Athens Animal Shelters Record Increase in Animal Harvest | Arts & Culture

Summer is the season for beach trips, school vacations and, less well known, animal husbandry.

Although dogs and cats can breed year-round, spring and summer are particularly popular times for mating due to the warm weather. Athens is feeling the effects.

In recent weeks, animal support organizations such as Athenspets and Rescue Paws at the University of Georgia have posted urgent articles on social media about the need for foster owners and adoptions. In addition to stray dogs and litters of kittens, there has even been an increase in property transfers – of people relinquishing ownership of their pets.

With the college town noticeably less busy and an influx of animals in need of homes, local animal activists are struggling to cope with the problem as best they can.

Summer rush

The summer influx is natural to some extent, said Athens-Clarke County Animal Services Director Kristall Barber. Georgia has a ‘real’ kitten season, where most litters of kittens are born during the warmer months of the year.

Due to quarantine last year, Barber said, ACC Animal Services hasn’t felt the typical kitten season rush. She attributes this to the isolated people at home, unable to go out to find and hand over kittens.

This year, the municipal shelter is definitely feeling the urgency, and Barber said she believed that was in part because last year’s animals had not been spayed and neutered due to the lockdown.

Lisa Milot, executive director of Athenspets – a non-profit organization that works closely with ACC Animal Services – said that in addition to kitten season, more dogs have been brought in.

“People were more at home so they weren’t letting their dogs roam,” Milot said. “What we’re seeing now is that those who didn’t come last year are coming this year, which means the dog side is fuller than it usually is.”

While Barber is happy to note that last year’s adoptions have mostly gone unfulfilled, she has noticed an increase in owner transfers.

“I think part of it now is that people are supposed to go back to work, or their lifestyle is changed from home. And now they’ve got this cute puppy or this cat and these cute kittens, and now it’s a cat or a dog, ”Barber said. “And they don’t want to deal with this.”

Jed Kaylor, the program director at the Athens Area Humane Society, said it was a combination of various factors that led to the influx. The breeding season, with pets being left free and breeding, litters of kittens and puppies being distributed free of charge without being spayed and neutered, and abandonment of ownership all contribute.

Summer is particularly chaotic for ACC Animal Services as most of Athens’ residents are not in the city. Students are absent from class and people are on vacation, so there are not enough families available to accommodate pets or volunteer at shelters.

“Honestly, most of the people of Athens are gone over the summer,” said Hannah Crouch, senior UGA and incoming co-chair of Rescue Paws at UGA. “When there are students – or even teachers and people – there to help during the school year, it makes a huge difference… for these shelters, compared to the summer when really no one is there.”

From reception to adoption

Barber went through the steps from receiving an animal at ACC Animal Services to eventually and hopefully adoption.

The process differs between stray animals and property transfers. Owned animals do not need to be kept for a certain period of time – legally, they belong to the shelter once the owner relinquishes the animal. Stray animals must be held for a five-day detention period, Barber said.

The first thing ACC Animal Services does is perform an initial medical examination to make sure the animal is healthy. Then they vaccinate cats and dogs. They take pictures of the animals to upload them.

If the animal is well behaved and in good health, the owner goes to the surgery list to be spayed and neutered. Adoption applications can begin to be received at that point, but adoptions can only be officially done after animals are settled, which typically takes one to two weeks, according to Barber.

Stray animals basically go through the same process. Once the detention period is over, the animal is spayed or neutered and ready for adoption.

Animals with significant medical or behavioral problems are listed as “rescue only” and ACC Animal Services strives to have them taken care of by local rescue organizations. If the animal has serious medical issues causing great suffering or the medical costs are too high, sometimes medical decisions are made to humanely euthanize the animal, Barber said.

Fight the influx

Although they come from different organizations and perspectives, Barber, Milot, Crouch and Kaylor all agree that the best way to combat these influxes is to sterilize and sterilize. It’s a proactive and preventative way to prevent the overflow from happening in the first place.

“Sterilizing and neutering your pet is essential to maintaining the overall animal population in the county,” Crouch said. “Because when they’re not spayed or neutered, things like this happen where there are so many animals – and then unfortunately shelters have to choose who they can save and who can’t save.” . “

ACC Animal Services can provide vouchers for sterilization because the procedure can be expensive, Barber said. The Athens Area Humane Society has a sterilization and sterilization clinic.

In addition, ACC Animal Services is always looking for foster families. Not only do foster owners help animals adjust to home life, they free up space in the shelter so that others can be accommodated. Milot addressed the notion of people not wishing to be accommodated in a refuge which euthanizes animals for space.

“[ACC Animal Services] hasn’t killed for space in over a year, and we’re all working together to explain why that hasn’t happened, ”Milot said. “We need more people to help us make sure this doesn’t happen in the future. “

Milot also stressed the importance for pet owners to keep their cats and dogs contained and on a leash. Lost animals should be taken to the shelter, which takes up little space.

Kaylor encourages the community of Athens to get involved with local shelters and ACC Animal Services to further address this issue.

“The more help they have, the more foster families they have, the more adopters and attention they can attract,” Kaylor said. “So the more help they get, the better the pets will be. “