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| February, 2012 | Beat The Heat: Spay your cat for $20 during the month of February |
| October 27-29, 2011 | Dogs In Greenville - Pet Photography |
| September 26, 2011 | Help Us Stop Littering! |
| July 14, 2011 | Programs prevent pet euthanasia |
| March 20, 2011 | Al Clark: Miracle pup illustrates need |
| June 6, 2010 | Low-cost spay and neuter clinic at max capacity |
| April 20, 2010 | Board Votes to Have All Shelter Animals Fixed |
| April 18, 2010 | Advocates Asking Board to Mandate Spaying, Neutering |
| November 10, 2007 | Expanded Services for Spay Today Could Help County Pet Overpopulation |
| April 30, 2007 | Goodwill Glimmers at Animal Shelter |
| April 15, 2007 | Editorial: Help them - Pitt Shelter Faces Overwhelming Burden |
| April 15, 2007 | Al Clark: Although the image shocked, in the end, it will help the animals |
| April 10, 2007 | Clinic Struggles to Make Ends Meet |
| February 25, 2007 | People and Their Pets: Locals work to make animals a focal point |
| April 20, 2006 | Clinic Works to Reduce Pet Euthanasia |
Beat the Heat!
Click to Print Flyer
For the month of February 2012, get your female cat spayed for just $20!
You must mention "Beat The Heat" when making your appointment to get the $20 deal.
To make an apppointment, please call:
252-321-8839
We are hosting a Beat the Heat spay/neuter special throughout the month of February to spay female cats for just $20. We are trying to reach cat owners before their feline goes into heat and begins reproducing unwanted litters in our community, which arrive in the spring.
Cats can have about three litters per year, so reaching people with female cats is very important. Take advantage of this great opportunity and bring your cat down to Spay Today!
Help Us Stop Littering!
Click to enlarge
Announcing a new postcard in circulation since September 26, 2011 to raise awareness to spay or neuter your pet!
Every year, thousands of cats and dogs are euthanized in our region due to overcrowded animal shelters. Since May 2006, Spay Today has helped control the pet population in Eastern North Carolina by altering over 13,000 cats and dogs. Help us stop littering! Spay or neuter your pet today!
Postcard design donated by InTandem Inc.
Programs Prevent Pet Euthanasia
By: Kim Grizzard, The Daily Reflector
Published: July 14, 2011
When Stephen Zawistowski got his first dog 50 years ago, she was the only dog in the neighborhood that was spayed.
“She had an incision that must have been a foot long and was sewn up with what looked like piano wire,” says Zawistowski, science adviser for the New York-based American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
It took years of campaigning to change thinking about sterilizing pets, but it has paid off. This year fewer than 4 million unwanted dogs and cats will be euthanized, down from as many as 20 million before 1970.
The steep decline in the number of animals being euthanized each year comes even as the pet population has boomed. In 1970, there were about 62 million companion pets, and today there are about 170 million, Zawistowski said.
There are several reasons: Aggressive adopt-a-pet campaigns are carried out every day in cities all over the country and breed rescues save many dogs. But animal experts believe spaying and neutering has played the biggest role in saving so many lives.
“The face of animal control and animal sheltering is changing, slowly but surely,” Pitt County Animal Shelter Manager Michele Whaley said. “We're been very proactive (with adoptions), which I think is contributing directly to our numbers. But being aggressive and pushing spay/neuter initiatives is the only way we're going to get our (euthanization) numbers down.”
The local animal shelter is among many shelters, private rescue or animal welfare organizations in the country that donate money, space or time to low-cost spay and neuter clinics. For the last five years, the county has provided operating space to Spay Today, a low-cost spay/neuter clinic located adjacent to the shelter on County Home Road.
Opened in May 2006 with support from SPCA of Pitt County, Saving Graces 4 Felines and Friends of the Pitt County Animal Shelter, the clinic sterilized more than 4,000 animals last year. Spay Today — modeled after Asheville-based Humane Alliance, which has sterilized more than 265,000 animals in western North Carolina and has mentored 90 clinics nationwide — has sterilized 14,000 animals in the past six years.
In that time, the number of animals being euthanized at the shelter has decreased from more than 3,200 to about 2,000 a year.
Despite an increase in the county's human population, the numbers of animals taken into the shelter also has declined from a peak of more than 5,000 in 2006 to about 3,300 last year.
