RSS
Home
Schwarzenegger could learn from the Midwest about saving pets and tax dollars
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
.jpg)
Ethan was saved by Ray Of Hope. Photo:
Humane Society of Greater Kansas City.
While Governor Schwarzenegger is campaigning to reduce the number of days homeless pets are kept alive in animal shelters, Kansas City has started a program to stop euthanasia in their city pounds, altogether. And the program, called Ray of Hope doesn’t use any excess tax dollars.
Ray of Hope is the brainchild of the Humane Society of Greater Kansas City. It began in January 2009 and has already dropped the euthanasia rate of unwanted cats and dogs in government owned shelters from 54% to 4%.
Charles Vreeland, President the organization said, “It’s a grand experiment and an idea we’ve had for several years.”
The program links together the services of the Kansas City police, the Humane Society, volunteers, local no-kill shelters and rescue groups both in the city and across the country. And it could be replicated in just about every town throughout the U.S.
HSGKC acts as the coordinating agency that pulls together all of the resources in the community. Every Monday afternoon all of the key entities in the program get together to evaluate the cats and dogs. As a team, they select which pets will remain at the shelter and which will have better luck at the Humane Society’s facility or with other local rescue groups.
Then HSGKC begins the process of placing the cats and dogs. Breed specific groups are notified about purebreds, and local rescue groups are called to see how many cats and dogs they can take.
The pressure is always mounting because every day more stray pets are being picked up by animal control and placed into the city shelter.
To date, Ray of Hope has saved 800 animals. The agencies were able to place all but a few of the very sick or very aggressive pets.
Click here to read more about this innovative program. Be part of the poll to determine if your city could begin a Ray of Hope.
Related Articles:
Comments
