Williamson County, TX -- If the Companion Animal Protection Act passes in Texas it will mean some big changes for most shelters, but some like the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter won’t have to change much. WCRAS’ vision is “to save every healthy and behaviorally sound companion animal. To save all dogs and cats that are medically treatable and/or can be behaviorally rehabilitated,” and they are doing just that. WCRAS ended the month of March with a 91% save rate. The shelter is able to achieve this rate because of the dedication of its shelter director, Cheryl Schneider.
When asked what the biggest challenges in achieving this phenomenal rate were, and how she overcame them, Schneider replied “trying to get rescue groups to pull them [animals], and we beg a lot.”
WCRAS has many innovative programs that help it maintain such a high save rate. One of them is Jane’s Fund, a pool of money set aside to medically treat pets that are injured and would not otherwise be adoptable. Each year, the shelter sponsors a “Woof Walk and Wrun 5K” event to help replenish the fund. This year’s race just ended and it raised an impressive $4000 to $5000 dollars and had around 170 registered participants.
In early March, WCRAS had a minor crisis when they were notified that around 50 feral cats were coming in because their caretaker could not care for them. In a less progressive shelter, the cats would be admitted only to be assessed as unadoptable and killed. By contrast, Schneider immediately posted on the shelter’s Facebook page asking if anyone knew of barn homes for the cats. At the same time, she got on the phone with Sergeant Batten, the Sheriff's department supervisor for Animal Control, to find out more about the situation and try to find an alternative.
Schneider explained to Batten that a couple of years earlier, Animal Control had trapped most of the cats from this area. Because they were sick, most were euthanized. She explained that if they trapped and removed the cats again, the cycle would start all over in another couple of years. Schneider proposed Trap-Neuter-Return as an alternative. “We talked about it and he thought it was a good idea and that’s what we did.”
Since five cats were already trapped, they were neutered and relocated to a new colony. However, arrangements were made for the rest of the cats to stay in their colony. A temporary caretaker has stepped up to provide food and water for these cats until their regular caretaker can once again take over.
WCRAS is partnering with Shadow Cats, a local TNR group, to sterilize this colony. WCRAS will perform the surgeries and Shadow Cats will do the trapping. The first 14 cats, three males and eleven females, just came in yesterday and are recovering from surgery. Shadow Cats will continue to trap on a weekly basis until all the cats are sterilized and returned.
Every shelter has its crises. How the shelter director handles them will set the tone for the whole organization. In WCRAS the emphasis is on saving lives and this can be seen in everything they do. Schneider is already preparing for a looming pet population crisis. “We’re going to need fosters pretty quick, for puppies and lots of kittens. We’ve already had a few stragglers coming in, kittens that didn't have mommies and were bottle babies. Usually around April we start getting them in by the boxful,” she says. If you have an extra bathroom or a spare room in your house, please consider fostering for WCRAS today. If you don’t live in Williamson County, there are plenty of local shelters and rescue groups that will also be looking for foster homes. If you have room, please save a life and become a foster parent.
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