“The 2010 intake numbers and animals euthanized were low,” said Linda Mazer, who serves on the board of directors for Spay Today. “(You can) look at the numbers yourself. They're fairly impressive.”
Last year, Pitt County joined a growing number of animal shelters across the nation to require all shelter animals to be sterilized. The Pitt County Board of Commissioners voted in April 2010 to provide pet owners with a spay/neuter certificate that could be redeemed at Spay Today or at local veterinarians' offices.
Just last week, the county took another step to encourage owners to have their pets spayed or neutered. Beginning July 1, owners reclaiming their pets at the shelter pay twice as much ($50 for a first offense) if those pets are unaltered.
“There's been a lot of progress,” Mazer said. “In order to solve this, it's a full community effort.”
Mazer credited Saving Graces 4 Felines' trap, neuter and release program for feral cats launched in 2002, with helping to decrease the number of cats that end up at the shelter.
Betty Williams, medical director for Spay Today, said continuing efforts include providing financial assistance to low-income families who cannot afford the $40-$75 fees the clinic charges to spay or neuter pets. The clinic recently received a grant to help cover costs of the procedure for dogs, and there is some funding available for qualifying cat owners as well.
In conjunction with its efforts to decrease pet euthanasia rates and increase adoptions, the county animal shelter is competing in the ASPCA Save More Lives $100,000 Challenge, which will award prize money to competing shelters that increase the number of animals they save. A kickoff event, “One Shelter-One Goal-Empty the Shelter Challenge,” is scheduled for Aug. 6.
“Everyone is working very hard to make a difference,” Mazer said.
“We're not attributing this entire drop (in euthanizations) to Spay Today, to just spay and neuter efforts,” she said. “We believe the whole community is doing something right here.”
Staff writer Kim Grizzard contributed to this story. Contact her at 252-329-9578.
“One Shelter-One Goal-Empty the Shelter Challenge,” is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Aug. 6 at the Pitt County Animal Shelter, 4550 County Home Road. For more information about spay/neuter financial assistance for qualifying low-income families, call 321-8839 or visit www.spaytoday.net
(c) 2011 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Al Clark: Miracle Pup Illustrates Need
By: Al Clark,The Daily Reflector
Published: March 20, 2011
The story came out of Sulphur, Okla., earlier this month of an animal shelter's attempt to euthanize a puppy that later was found alive in a trash bin reserved for dead animals.
The dog was found near the local shelter on a Friday and later that day was injected with two doses of a sedative, normally more than enough to kill it.
But Saturday morning the pup “was prancing around. He heard me drive up, and he looked up and saw me,” the animal control officer said. “He was as healthy as he could be.”
After word of the puppy's unlikely survival went viral, thousands of people from the United States and Canada reportedly offered to adopt it. The animal control officials said they never have seen so many people wanting to adopt an animal — an ironically wrenching postscript to a remarkably happy ending.
That's because thousands and thousands of other pups, kittens, dogs and cats across the country are right now living their final hours, their chances of surviving tomorrow's date with euthanasia essentially zero. And in one of our society's great sadnesses, there are no thousands in line to adopt these lost animals.
Here in Pitt County last week, 29 dogs and 37 cats came into the county animal shelter, said its director Michele Whaley. Of these, 18 dogs and 22 cats were put down. The week before, 38 dogs and 22 cats came in; 11 dogs and 14 cats were killed.
Day in, day out, week in, week out, the numbers vary somewhat, but they don't stop. These animals at shelters here and everywhere continue to face backs consistently turned away from them, while one — just one — of all their staggering number became a national pick of the litter — one to live while thousands upon thousands died.
While this story uplifts and then deflates us, all the news on this front is not so dire. Michele Whaley also told me this past week that the month of February was the local animal shelter's most successful month for finding homes for animals since the county took over shelter operations in July of 2002. Homes were found for 86 dogs and 17 cats during the month, she said. January also was a good month as 74 dogs and 24 cats were adopted from the shelter.
At least some of this success can be attributed to the shelter's efforts with traditional and social media to get the word out about the animals that are available for adoption, Whaley said.
Another continuing success story is the county's Spay Today clinic, which averages now 30 low-cost, spay and neuter operations daily, some 12,000 since the clinic opened in 2006, veterinarian Betty Williams said. The nonprofit clinic's goal is to eliminate euthanasia as a means of population control in local shelters.
