off to the local branch at 9 Katahdin Lane, across from Tim Horton’s.
This Friday, March 14 is our annual St Patrick’s Day lunch. If you have not received an order form, please call the Shelter at 532-2862 and place your order.
March 22 is the Top Cats and Tails formal dance at the Elks. Tickets are $20 per person and are on sale at Hollywood Pet Salon, the Animal Shelter and the Varney Agency. Please purchase tickets early as seating is limited. The dance will be preceded by a scrumptious roasted chicken dinner and an exciting auction. You can bid on hand crafted items or local celebrities to come to your home and do chores. It’s going to be a blast.
March 27 is a Chocolate Fest at the SAVE building, cost is $5 and tickets will be on sale shortly! See you there, I’ll be the lady with a spoon in each hand!
