Animal Shelter Advisory Committee for April 17

Animal Shelter Advisory Committee for April 17



Committee:
David Wellington, Staff - Present
Brian Wyers, City Staff - Present
Catherine Sharbeno, Member - Present
Jenny Shotwell, Rescue Organization - Present
Ann Slanis, Resident Representative - Present
Veterinarian- Vacant
Loretta Bell, Resident Representative - Present

Council Liaison:
Kirby Lack -Absent 


Mayor Candidate:
Ron Nelson - Present
Bradi Diaz - Absent
Joey Acfalle - Absent
Brandi Weiand - Absent

Welcome back for another update with the blog! Today, we were at the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee meeting. While this is a far lesser known about committee, they play an important part in managing the pets and wildlife that need help in our community. The meeting was about 30 minutes, but they covered a few good topics.

Agenda:

Reports:

F1 - Brian Wyers gave an update on the new animal shelter project they have been working on. After the latest needs assessment, they came up with two quotes on two different types of shelters. They took the one that most accurately met the needs of the city up to City Council for approval. At first, it was approved, but then after further discussion it was shut down for being too expensive. After further research into what some other area shelters are looking like and other options are out there, they he came across a few observations. The first being that just because a shelter is advertised as being a lower cost, those are usually only preliminary numbers and only cover the structure. Once they factor in the things going in the building, the final cost always goes up within range of the quote that was originally taken before City Council. They did look at one shelter that did cost less like what the City Council wanted, but that one was the same size as the shelter we currently have. Our problem is our needs have outgrown our shelter so that won't work.

Secondly, it's hard to compare facility needs simply based on community size. For example, they were looking at another community that is far larger than ours in population, however our animal input/output rates are higher than theirs. So when we're looking at a new animal shelter, you can't really say "well Killeen (for example; I just pulled it off the top of my head because they're next door) is bigger than us, so why is our shelter going to be bigger/more expensive than theirs? It's not simply about population size and tax dollars. They're looking at the needs for the amount of animals coming and going that they deal with.

For one example, right now they're having to count on donations to transport animals out to be seen by a vet as needed. With this new building, they will have an area onsite where the vets can set aside time and come to them for medical issues as well as getting all their vaccinations. They would have to increase adoption rates a little bit to accommodate for these vaccinations, but then we would have a selling point of our adoptable pets being ready to go and current on vaccinations. They have people find out that their adoptable pets are required to be taken out for vaccinations by the new owner, and those people will say they're going to Harker Heights instead where the pets already come vaccinated.  For now, he has a few more meetings scheduled with some other architects to see if they can come up with other designs to save costs but still meet our needs. Once they are done with those meetings, he will take this before the Animal Shelter Advisory Committee once more for a vote, and then back to City Council.

F2 - David Wellington gave a report on the effects and requirements of them transitioning to the three year rabies vaccination for dogs. Right now, this is still in the early proposed stage, so he was out doing some research on this. Vet Associations around the country are going by core shots and non core shots. Core shots being things like your Parvo and Distemper, and non core shots being more along the line of antibiotic lines of shots. So basically, Core shots are proactive, and Non Core shots are reactive as I understand it. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong in the comments). They consider the rabies shot separate of both of those. So they consider a majority of the core shots to actually be good for 7 years, but prefer to have them renewed every 3 years. Rabies shots are good for 5 years, but they're starting to recommend either a 1 year shot or a 3 year shot and they're talking about going to a 4 or 5 year shot down the road. They're starting to find out that you can over-vaccinate your pets with the Core shots so they're trying to get away from that. Currently, the Veterinarian Association recommends 3 year rabies and core shots. Cat vaccinations have recently came to 3 year shots as well. Out of all the research David did on this subject, he could find no research against the 3 year shot. He did talk to the local vets in Copperas Cove and has their full support.

One of the resident representatives expressed concern over a beloved dog of hers who recently passed away almost a year ago. She took it in for it's recommended shots all the time and the vet never mentioned anything about over vaccinating, so now she's worried about what she may have done to her pup. David let her know that research on this is still in its early stages, and there are some vets who don't agree. Another resident representative asked if the city is currently enforcing rabies shots, to which the answer was no. When asked if they could, she was told they could by having a resident provide proof with vet records. Another resident representative asked where we can get tags renewed, to which she was told she could go to any local vet. She asked if there was a way to do this online, but was told there is not.

F3 - David Wellington provided a monthly report on statistics and activities of the Copperas Cove Animal Shelter. He said they have switched to a new program to pull this report together and it has a lot of great info, but they're also still working some of it out. This new system not only tells numbers, but it breaks down every species that they pick up or do anything with. So far this calendar year, we have had 153 adoptions, and 141 euthanasia's. Some of those euthanasia's have been animals that were in critical condition. We have had 4 animals who were sick to the point that they didn't make it, and 160 were deceased on the local roads. 153 animals have been returned to their owners, 15 rescues have been transferred out to local rescue centers, and 1 cat had escaped the compound. That happened when a visitor to the cat visiting area didn't properly secure the door and a cat found its way out. They have had 47 animals that were returned to the wild. They have a new vet volunteer at a local vet clinic who has been helping and has neutered two animals in January. They have been busy with classes these past few months, but are expected to be able to get back to helping out soon.

Upcoming Events:
June 20 and Aug 14 - there will be low cost shot clinics
Oct 26 will be Puppypalooza. All that is required to enter are donations.