Williams said, however, that donations are a continuing need at the clinic, to help subsidize the operations for pets of those owners who might avoid them because of cost and also to expand the clinic's size to increase the overall number of operations it can perform.
With the official arrival of spring today, the most active season for puppies and kittens will soon be here. There is no better time than this to add to the family an animal that otherwise faces a death sentence for the simple crime of having been born.
Don't wait for another miracle to save it.
(c) 2011 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Low Cost Spay-Neuter Clinic At Max Capacity
By: Al Clark,The Daily Reflector
Published: June 6, 2010
A local group that has been responsible for altering thousands of pets has found itself in a bit of a fix. There is too little room at Spay Today, a low-cost spay and neuter clinic that operates beside the Pitt County Animal Shelter. Eighty to 100 animals are sterilized each week in the 1,400-square-foot mobile unit.
"We cannot do any more procedures than we are currently doing," said Dick Carney, a member of Spay Today's board of directors. "Unless we can grow the whole operation, we're going to max out at 25 animals a day, and that's not going to make a dent. Well, it's not going to make the dent we wanted to make."
The nonprofit organization, which has spayed or neutered more than 6,000 cats and dogs since it opened in 2006, hopes to increase its numbers to 6,000 a year. The increase, in part, could come from a recent county mandate requiring all animals adopted from the animal shelter to be spayed or neutered. The Pitt County Board of Commissioners voted in April to change a shelter policy that provided pet owners with a spay/neuter certificate that could be redeemed at Spay Today or at local veterinarians' offices.
Of nearly 900 dogs and cats adopted from the shelter last year, more than 40 percent were unaltered. But it is not just the number of animals leaving the shelter unaltered that has been a concern for Spay Today. It's the number of animals that never leave the shelter at all.
Of the approximately 4,700 animals taken in at the shelter in 2009, more than 3,200 were euthanized. "Nine out of 10 folks walking the street don't realize how many animals never make it out of that shelter," Carney said. "Our motivation is to cut down that number, and this is the most proven way to do it."
Across the country, campaigns to promote adoptions from shelters have done little to reverse the statistics. The Humane Society of the United States estimates that 3 million to 4 million animals are euthanized each year in shelters, prompting veterinarian and Cornell University professor Janet M. Scarlett to label euthanasia the leading killer of pets.
Although 135 million pets in America have homes, experts say adoption simply cannot keep pace with the birth rate. Spay Today Clinic Director Betty Williams said unaltered pets and their unaltered offspring reproduce exponentially, resulting in tens of thousands of animals in just a few years.
"I like to compare it to the way the county handles rabies," Williams said. "Instead of waiting until the animals get rabies and then treating them, they put lots of money into preventing rabies from ever happening. It's a proactive policy.
"With the overpopulation problem, it's the reverse," she said. "It's a reactive policy. The puppies and kittens are born, and then they get rid of them instead of preventing them from ever being born to begin with."
Williams, founding veterinarian for Spay Today, estimates the group's efforts have prevented more than 36,000 births. While there is no way to determine how many of these pets might have ended up in the shelter, she said that if even 20 percent were housed there at the current processing cost of more than $100 per animal, then Spay Today has potentially saved the county about $800,000.
Although the county provides the space for it to operate, Spay Today receives no county funding. It covers costs through spay/neuter fees, which range from $40-$95, as well as private donations. The organization needs to raise an estimated $100,000 to double its space by adding a second modular unit, plus pay for additional equipment.
"A lot of people you talk to, say, 'Oh, yeah, we wish we could do something,'" said Patty Allison, president of Spay Today's board of directors. "This is the time to do it. We just can't do it by ourselves." Williams said the space that additional funding would provide would allow Spay Today to begin a transport program that could target low-income areas and neighborhoods with the highest number of animals relinquished to the shelter.
Humane Alliance, an Asheville-based spay/neuter clinic that began in 1994, uses such a transport system to serve a 23-county area. The nationally recognized clinic sterilizes 23,000 animals a year and has been credited with a 70 percent reduction in the euthanasia rate at Asheville's animal shelter.
Spay Today is among more than 70 clinics in 27 states that are part of Humane Alliance's National Spay Neuter Response Team program. Spay Today staff members received their training through Humane Alliance, which seeks to educate owners whose dogs traditionally have not received veterinary care.
