Pound's Burden Could be Eased;
Proposed Changes Put More Responsibility on Pet Owners
St. Petersburg Times, www.sptimes.com
May 23, 2004, INVERNESS, FL - The women who carry premature squirrels and
kittens between their bosoms so the animals can feel the warmth of a beating
heart are the same who must pump unwanted, neglected cats and dogs with
syringes loaded with sodium pentobarbital, a barbiturate branded "Fatal
Plus."
Xan Rawls, Citrus County Animal Control director, is one of these women. She
has heard people say: "I love animals. I couldn't do your job."
"I say, I love animals enough," she responds. "That's why I do the job."
The emotional toll is mighty for the workers who play God, one where Rawls
finds comfort only in knowing that she is sure with the needle, quick and
fast into a vein to bring death swiftly. Many, who wear scrubs in the
hospital clinic-looking shelter, smoke.
"We don't have shrinking violets here," said Rawls toughly, though she has
taken home 16 unwanted pets over the years.
"You can't be a puppy hugger and do this job," said Marian Rogers, shelter
director. She, however, took home a bulldog with a broken leg two years ago
that she should have killed.
The women, and other workers, euthanize between 20 and 35 animals a day.
Last year, the animal shelter took in 7,374 animals and put to sleep one out
of three: 2,478.
County officials hope to save more pets' lives through some major revisions
of the Animal Control ordinance, which would encourage owners to spay and
neuter through financial incentives.
The changes would allow more strays to go home sooner, places microchips in
all animals leaving the shelter, gives some biting dogs and cats another
life and prohibits the prolonged tethering of pets. The changes, which
county commissioners will consider next month, also would change Animal
Control's name to Animal Services - seemingly superficial, except to those
who work there.
"It's not just controlling animals," said Public Safety director Charles
Poliseno, who oversees Animal Control and the shelter. "There's also
redemption of animals."
The cruel dichotomy of shelter workers' jobs was on display Friday, when
Rawls and Rogers welcomed an Animal Control truck carrying two kittens in a
carrier; their tagless, tame mother in another. When the pair of
6-month-olds hissed, the shelter women laughed and envisioned a loving
adoption for them since they were young. The women held the kittens and sang
the Cops TV anthem: Bad boy, bad boy, watcha gonna do . . .
Just feet away, a euthanized rabbit, black eyes glazed wide open, rested in
the dirty mouth of a bulldozer outside the door leading to the "euthanasia
room." Its leg was broken, presumably, by a car. The carcass was piled on
top of a sickly gray kitten's body - about the same age as the two coming
out of the Animal Control truck, through the never-ending revolving door.
"Everybody cries here," Rawls said later. "It's okay."
They call some of the animals miracles, such as Eden 41, a little tabby
kitten who survived several cars zooming over it on U.S. 41 until an officer
stopped traffic on the highway, near Eden Drive, and saved it.
Other pets seen by Animal Control workers are nightmares - such as a yellow
dog found dead after being chained for much of its life. The puppy grew, its
steel chain did not.
A criminal case is pending, so Rawls has kept a picture of the dog's body:
chain links embedded like thorns into the animal's choked neck, rubbed red
and bloody as raw meat.
Under the proposed changes to the Animal Control ordinance, pets can't be
tethered longer than four hours a day. Studies show that chained dogs become
aggressive, which can lead to a trip to the shelter and, often, euthanasia.
"Statistical data is real strong that chained dogs can be involved in fatal
dog attacks," Rawls said.
Other proposed changes to the county ordinance include encouraging neutering
and spaying through the price of rabies shots: $5 for sterilized animals;
$20 for non-sterilized pets. Refunds would be given to those fixed within 30
days afterwards.
Rabies shots and licenses also would last three years instead of one.
Studies have shown vaccines last that long, Poliseno said. Meanwhile, dogs
who attack someone, but not seriously, can earn a new "hazardous" label
instead of being lumped into the current "dangerous" category, which can
soon lead to euthanasia.
The proposed changes also would allow for Animal Control workers to release
strays that are licensed and tagged to their owners when found, instead of
being dragged to the Inverness shelter, which has a capacity of 200 but
consistently carries between 15 and 50 more daily.
"It's less animals coming to the shelter and should reduce the number of
unclaimed animals," Poliseno said.
Many people do not pick up their animals from the shelter, Rawls said. They
just get another one.
Rice-sized microchips would also be implanted into every shelter animal
released, according to the proposed changes, ensuring that if lost again, an
animal's owner can be found.
"There's a lot more emphasis placed on responsible pet ownership," Poliseno
said about the proposal.
Rawls is hopeful it will work. But her computer bears crude reminders of
human priorities, such as a picture of a mistreated horse with broken bones
that had been drinking from a tub of cloudy green water not too far from its
master's crystal clear and maintained swimming pool.
Another showed a dozen fresh red roses sitting on a counter in a filthy
Citrus home where animals were removed because of neglect.
Shifting responsibility from the government to pet owner is a good thing,
said shelter workers, who hope the end result is less euthanasias, which are
typically reserved for unadoptable, sick and injured animals. Scores of
feral cats also wait caged in a room next to the euthanasia room - including
some who stay in the rusty, wire-box cat traps they were caught in.
Before each animal dies, they "are all snuggled and loved," Rawls said, even
those not tame, who are given sedatives beforehand.
Then each is injected with a dose of Fatal Plus; 1 cc per animal pound.
"Plus one," Rawls said, "My theory is drugs are cheap."
The toll on Animal Control workers minds, however, she said, is not.
