More cats won’t send shelter into tailspin

WASILLA - Whether it's the unusually cold and snowy winter, the economy or just a perfect storm of cats, Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation Facility is juggling more felines than it normally would this time of year.

Last week, animal care officers and troopers armed with a warrant seized 15 large dogs, a tropical fish, a hermit crab and other animals from a residence on Knik River Road.

But it is nothing the shelter cannot handle, said its new manager, Phil Morgan.

"We're always full with cats," Morgan said.

And "full" is a relative term, Morgan explained. The shelter will handle twice as many pets in the summer. What is unusual is the number of kittens and cats being dropped off. Between Jan. 1 and 25 last year, 58 cats and 20 kittens came into the shelter; this year during the same period, there were 83 cats and 30 kittens - a 45 percent increase.

Despite the burden, Morgan encourages the public to view the shelter as a resource, not as a killing zone. He said it is the shelter's aim to adopt out all healthy animals suitable for rehoming. He said information circulated that labels the shelter otherwise is wrong and hurtful to the staff and the animals they try to save.

Morgan, who started his job Jan. 3, said he was unaware the Mat-Su Borough Animal Care and Regulation Facility had boasted a streak as a no-kill shelter. He said "no-kill" is often nothing more than semantics. He said he is interested in maximizing adoptions and the overall live output rate, including returns to owners and rescue placements.

Morgan said he will use a multi-faceted approach to deal with pet overpopulation. He said spaying and neutering is always part of the equation.

"We always want people to be more responsible with their animals," Morgan said.

To that end, the shelter will sponsor a Free Spay Day event on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, for low-income families. The shelter will have three vets and expects to neuter 50 cats and 25 dogs, and spay 16 cats and 12 dogs. The registration deadline is Feb. 10.

Morgan said alter surgeries are part of a bigger picture. That includes culturally respectful education programs, creating allies among the rescue groups, enhancing the image of the shelter and its staff, and changing mindsets through a philosophy called Asilomar Accords.

Asilomar Accords (asilomaraccords.org) date from 2004 when a wide variety of animal advocates met in California with the goals of "building bridges across varying philosophies, developing relationships and creating goals focused on significantly reducing the euthanasia of healthy and treatable companion animals in the United States."

Morgan, who worked for seven years in animal care in California and another five years in Idaho, said he sees the need for those principles of cooperation to be put in place here.

He said the old ideas aren't working; animals are still dying - either euthanized or left to die.

"We need to do something different," he said. "We need to think outside the box."

That might include chemical castration and other options.

His first priority is to erase the notion that the shelter is there to kill animals and staff members are hostile and uncaring. None of that is true, he said.

"We need to change the perception about the organization and people who work for the organization," Morgan said.

Morgan said he wants members of the public to be comfortable bringing pets to the shelter, and to know the animals will be cared for there. He said any other perception means fewer options for the animals.

He likened the borough-run facility as a homeless shelter for pets.

"I am happy they bring [their pets] here," he said.

He said he will continue to look for ways and to work with animal advocates to increase the number of animals safely rehomed.

"It all ties together to increase live-release rates," Morgan said.

Those adoption numbers could rise if Morgan helps change the atmosphere at the shelter, said the president of a local cat rescue, which has been a frequent critic of the shelter's management.

Judy Price, president of the board of Clear Creek Cat Rescue Inc., a nonprofit rescue that specializes in saving cats from death row at the shelter, said the shelter needs to remake its image from that of a pound to an adoption center.

Price said the cats sit in small cages without exercise or significant human interaction and become increasingly less outgoing as their time at the shelter ticks away.

"They don't seem very adoptable to people," Price said.

Because there is no cat adoption room, people cannot interact with a feline they are considering adopting beyond holding it. There are two dog adoption rooms, but no such space for cats.

Morgan said he listened to Price's concerns. And the shelter is in the process of setting up an interaction room for feline adopters.

"There are ways to work this so it is more of an adoption center," Price said. "I'd like to see more adoptions so we have to rescue fewer cats."

Last year, rescues took in nearly half the cats that left the shelter. Of the 528 cats that were adopted or rescued, 271 were adopted and 254 were rescued, according to borough figures. Rescues bring the cats into their own foster homes pending adoption.

According to figures compiled by Clear Creek, CCCR removed 300 cats from the shelter last year as rescues. Price said only about 30 of those cats remain in their foster homes; the rest have been placed in permanent homes.

In 2011, the shelter euthanized 572 cats and 121 kittens. Of those totals, 165 cats and one kitten were euthanized because of "observed behavior;" nine cats and one kitten for behavior history (often biting); 181 cats and 38 kittens for contagious diseases; 124 cats and 18 kittens on the advice of medical staff; 66 cats and 12 kittens were deemed wild or feral; and 27 cats and one kitten were euthanized at the request of owners. Two other kittens were euthanized because they were too young to survive without round-the-clock care, and no rescues groups could take them in.

Similar breakdowns are used to account for the 420 dogs, four ferrets, 121 kittens, 10 puppies and 14 other animals put down at the shelter in 2011, Morgan said.

Price said she is encouraged by her conversations with the new shelter manager, but said there is much more to do to reduce the number of animals that leave the shelter through the back door. She said incidents in the past where communicable diseases swept through the old shelter building can cause the staff to overreact at a sneeze. Price said she has been told by the shelter's medical staff that a cat that licks its lips or shakes its head may be put down as a potential disease transmitter - even if there are no actual signs of illness.

"I think they are euthanizing out of fear," Price said.

Morgan said it is important to keep it all in perspective. No adoptable/treatable animals have been euthanized since he arrived early this month.

Of the 83 cats and 30 kittens in the shelter since 2012 began, 54 cats and 12 kittens have been adopted or rescued. Eleven cats have been euthanized - eight for behavioral issues and three on the advice of medical staff. That's 35 percent more kitties and half as many sad endings, Morgan pointed out.

Improved classification is of more value, he said, than pointing to old numbers. He said by labeling the animals as treatable or not treatable - both physically and emotionally - the shelter can better work with the rescues to place animals that can be saved.