More than 60 percent of the dogs and cats that staff veterinarian Meghan MacKay sees at Spay Today have not visited a vet's office. Spay Today offers a limited number of other services, including heartworm testing, only on the day of the surgery. Owners are referred to area veterinarians' offices for continuing care.
The majority of Spay Today's clients have not even had their state-mandated rabies shots, although the county offers low-cost rabies vaccination clinics twice ayear. Some owners are unsettled by the idea of sterilizing their animals, mainly, MacKay said, due to misconceptions about the procedure. Some fear that it will change a pet's personality or cause it to become overweight. Both MacKay and Williams tout the health benefits of the surgery, which has been shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer in female dogs and the risk of feline AIDS in cats.
Spaying and neutering also have been linked to decreased aggression and decreased roaming, Williams said, which makes pets less likely to be hit by cars. "It's just a matter of educating folks," Carney said. "Eventually, the problem (of pet overpopulation) would go away and fix itself rather than continuing to have to be fixed."
(c) 2010 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Board Votes to Have All Shelter Animals Fixed
The Daily Reflector
Published April 20, 2010
All animals from the county shelter will now be spayed or neutered before they leave with their new families following Monday action by Pitt County Board of Commissioners.
Commissioners approved the mandate at the request of Michele Whaley, Pitt County animal control director, whose made the recommendation on behalf of the Animal Control Advisory Board.
"I'm excited," Whaley said. "I think it is a big step and the right step for Pitt County. If we continue to put animals out there unaltered, we are just adding to the problem of overpopulation."
Previously, those adopting shelter animals were encouraged to have animals spayed or neutered, but it was not a requirement. Families now will typically have to wait a day for the animal to be altered after it is adopted, Whaley said.
The cost for adoption will not be changed and includes the cost of the spay or neuter operation. Adoption fees are $75 for dogs or puppies plus a $10 rabies vaccination. For cats and kittens, the fees are $50 plus the $10 rabies vaccination.
Whaley said the program will help decrease the animal population of Pitt County, free up space at the shelter, lower the number of animals that must be put to sleep and ultimately save the county money.
Forty-three percent of the 887 dogs and cats adopted in 2009 were unaltered when they left the shelter, according to data collected by animal control workers. Just less than one-third of the owners were contacted to see if their pets had been spayed or neutered. Twenty percent of the animals had been altered, the survey showed, and 5 percent had not been altered. About 15 percent of the animals were scheduled for surgery, according to the survey.
Animal advocates support the spaying and neutering of shelter animals, saying it reduces the stray pet population.
According to information in a memorandum sent to commissioners, the shelter has an agreement with the Spay Today clinic to ensure surgeries can be performed the next day or on Monday for weekend adoption.
Also Monday, commissioners named Kimberly Hines as the new Pitt County clerk to the board. She will replace Trish Staton, who resigned in February.
Hines was hired in 2001 as a deputy clerk and received both her associate of arts degree in business administration and associate of applied science in marketing/sales degree from Pitt Community College. She holds a certified municipal clerk (CMC) designation and is working toward the master municipal clerk (MMC) designation.
The board also gave final approval to name the county recreation park on County Home Road in honor of Alice Keene, special projects coordinator for Pitt County Community Schools and Recreation.
(c) 2010 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Advocates Asking Board to Mandate Spaying, Neutering
The Daily Reflector
Published April 18, 2010
Local animal advocates are asking the Pitt County Board of Commissioners to mandate spaying and neutering of all animals adopted from the county shelter.
Michele Whaley, Pitt County animal control director, will present commissioners with a recommendation from the Animal Control Advisory Board at today's 6 p.m. meeting being held in the commissioners' auditorium at the county office building, 1717 W. Fifth St.
While adoptees of shelter animals are encouraged to sterilize animals, it's not required. Forty-three percent of the 887 dogs and cats adopted in 2009 were unaltered when they left the shelter, according to data collected by animal control workers. Just under one-third of the owners were contacted to see if their pets had been spayed or neutered.
Twenty percent of the animals had been altered, the survey showed, and 5 percent had not been altered. About 15 percent of the animals were scheduled for surgery, according to the survey. Animal advocates support the spaying and neutering of shelter animals, saying it reduces the stray pet population.
According to information in a memorandum sent to commissioners,the shelter has an agreement with the Spay Today Clinic to ensure surgeries can be performed the next day or on Monday for weekend adoption.
