Help cut local pet euthanasia

Perhaps Houstonist was naive in thinking animal shelters were safe places, or maybe (more likely) we'd just never thought about it, but in either case we almost cried in our Cap'n Crunch this morning when we read about the euthanasia rate in Houston's major shelters. A city task force has been looking at the number of animals who are killed rather than being put up for adoption:

More than 80,000 animals that entered the area's five primary shelters in 2004 were killed — 70 percent of the overall admissions. Cities with progressive policies to reduce euthanasia have achieved much lower percentages, the report says.

"Houston has too many abandoned pets and an animal welfare community whose principal solution to the problem is euthanasia," the task force said.

Officials at local shelters told the task force that they are overwhelmed by the volume of animals they receive.

"In their view, area shelters face a tidal wave of abandoned pets and, in light of too little shelter space and dollars, simply have no choice other than euthanizing most pets they receive," the report says. "We do not agree with that thinking."

It's true that a lot of pets come into local shelters — well over 100,000 in 2004. Houston's shelters follow the general practice of euthanizing unadoptable pets, but here, the "unadoptable" tag is applied liberally. For example, the Houston Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care automatically kills German shepherds, which are highly adoptable dogs. Moreover, BARC only has a few animals available for adoption at one time because it spays and neuters animals just twice a week (the Harris County shelter, by contract, performs the operations every day). And when it comes time to adopt, the BARC shelter is located in a part of the Fifth Ward most people don't know how to get to.

It's not just BARC that has the problem, of course — all the largest shelters in Houston euthanized a lot of their pets in 2004, ranging from 46 percent at Citizens for Animal Protection to 86 percent at the Houston Humane Society. The task force recommended cheaper and easier spaying and neutering to help curb the euthanasia rate, but in the meantime, you can help by adopting a pet. Visit one of these shelters today and see if you make a new friend:

Houston BARC, 3200 Carr St., 713.238.9600
Harris County Rabies/Animal Control, 612 Canino Road, 281.999.3191
Citizens for Animal Protection, 11925 Katy freeway, 281.497.0591
Houston SPCA, 900 Portway Dr., 713.869.SPCA
Houston Humane Society, 14700 Almeda Road, 713.433.6421