Shelter reform takes the spotlight

Sharon Cornett, president of the Richmond Animal League’s Board of Directors, appeared before county supervisors last week, offering low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for homeless animals at the Chesterfield Animal Shelter. Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer Chesterfield’s homeless animal population is getting a lot of attention lately, as a number of local citizens and nonprofit organizations are stepping up on behalf of the temporary residents of the Chesterfield County Animal Shelter. Last week, a citizen-led coalition joined the Richmond Animal League (RAL) and the Richmond SPCA in addressing the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors about ways to reduce the number of animals euthanized at the shelter. While each group delivered independent proposals, their mission proved to be the same: saving animals’ lives.

Richmond Animal League

Both the Richmond SPCA and RAL presented partnership opportunities that would significantly impact the way the animal shelter does business.

Richmond Animal League (RAL) volunteers Paul Klingenson (left) and Cynthia Reed (right), along with veternarian Dr. Laura Drinkwine, prepare to take several animals to be sterlized. Soon, RAL will be able to provide on-site sterlization at its new spay/neuter clinic (background). The organization has offered to provide low-cost sterilization for homeless animals at the Chesterfield Animal Shelter. Page Dowdy/Chesterfield Observer RAL, a Chesterfield-based no- kill humane society, offered to provide the shelter with free transportation and low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for their cats and dogs prior to adoption.

“We truly want to eventually turn Chesterfield into a no-kill community,” said Sharon Cornett, president of RAL’s board of directors. “The foundation of that is spay-neuter.”

Currently, the animal shelter offers spay/ neuter vouchers when cats or dogs are adopted, making pet owners responsible for sterilizing their animals after they leave the shelter. State law requires sterilization of adult pets within 30 days of adoption, but it’s difficult to follow up on animals once they leave the shelter because of lack of manpower. This potentially increases the likelihood of unplanned animals winding up at the shelter.

Many public shelters, including Richmond and Henrico County, address this issue by spaying/neutering animals before they leave for their new homes. RAL is hoping its offer will enable the Chesterfield shelter to adopt a similar procedure.

“[The partnership] should ultimately reduce the number of animals going through the county shelter because there will be fewer animal births within the community,” explains Cornett.

Procedures would take place at the Loving Spay + Neuter Clinic, located in a 1,400- square-foot modular facility housed on RAL’s Midlothian property. The clinic is set to open within the next four to six weeks.

Police Chief Thierry Dupuis, who oversees the shelter, is reportedly excited about the proposal and the impact it could have on the shelter’s euthanasia statistics.

In 2008, 4,814 animals came through the county shelter. Of those, 1,351 animals were euthanized.

Richmond SPCA partnership

At the same meeting, Richmond SPCA CEO Robin Robertson Starr offered to partner with Chesterfield County like it has with both Richmond and Hanover County. Through such partnerships, the SPCA, a nonprofit, no-kill humane organization, aims to save the lives of healthy homeless animals by transferring them from municipal shelters to its own Robins-Starr Humane Center to be placed for adoption. Extending a partnership to Chesterfield falls into the organization’s longrange plan of creating a no-kill community throughout greater Richmond.

Since the SPCA partnered with Richmond’s animal care and control department in 2001, the combined euthanasia rate for both organizations has dropped 35 percent. For the past four years, the SPCA and Richmond have preserved the life of every healthy homeless animal to come through the city’s shelter. This year, Hanover, which partnered with the SPCA in 2008, will be able to say the same: It will have saved the life of every healthy homeless animal to come through its shelter in 2009.

“We have demonstrated empirically that it is possible to end the loss of life of healthy homeless animals if the right partnership and the necessary programs and services are in place,” Starr told Chesterfield supervisors. “We are very clear from our experience on what the formula for success is.”

That formula includes several key factors, including a mandatory spay/neuter policy, progressive adoption program and absolute transparency of results using a standardized data collection process. Once a partnership is in place, Starr believes the Chesterfield shelter could save the lives of all its healthy homeless animals within one to two years.

Both RAL and the Richmond SPCA presently have informal relationships with the county shelter, rescuing hundreds of animals from the shelter each year. Cornett and Starr said they’d be willing to collaborate.

Citizen action

Chesterfield citizens also spoke up on behalf of shelter animals at last week’s meeting, asking for shelter reform and offering solutions. Jane Wynsenfels and Jane Lanham, both members of the newly formed Coalition for Shelter Improvement, asked supervisors to establish an adjunct volunteer advisory committee to work toward shelter improvement.

“We feel that a citizen committee is imperative rather than simply passing suggestions to a police officer or supervisor who may or may not have animal welfare experience,” said Lanham, a Matoaca District resident.

Wysenfels, a Dale District resident, suggested the committee be made up of representatives from the shelter, animal rescue groups, county government, as well as community members. The coalition’s goals include a 100-percent compliant spay/neuter policy, increased volunteerism and an enhanced Web site for better communication with the community.

Matoaca District resident Bob Herndon also recommended that the shelter adopt a no-kill policy for healthy homeless animals, an action that would make the organization, working in tandem with a nonprofit group like the Chesterfield Humane Society or the SPCA, eligible for significant grant monies. Earlier this year, the SPCA/City of Richmond partnership received a $230,200 shared grant from Maddie’s Fund, a national pet-rescue foundation in California, for achieving two full calendar years of no healthy homeless animal dying. Maddie’s Fund offers smaller grants for organizations that make the commitment to save healthy homeless animals, easing the financial burden of such a transition.

As each individual offered up varying strategies and solutions for the betterment of the animal shelter, Herndon kept their shared purpose in mind. “There’s a number of things that fit together to form this puzzle that would improve the overall operation of the shelter, but it comes back to a central point: It’s about the animals,” he said. “The animals have to be kept at the forefront of the conversation, realizing it’s their welfare that’s at stake.”