(c) 2010 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Expanded Services for Spay Today Could Help County Pet Overpopulation
By Brock Letchworth, The Daily Reflector
Published November 10, 2007
A local veterinarian is hoping she can help Pitt County's pet overpopulation problem by expanding spay and neutering services.
Dr. Betty Williams, director of the Pitt County Spay Today Spay/Neuter Clinic, said she hopes to be able to spay or neuter as many as 5,000 animals per year after county commissioners agreed Monday to a lease for more space at the clinic's current location beside the Pitt County Animal Shelter on County Home Road.
Spay Today will be taking over the space previously occupied by Saving Graces 4 Felines, a nonprofit, no-kill shelter for cats. Saving Graces 4 Felines will continue to work out of PetSmart.
The Spay Today clinic has performed more than 2,000 surgeries for pets owned by low-income families or animals adopted from the animal shelter since opening in May 2006, Williams said, but it has not been enough to help the overpopulation problem.
"Up until now, we've been doing about eight or 10 animals a day," Williams said. "Our goal is to do 25 per day. Just doing eight or 10 a day is not going to solve any problems for the county or the region."
Williams said statistics have shown an area with the population of Pitt County can cut down on the number of homeless animals and animals entering the shelter by performing 5,000 surgeries a year.
Spay Today has been operating in a 700-square-foot building capable of housing only four dogs and six cats each day. Phil Dickerson, county engineer, estimated the new modular building it is moving into will give the clinic an additional 400 square feet to work with.
"There is just not enough room for both entities so Spay Today is going to take over the building and it will allow them to do more," Dickerson said.
Michele Whaley, director of the animal shelter, said there are about 4,500 animals euthanized in Pitt County each year at a cost of more than $400,000. The increased space will help cut down on those costs, Williams said.
"It costs a whole lot less to spay or neuter them," Williams said. "You need to come in from the prevention side instead of just housing and killing them all of the time like we've been doing for the last 50 years or so."
Brock Letchworth can be contacted at 329-9574 or bletchworth@coxnc.com.
Veterinarian Michelle Cox performs a routine spay on an adult cat at Spay Today Spay/Neuter Clinic on County Home Road in Pitt County on Friday afternoon. Greg Eans/The Daily Reflector
(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Goodwill Glimmers at Animal Shelter
By Amanda Karr, The Daily Reflector
Published April 30, 2007
A boost in donations and adoptions in the past couple of weeks was welcome by local animal advocates, but the solution must ultimately be long-term, they say.
A Daily Reflector story earlier this month described how crowded conditions at the Pitt County Animal Shelter results in euthanization of many animals there and the efforts of animal advocates to stop the cycle through spaying and neutering.
"The first two days after that story hit we were busy in a good way," said Michele Whaley, director of the county animal shelter. "There were lots of adoptions. Now it's kind of settling down."
But animals are still coming in. Twenty-nine new dogs - many of them puppies - arrived at the shelter Monday.
"Spay and neuter is going to be the only eventual way," Whaley said.
Marilyn Thompson, co-founder of Saving Graces 4 Felines, agreed. Saving Graces is a nonprofit organization established in 2002 that takes in unwanted cats. The organization traps, sterilizes and releases feral cats.
"You cannot adopt out all the animals, you just can't. We decided we'd go this route to keep the unwanted births from happening," she said, referring to Spay Today, the spay and neuter clinic the organization helped launch last year.
Owned by local veterinarian Betty Williams, the Spay Today Clinic offers low cost spay and neutering services to those with low incomes and also provides the service to animals adopted from the Pitt County Animal Shelter.
Williams said the clinic experienced an increase in donations and people calling for appointments to have their animals spayed or neutered in the week after the newspaper article.
Animal advocates hope that a less tangible benefit - awareness of the problem - has increased among the public.
"People are talking about it, and that's a good thing," Whaley said.
Some animals the shelter euthanizes are sick or injured, or were brought in because they bit a person. Others are killed because there aren't enough people willing to adopt them, Whaley explained.
In 2005, 4,890 animals were brought to the shelter. About 60 percent were euthanized. The remainder were adopted or reclaimed by their owners, according to animal shelter statistics.
"I hear people say 'I didn't realize how bad it was at the animal shelter,'" Williams said. "I think people should know."
