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How long do you keep animals?
What is a "pre-adoption behavioral evaluation"?
What is reasonably healthy?
What is adjusting reasonably well?
Do you euthanize animals if you cannot find a home for them?
Are all surrendered animals put up for adoption?
Can I come back and get my animal if you are going to euthanize or transfer it?
Can I call and find out if my animal was found a new home?

How long do you keep animals?

We do not have a set period of time, as some Shelters do.  We keep animals as long as they pass our pre-adoption behavioral evaluation, are reasonably healthy, are adjusting reasonably well to a caged environment, and as long as we have space to keep them.  Sometimes this means that your animal will be moved into our adoption program, and sometimes it means that your animal will be transferred to another shelter – usually to Tri County Animal Shelter in Hughesville – either immediately or at a later time during its stay at our shelter.  Space considerations may vary at different times of year – we generally have many more animals come in during the spring and summer than during the fall and winter.  Unfortunately, like all Shelters, we always have many more animals losing their homes than we have people coming in to adopt them.

What is a "pre-adoption behavioral evaluation"?

We evaluate dogs on a number of things – acceptance of strangers, activity level, sociability, tolerance in handling, food or toy possession, interactions with other dogs or children, stress level, and past history as given to us by the owner and sometimes by the previous animal hospital.  This begins the moment the animal comes through the door and interacts with intake personnel, and continues throughout the animal’s stay at our Shelter.

Cats and small animals are primarily evaluated on their ability to cope in a caged environment, tolerance of handling, and past history.

What is "reasonably healthy"?

Animals with minor health problems, such as colds, ear infections and flea allergies can generally be treated in-house.  We follow very extensive cleaning protocols every day to reduce the spread of illness from one animal to another.  We also house animals separately from one another to further reduce the risk.  However, this is an environment with a large number of animals of unknown health history, which is a problem in Shelters throughout the world.  Occasionally, an animal’s immune system may become overwhelmed by the exposure to viruses from animals that come in unhealthy.  We generally see this more in very young kittens or puppies or in animals with weak immune systems due to little veterinary care prior to coming to our Shelter.  In an animal’s condition continues to get worse or if the virus is a deadly one, such as parvovirus in dogs or distemper in cats, we may have to authorize euthanasia for the animal.

Unfortunately, for more serious health problems or those that would require extended care in a quiet environment, we may not be able to keep the animal.  Sometimes the animal’s health needs are cost-prohibitive. We cannot invest a large sum of money in one animal, to the exclusion of others.  Sometimes we simply cannot provide a quiet environment for the number of weeks or months it would take to make an animal healthy again.  Sometimes a disease is fatal and contagious to others, such as feline AIDS or leukemia.  Health problems falling somewhere in-between are evaluated on a case by case basis.

What is "adjusting reasonably well"?

Many animals accept this change in living environment very well, and remain friendly and happy.  Some animals are fine for a while, but begin to deteriorate behaviorally over time.  Some animals though, while fine with your family and in your home, simply may not be able to adjust at the stress of a caged environment with many other animals nearby.  Cats, especially those that are declawed, generally have a more difficult adjustment, so we try to give them a little longer to settle in if we can.  The number of available cages, as well as the stress level of the particular animal, plays a part in how long an animal may be kept.  We simply do not feel that it is humane to force an animal to live in a cage for an extended period of time if it is not eating, drinking, or sleeping well due to a very high stress level.

Do you euthanize animals if you cannot find a home for them?

Yes and No.  We do sometimes authorize euthanasia by a veterinarian due to illness or injury.  In general, we do not have euthanasia facilities at our Shelter.However, we do transfer animals to other shelters where euthanasia may occur.  There are far more animals who lose their homes than we are able to place into new ones.  Also, some animals are not what we consider adoptable, and we try to help owners see this realistically.  For example, someone coming in for a cat is not going to look past the 20 cats who use the litter box to choose the one who probably will urinate all over their house.  They are not going to choose the one that they can’t even touch in its cage without being bitten.  Someone coming in for a dog is not going to look past the 20 friendly ones to choose the one they will always worry may bite someone.  They are not going to choose the one we know will need the $1000+ hip surgery before long.  They generally are not going to choose the 10 year old animal with potential health problems over a young, healthy dog or cat.  We have to weigh all these things against the number of cages we have available to house all the animals brought to us.

Are all surrendered animals put up for adoption?

No.  While many people have had a number of animals throughout their lives and feel that their animal is perfectly adoptable, we have the experience of several thousand animals a year and what makes for a successful adoption behind us.  In choosing to leave your animal with us, you are choosing to allow us to make that determination for your animal.  What someone might choose to work with, or around, in an animal they have had for a while and are attached to is quite different from what most people are willing to take on in a brand new animal when there are so many others to choose from.  By and large, most people are looking for an animal that is as close to perfect as they can get in terms of health and behavior.  Many people have busy lives, and while possibly willing to work on housebreaking or a little obedience training, they don’t want to, or are not realistically able to, do a whole lot more.

Can I come back and get my animal if you are going to euthanize or transfer it?

No.  In leaving your animal with us, you have made the determination that you are unable or unwilling to care for it any longer, and you are entrusting us to make the decisions regarding your animal from now on.  We do the best we can for each animal released to us, taking into consideration the sheer volume of animals we receive.   Bringing your pet to us was probably a difficult decision for you – one that you thought long and hard about beforehand.  You have likely looked into all the available options before bringing your animal to us.  In most cases, the situation leading you to bring the animals to us will not have significantly changed, and since that situation was enough to make you choose to give up your pet, it was probably the right decision.

Can I call and find out if my animal was found a new home?

Yes.  If you would like to find out if your animal has found a new home, you can call us with the intake number and we will tell you if  the animal was placed, returned to its owner (for stray animals), euthanized (due to illness or injury), or  transferred to another Shelter.  In surrendering your animal to us, you signed a statement releasing all rights to that animal, and we will not discuss details on either the home the animal was adopted or returned to, or debate the reasons why it was transferred or euthanized.  We have policies in place to ensure that we serve each animal as best we can, even if that sometimes means making the decision to euthanize the animal or to transfer that animal to another shelter where it may be euthanized.  These decisions are very stressful for our staff and weigh heavily on us each and every day.

Some people prefer to just think that their animal has been placed; others want to know for sure.  Hopefully, we would be able to give you the good news you want, but we may not be able to, so please keep that in mind when making the decision to call.