NEWS

Shelter takes matchmaking seriously

Todd Hill
Reporter

BUCYRUS – The streets of Bucyrus are not being overrun with roving packs of wild dogs, although it can sometimes seem that way this time of year.

As soon as the weather warmed up earlier this month, the number of animal complaints, generally involving dogs, received by the Bucyrus Police Department on a daily basis began to spike, as happens every year about this time. And there are some good reasons for that.

“Pets are like us. When it gets warm and the sun starts to shine, we want to be outside running around, doing our thing, and pets are the same way,” said Victoria Carmean, executive director of the Crawford County Humane Society.

And although it may not look like it, a lot of those animals are running around with a purpose.

Breeding season

“Not only has it been a long winter and the dogs have been cooped up and they’re getting out to run, but this is when the females start coming into heat. So we see a lot more males running than normal,” said Linda Armour, the Crawford County dog warden.

“We also see a lot of kittens this time of year. So far we haven’t seen a lot of puppies, but I know of several that may be in here within the next couple weeks,” Carmean said.

And while the animal shelter at the Humane Society is a crowded place these days, with 30 cats and close to 50 dogs available for adoption, many of them accidentally separated from previous owners, the good news is the organization is finding new homes for the pets on a regular basis.

“Our adoption rates have been phenomenal the last several months. We’ve done a fantastic job here with Petfinder and Craigslist and through rescues. We’re just really fortunate to have volunteers who take care of making sure our Facebook page and our Petfinder and Craigslist are up to date,” Carmean said.

“We have also done a lot of cross posting on Crawford County Lost and Found Pets because a lot of dogs can be matched up through social networking. It has been a fantastic outlet for us to be able to get those pets back where they belong.”

Repeat offenders

In a perfect world, the Humane Society wouldn’t have to put any lost dogs and cats up for adoption and could simply focus on reconnecting them with their owners. And in a perfect world, the county’s dog warden wouldn’t have to spend time collecting the animals in the first place. But Carmean and Armour, and others who work with them, many of them on a volunteer basis, must deal with the world as it exists.

“We don’t have a large wild dog population. Most of the dogs we pick up, you can tell they’ve had human contact. We do find some that are starved, but that’s because they’re abandoned or have gotten lost from their owners and have been on the road for a long time,” Armour said.

“We do have repeat offenders. Sometimes we see them again within a couple days or a week. We start knowing the dogs by name. We try to work with the owners to find out why their dog is getting loose so much. And then after that we start issuing citations.”

The dog warden’s office issues about 8,200 dog licenses a year, but there are more dogs than that in the county. Just as it’s a citable offense not to have a tag for your dog or to let it run at large, it also is an offense to not have the tag displayed on your dog.

If a dog is found wearing its tag, the county is required to hold it for 14 days and make reasonable attempts to locate the owner. If it has no tag, the county has to hold the animal for only three days.

“There’s a lot of protection for people with their dogs. It’s not just a law; it helps you get your dog home,” Armour said.

An annual dog license in Crawford County costs $16. Picking up a lost, unlicensed dog will cost the owner $32 — a $16 late registration fee, plus the cost of a new license. Pet owners also will encounter reclaim fees of $25 for the first day and $15 for each day thereafter. The fines are disbursed to the dog warden’s office and local Humane Society.

“If it’s a one-time thing and the dog’s in good health, we talk to the owners about securing them and that’s it. We try not to issue too many citations. We would rather have people come get their dogs, get a license on it and keep it at home. If we can do that, we’re satisfied,” Armour said.

Using social media

Although runaway cats are rarely reunited with their owners, the local Humane Society has found that reunions are becoming more common with dogs, “simply because we do have connections with Crawford County Lost and Found Pets,” Carmean said.

“We put things on Facebook immediately, and we have thousands of Facebook followers. The shares that we get through that are just making it a huge success story to get these people back in here to reclaim their pet.”

When that doesn’t happen, the Humane Society sets about trying to find a new home for the animal, a process it undertakes with great care.

“Most shelters try very hard not to adopt an animal that’s behaviorally unsound, meaning that it’s mean or is really not able to live in a household. A lot of times with the animals we see here their issues can be cured with just some kindness and training, or a spay or neuter program,” Carmean said.

“You have to spend time with this animal here. We don’t want somebody to walk through the door, say, ‘I want to adopt a black Lab, I’ll take this one.’ No. If you have kids in the family, if you have another adult in the family, you have elderly, they all need to meet the dog.”

Find the right owner

Carmean said the shelter does its best to determine whether the activity levels of the dog and the potential owner match up. It will try to make sure that a dog with separation anxiety isn’t adopted by someone who will have to leave it alone for long periods.

“Sometimes people are not truthful when we ask these questions because they just want that dog so bad that it’s going to work out no matter what, and when it doesn’t, it’s all the pet’s fault,” she said.

Carmean acknowledged the Humane Society is far from the only viable option for finding a new pet. Some dog breeds, for example, virtually never show up in shelters. But searching for the right breeder has its challenges.

“The problem is when you have people who aren’t reputable breeders, who breed their females constantly with no regard for the female’s well-being and are just in it for the money. You also need to make sure that that breeder is willing to take that animal back because they don’t want their dogs ending up in a shelter. That’s an honorable person,” she said.

Carmean grew up around horses and other livestock, and the Humane Society takes quite a few calls about large animal neglect as well. Still, when she became director of the local office in 2008, she wasn’t sure she could do the job.

“You hear that a lot from people coming in through the front door — ‘I don’t know how you do your job.’ I can’t imagine myself doing anything else. The hours I spend here, they don’t ever seem like work,” she said.

“The hardest part of the job is dealing with people who are in pain because they have to leave a dog or cat with us, or they’ve lost a pet. That’s difficult. But being the only organization or its kind in Crawford County, we take the responsibility very strongly that we need to be here for this community.”

thill3@nncogannett.com

419-563-9225

Twitter: @ToddHillMNJ