The number of euthanizations has fluctuated between 2002 and 2005, ranging between 2,917 to 3,232 animals killed each year. Animal advocates believe that number will drop as more animals are spayed and neutered. "If we can keep (Spay Today) going, I think every year you'll see better numbers on the kill side," Thompson said.
The clinic, however, runs entirely on donations, which places it on shaky financial footing. Williams said she valued the recent donations. She hopes to hear back soon on her application for the clinic to become a nonprofit, which she hopes will help her obtain grant money. In the meantime, Whaley said the warm weather seems to encourage people to adopt, but she expects a typical mid-summer slump as people leave town on vacation.
Pitt County Animal Shelter
Contact information:
4550 County Home Road
902-1725
Adoption Hours:
Monday to Friday, 1-5:30 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
To see pets up for adoption:
www.pittcoanimalshelter.petfinder.com
Spay Today
Contact information:
4550B County Home Road
321-8839
Hours:
Monday-Friday, 1-5 p.m.
Saturday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
To make a tax-deductible donation:
Make checks out to: "Spay Today Fund"
Mail to: P.O. Box 4307, Greenville, NC 27836
Amanda Karr can be contacted at akarr@coxnc.com and 329-9574.
(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Editorial: Help them - Pitt Shelter Faces Overwhelming Burden
The Daily Reflector
Published April 15, 2007
Spring might be called "puppy" season. It's a time when those animals close to us - dogs and cats - begin to have litters in increasing numbers. One result is an irresistible face with big eyes and floppy ears; another result is abandonment, sickness and death. It can be the best or worst of times for these animals and for those assigned to manage them.
Pitt County's animal shelter, a 58-kennel, county-owned facility, shoulders much of that burden in this community. It takes in stray animals found abandoned by the road. It takes almost as many from owners who because they are moving or for some other reason say they can no longer keep the animals.
That might not be such a bad thing except there is no room at the shelter to house and feed so many. As a result, many are put down.
As reported in The Daily Reflector this past week, the Pitt County shelter euthanized approximately 1,900 animals between July 2006 and March of this year. About half the dogs brought in to the shelter met this fate. Nearly 75 percent of the cats were killed.
Nationally, between three and four million dogs and cats are euthanized by the country's four to six thousand shelters each year - about the same number adopted from these shelters.
The numbers are astounding. And perplexing to those who are closely drawn to the animals but also must make the decision on which ones live and which die.
Pitt's animal shelter, though it was expanded recently, can only do so much to handle this volume. Its facilities are such that euthanasia must be performed at the doomed dog's kennel since there are no other rooms available.
But even a larger facility would not deal with the real problem: unwanted animals. Shelter personnel say that many animals are simply not adoptable because of temperament or other factors; others often become this way after being caged for several months.
The best hope for these animals remains in spay and neuter clinics. Locally, the Spay Today clinic opened adjacent to the shelter about a year ago and in its first year performed surgeries on 419 dogs and 548 cats. Consider that one cat could have as many as three litters of six kittens a year, and one dog could produce two litters of up to 10 puppies - it's clear the clinic saved countless animals in Pitt County in the last year.
Unfortunately this clinic continues to struggle financially. Its fees are low since it handles all surgeries on animals adopted from the shelter, and it also performs surgeries on animals whose owners qualify as low-income.
The clinic depends on this revenue along with donations to keep going and volunteers to help out. It also operates in a building leased for $1 from the county to a local group, Saving Graces for Felines. Organizers hope to change its status to that of a separate nonprofit organization which would enable it to apply for grant funding.
But absent these income sources, the clinic could fail. This would be a calamity for a community like this one, a community accustomed to being part of solutions, not just problems.
Keep this in mind the next time your eye is attracted to the cute puppy in a back yard nearby or to the sad stray who died a tortured death on the highway. There are ways to help; the time to do so is now.
(c) 2007 Cooke Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Al Clark: Although the image shocked, in the end, it will help the animals
By Al Clark, The Daily Reflector
Published April 15, 2007
Sitting alone to ponder an issue is a good thing, but it often leads only to the next thing - or maybe a snack. But conversation, even, or especially, if heated, can lead to action.
The newspaper and its readers had such a talk this past week in the form of e-mail exchanges, phone calls and comments on Reflector.com. The exchange was sometimes strident, but generally civil and on point, although a few misconceptions remain. But good has already come of it.
