DeLand animal activists ask new city manager for alternatives to killing

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Jul 17, 2008 - 7:53:56pm

Alternatives to killing DeLand-area stray animals emerged from a recent meeting between a group of animal activists and soon-to-be DeLand City Manager Michael Pleus.

Because of the overwhelming number of unwanted and stray animals, many of the ones taken by cities to Halifax Humane Society shelter in Daytona Beach are killed.

Pleus asked the group after the July 10 meeting to put together a list of suggested alternatives to the shelter near Holly Hill, and come back to him.

Alternatives the group will explore include:

• Working with the private West Volusia Humane Society,

• Modeling a facility on Sanford's no-kill facility,

• Expanding FloridaWild Veterinary Hospital's rescue-and-adoption efforts,

• More public education on the need for neutering pets and keeping them properly tagged,

• Creating a team of veterinarians to staff low-cost vaccination and neutering clinics at different locations around DeLand,

• Developing a cat sanctuary for ferals,

• Getting a scanner for DeLand's animal-control officer to identify animals who have chips implanted under their skin. This would allow lost pets to be reunited with their owners, rather than taken to the shelter.

Maggi Hall, Ramona Whaley, Sherry Zwick and Charlotte Jones, who work with local groups including FloridaWild Veterinary Hospital and United Humanitarians of West Volusia, wanted to have the ear of the new city manager as he gets close to assuming office.

Pleus, now assistant city manager, will take over his new duties in August, succeeding Mike Abels, who is retiring Aug. 8.

Deputy Police Chief for Operations Bill Ridgway and Lt. Jack Waples, who oversees animal-control activities, also participated in the meeting.

Pleus listened to the animal activists' concerns about feral cats and abandoned or stray cats and dogs.

It turns out the incoming city manager is an animal lover, who adopted his family dog, Greta, from the Humane Society. Greta is a 3-year-old "hound," a mixture of basset and who-knows-what, and beloved in the Pleus household. Adopting Greta wasn't easy, Pleus said. He had to make two trips to Halifax Humane Society and go through a vetting process. He knows a screening process is necessary.

Pleus said Hall's group and their allies can create a powerful lobby on behalf of these animals, many of whom aren't lucky enough to be adopted.

The animal-lover group wants alternatives to taking animals to Halifax Humane Society, where they said animals are usually put down after three days. The city is paying $80 an animal for this.

Feral kittens are put down immediately, Whaley said.

Ridgway said the $32,000 to $33,000 the city pays the Humane Society a year is not to euthanize animals. It's to assist with animal control — reunite lost pets with owners, find homes for others, and euthanize as the last resort.

"We'd much rather see animals adopted," he said.

Current City Manager Abels' fight with Halifax Humane Society over these issues has been "legendary," Pleus said.

He explained, Halifax Humane Society presents the city with a contract. "They're not willing to negotiate," Pleus said. "It's 'Sign, if you want to bring in animals.'"

And, when any individual who has a DeLand address takes an animal to the shelter, the city is billed for it – even when the individual lives outside the city, in an unincorporated area.

Abels has been fighting with Halifax over this for eight years.

"Let's find a viable alternative," Pleus said.

He wanted to know how things got to such a state.

The group explained the feral-cat population is a big part of the problem; 70 percent of euthanized animals are feral cats.

Trap-neuter-release programs can alleviate much of that — neutered ferals don't resupply the wild population.

Hall is working to locate property for a sanctuary for these animals, which are too wild to be adopted. Hall said she's been looking at city property with Community Development Director Dale Arrington, and talking with County Council Member Andy Kelly about this.

The group would like the county and city to work together.

Rescued kittens from feral groups can be tamed and adopted, and cat rescuers already work to find them homes.

Hall's daughter, Dr. Erin Holder at FloridaWild Veterinary Hospital in DeLand, works to find homes for stray cats and dogs, now, rather than send them to the Halifax Humane Society.

Educating the public on the need for neutering and spaying their pets will be a big component of any program.

Pleus noted the city must work with an approved, licensed facility. "That's the challenge," he said.

Waples said a qualified facility relieves the city of responsibility and liability for the animals.

Working with the privately owned West Volusia Humane Society could be explored, the group agreed. Land adjacent to that shelter might provide a good location for the cat sanctuary.

Though Pleus was concerned about a no-kill shelter and finding enough homes to adopt animals, he wanted to explore possibilities.

"Is there a way we can get to the point we have a qualified facility?" he asked.

Pleus said he was glad to meet with the group.

"It was an educational experience for me," he said.

Citizen involvement will be a major part of solving heart-wrenching animal issues, Pleus said, and the group has energy and passion to lead in that direction.

This meeting was a beginning, he said, and City Commission backing will be crucial.

The activists believe they will get that support.

Halifax responds

Stung by criticism from a DeLand coalition of animal-rights activists, Halifax Humane Society is fighting back against being portrayed as being too quick to kill animals and too ready to gobble up public money.

Michelle Pari, community-relations specialist for the Humane Society, knew about a meeting July 10 between the DeLand coalition and Assistant City Manager Michael Pleus.

She was also painfully aware the society was described as not trying to find homes for animals and that too many of those in the shelter are euthanized. City officials also complained about how the Volusia County government and municipalities foot the bill for the society's treatment of animals.

"I keep hearing a lot of that, especially from that particular group [in DeLand]. I hear they're calling us 'the killing fields.' That's misguided."

When other alternatives are exhausted, Halifax Humane Society workers are asked to euthanize animals. Pari said it's not that shelter officials or workers want to put down animals.

"People calling us names should take a look at the reality of what they're saying. It's so offensive. We're not monsters over here, and we love animals, too."

If Humane Halifax Society isn't performing euthanasia services, someone else will have to do it, according to Pari.

People blame Halifax instead of asking where all the animals come from, she said.

"They come from the community," Pari said. "I don't understand why they say we're not trying to get animals adopted — we are."

The shelter photographs pets and prints photos for distribution, and lists pets on the Web site, among efforts to find homes for the animals.

County residents need to ask themselves why only 3,000 pets were adopted last year, Pari said.

In 2007, Halifax Humane Society took in a total of 17,177 animals. Here's the breakdown:

• 5,955 dogs

• 10,799 cats

• 423 "other" — rabbits, ferrets, birds and assorted critters.

Of the 17,177 animals brought to Halifax Humane Society:

• 1,184 were reclaimed by owners,

• 2,900 were adopted.

• 11,762 were killed.

• Another 432 animals were dead on arrival, and 669 were put to sleep by owner request.

The numbers of animals in and out of the shelter don't match precisely, because at the beginning of 2007, the society still had animals from the preceding year, Pari said.

Fewer than 3,000 animals were adopted last year.

"We need to get more animals adopted," Pari said.

The answers have to come from adopting from open-door facilities, spaying or neutering, and keeping the pet for the life of the animal, according to Pari.

"Community members have to get involved at the beginning, not the end," she said.

When animals keep breeding, everyone pays. Spaying and neutering are the most important elements in reducing the need for euthanasia, according to Pari.

In this, Pari and Humane Society critics agree.

Halifax Humane Society runs a low-cost spay-neuter clinic, open to anyone in Volusia County, Pari said. Fees start at $20 for a male cat, and $35 for a female cat. Fees for dogs are computed by weight, starting at $45 for females up to 29 pounds.

There are other low-cost clinics available, as well.

"You can't build enough kennels to keep all the animals," Pari said, nor is it fair to make the animals live their lives in cages, unadopted. "They deserve so much better."

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

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