I am speaking of the dogs and cats of the Pitt County Animal Shelter on whose behalf the newspaper wrote last Tuesday.
The package in the newspaper and on our Web site included two stories and several pictures, including one well composed and provocative photo of a dog in the early stages of euthanasia.
We received quite a few e-mail messages about this package. At last count there were more than 40 comments attached to the story on Reflector.com. The majority of the comments were positive, while about all of the negative comment focused on the picture, which ran large across the top of our Local & State page.
Here is a sampling of some of the comments we received, either through e-mail or at Reflector.com:
- Kudos to you for the story and the picture that certainly told quite a story.
- I understand the importance of educating people about this issue, but I think another method would have been more appropriate.
- I would like to see your article (and picture) printed in every paper in the country.
- The shock tactic is effective and equally deplorable.
- Would you also unscrupulously show a photo of a human corpse, without a warning of graphic content?
- I think anyone who has negative comments to make should go to the shelter and volunteer a couple hours ...
A few writers suggested that the photo was staged. This is one of the misconceptions I mentioned. The picture was taken as shelter workers carried out the euthanasia procedure at the kennel where the dog was kept. There is no separate area at the shelter for this process - something perhaps not made clear in our package and misunderstood by some readers. But the scene was exactly as our reporter and photographer found it.
Was the picture in good taste?
Editors work hard to weigh all sides in situations like this, but always forefront in their minds is the news, the issue itself. What really is the story? While the picture was disturbing, the consensus here was that it best illustrated this heart-wrenching subject. It did so in an unsettling way, but it hardly was as graphic as what can be seen many days along our highways - we could have shot that picture instead.
We also considered at length whether to put the package on the newspaper's front page. Instead, we opted for the front of the second section to allow for some warning before the image hit the breakfast table.
In the end, though this reality is harsh, I believe it's better to know it, and see it, than not. And in this story, the picture carried the emotional power its words could not - the power to move people, perhaps to complain but also to volunteer, donate or have their pet neutered.
Those are the results that matter. Anecdotal indicators this week suggest there is increased activity at the shelter and at some veterinarian's offices, while we have received reports of people planning to donate to the Spay Today Clinic after seeing the stories.
That's the important thing, regardless of what you think about the newspaper, its pictures, stories or editors. I hope as this conversation ends that everyone's focus returns to where it should be - on the shelter and its animals, our animals.
(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Clinic Struggles to Make Ends Meet
By Amanda Karr, The Daily Reflector
Published April 10, 2007
The new Spay Today Clinic has played its part in reducing unwanted dog and cat births, but is still struggling to get on firm financial footing. The clinic opened about a year ago in a building next to the Pitt County Animal Shelter and offers spay and neuter services for animals adopted from the shelter and for pets owned by people with low incomes.
In its first year, 419 dogs, 548 pet cats and 212 feral cats underwent the surgeries at the clinic as operator and veterinarian Betty Williams watched costs. "This past year, we've just been squeaking by," she said. "We need to hire more assistants to be able to make a bigger difference."
Donations and revenue from the operations are the clinic's only source of income. Volunteers also help out, and the clinic operates out of part of a building leased for $1 from the county by Saving Graces for Felines.
"We need funds. Because our prices are so low, it's hard to keep going without donations," Williams said. Williams has applied to have the clinic declared a separate nonprofit organization and hopes she'll then be able to get grant money to help fund the clinic. She and others are dedicated to keeping the clinic running because of its importance.
"Locally, there are so many unwanted animals," she said. "Being here every day and watching what happens at the shelter is heartbreaking. So many beautiful cats and dogs are being killed over there."
Michele Whaley, director of the shelter, agreed. "The only way we're ever going to stop this cycle is to spay and neuter," she said.
All of the animals adopted out of the shelter are spayed and neutered at the clinic or the new pet owners are given a voucher to return and have the procedure done at a later date.
"We need that clinic desperately," Whaley said. "If they don't (stay) we're back to the same thing with not even being able to play a part in the solution." Whaley and Williams are optimistic the clinic will ultimately make a difference in the county's pet population. "You're not going to see a dent in the first year, but maybe in five years," Whaley said.
(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
People and Their Pets: Locals work to make animals a focal point
By Kim Grizzard, The Daily Reflector
Published February 25, 2007
Greenville is going to the dogs (and cats). Like other communities across the country, the city is planning its first off-leash dog park. The nearly 3-acre park would be near the South Tar River Greenway.
While a proposed dog park will not fetch Greenville a top spot in AAA's dog-friendliest cities list, it is a sign of that pets are making progress.
The area is home to several animal welfare agencies, including the N.C. Department of Agriculture's first licensed and regulated shelter for cats infected with feline leukemia virus. Marley Fund, founded in 2001, is the only nonprofit organization in the country dedicated to sheltering animals with feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency viruses.
Marley Fund focuses its efforts on testing and public awareness, in part through marketing of the Marley Calendar, a FeLV/FIV educational publication that features pictures of cats selected from submissions from 15 states and two foreign countries.
Also promoting cat welfare is Saving Graces 4 Felines, founded in 2002. SG4F, a volunteer, nonprofit cat-rescue and adoption organization, opened its adoption center as well as the Spay Today clinic with veterinarian Betty Williams in 2006. The clinic offers reduced cost spay and neuter services for low-income pet owners and for animals adopted from the Pitt County Animal Shelter.
The shelter, which began operating as a county agency in 2002, expanded in 2005 and can now house 58 dogs and 24 cats and has a dozen areas for puppies. The shelter's efforts to promote animal adoption - including foster agency Pitt Friends and the New Leash on Life program, which pairs an inmate with a dog for eight weeks of obedience training and socialization - helped shelter employee Elizabeth Shirley win a national award from Pedigree dog food company earlier this year.
The newly named Humane Society of Eastern Carolina is likely Pitt County's oldest animal welfare agency. Formerly named the Pitt County Humane Society, it was organized in the late 1920s to serve as a haven for homeless and neglected pets. The group works to educate owners about animal welfare issues and to promote animal adoption.
(c) 2007 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector
Clinic Works to Reduce Pet Euthanasia
By Jennifer White, The Daily Reflector
Published April 20, 2006
Four-month-old Max was still groggy 90 minutes after being neutered Wednesday. The pit bull mix didn't need a fancy house to recuperate. A cardboard box in the new Spay Today Clinic provided the perfect nap time retreat for the pup, who is waiting to be adopted.
Spay Today allows low-income families to have their pets neutered or spayed for a nominal fee. The clinic opened March 30 and is supported by Saving Graces for Felines, a nonprofit organization that helps find homes for stray, abandoned and undomesticated cats.
Saving Graces and the clinic operate out of a new modular facility at 4550 County Home Road across from the Pitt County Animal Shelter.
Until the facility opened in March, Saving Graces ran for nearly four years out of private homes and did adoptions at PetSmart, co-founder Marilyn Smith said. Even then the organization provided low-cost sterilization services through partnerships with local veterinary clinics.
Saving Graces has adopted out about 2,200 cats and sterilized about 2,500, Smith said. Once a permanent facility was purchased, the organization decided to open its own spay clinic.
"We're never going to adopt our way out of this mess in Pitt County," Smith said. "I'd rather do something proactive on the front end of things and try to lessen the burden of the unwanted cats and dogs."
Families that meet low-income standards as determined by the Pitt County Department of Social Services can get a cat sterilized and vaccinated against rabies for $35. The same services cost $50 for a dog. Smith said that Spay Today does not offer a full range of veterinary services and is not intended to be a pet's primary clinic. The clinic will only treat a pet once and relies on private donations to supplement the cost of treating the animals.
Smith said that the Pitt County Animal Shelter had to euthanize about 3,600 cats and dogs between July 1, 2004, to June 30, 2005. She said the clinic has an agreement with the shelter to sterilize animals there prior to them being adopted.
"It's heartbreaking to see all the animals that are euthanized here," said Betty Williams, the clinic's veterinarian. "It means a lot to me to try to help these animals."
Saving Graces and Spay Today received some initial funding from Friends of the Pitt County Animal Shelter. The local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also donated money. Since then, Spay Today has benefited from an Eagle Scout project to sell specialized bricks to honor or memorialize a pet. The bricks cost between $75 and $5,000 and will pave the facility's new sidewalk.
"If we failed, the worst thing that would have happened is that we spayed and neutered a lot of cats and dogs," Smith said. "We're going to do everything in our means to make it work."
(c) 2006 Cox Newspapers, Inc. - The Daily Reflector