Region’s shelters have grappled with variety of problems

By KELBY HARTSON CARR

MYTH: If an animal-shelter inspector discovers several dogs packed into a dirty run snapping at each other, the inspector will force the shelter to improve.

FACT: Inspectors have witnessed such things in the region. Nearly every shelter in the Fredericksburg area has repeatedly failed state standards, but inspectors have little power to make shelters fix problems.

Some shelters are so outdated that they are beyond compliance, the floors too cracked and peeling to ever truly get clean.

Some are so overcrowded, dogs and cats are kept in the same room and sick animals cannot be isolated.

Some have euthanized nearly three-quarters of the dogs and cats they handled from 1997 to 2000. Forty-five thousand animals have been put to death at 10 regional shelters during that time, more than double Fredericksburg’s human
population.

But even falling short of the state’s strict standards, shelters serve a much-needed purpose. Without them, packs of animals would roam the streets. They would reproduce unchecked. Many would die painfully from starvation or disease.

The people who work in shelters do so because of their love for animals, not a desire to kill pets. They are usually the ones fighting the hardest for improvements.

But the system is imperfect. Shelters struggle with too little funding to correct problems. State inspectors have too little authority to make shelters follow the rules.

“There was no teeth in the law,” said Del. Harvey Morgan, a Republican whose district includes Caroline County. “The inspectors would find these localities not in compliance, but all they could do was keep telling them, ‘You’re not in compliance.’”

Morgan is responsible for a new law that goes into effect Tuesday imposing fines up to $1,000 on shelters that fail standards. Morgan’s law initially proposed starting fines six months ago, but he pushed for the delay to give shelters more time to comply.

“They are making every effort to bring their facilities up to code, but it’s expensive,” he said. “I’m willing to crawl before I walk.”

The law follows a study Morgan pushed the assembly to order three years ago into what he called “multiple and chronic problems with attaining compliance.”

The study he ordered revealed that a mere 11 of the state’s 110 shelters were either in compliance or had only minor infractions the previous year.

Problems range from the serious, which threaten animal safety, to the tiny, such as failing to have filled out forms properly or keep a log of room temperatures.

Shelter officials say some rules are too picky, and Dr. Eileen Kellner, the state’s regional veterinarian in charge of inspections for all but one of the area’s 10 shelters, agrees. But she has no middle ground; the form allows her to check only “yes” or “no” for compliance. That means the reports can often be misleading.

A common failure, for instance, is for cleanliness. Most times, this is due
to the building being outdated, with floors that have deteriorated to the
point they can’t be cleaned properly.

“When we check ‘no,’ it doesn’t mean the shelter isn’t cleaned daily,” she said.

Many Fredericksburg-area shelters are trying to improve, she said.

“As anything that relies on government, it doesn’t happen quickly,” she said. “It’s not just a matter of, ‘Oh, we need a new shelter. Let’s put one up.’”

But some are getting things done, slowly but surely. Culpeper just opened its new shelter in October. Spotsylvania fought over a shelter for years before opening a new facility last year that cost more than $800,000. Orange County has set aside $300,000 and a site for the shelter, but hasn’t started construction.

While she technically can’t force a shelter to comply, Kellner said certain methods have been effective. If a problem is serious, she marches straight into the county administrator’s office.

That usually works. County administrators play a major role in setting budgets.

“It’s not like I feel completely helpless,” she said. “They all know
whether they’re in compliance and what they need to do to achieve that.”

MYTH: If your cherished pet is missing and you report it to the shelter, officials there will alert you if it turns up.

FACT: When a local couple lost their dog Baby, they called the shelter several times a day and even brought by pictures. It was adopted to another family.

Adriene Embrey’s 4-year-old dog was lost a few months ago, so she did the most logical thing: She called the Spotsylvania County shelter.

“They kept saying, ‘No, we ain’t seen it,’” she said.

So she and her husband took out an ad in the newspaper. The next day, a woman called to say she believed she had Baby.

Sure enough, she did–and she had just adopted her from the Spotsylvania shelter.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Embrey said. “I wonder how many other pets have gotten lost, shelters pick them up, then adopt them out. It’s very scary.”

Spotsylvania County Animal Control Director Willie Tydings, who runs the county shelter, said shelter workers are not perfect.

“These things are going to happen. I don’t care how good you are,” he said.

There are any number of ways it could happen, he said. A pet owner might describe a dog as a shepherd mix while the workers call it a chow mix.

“We tell people to please come in and make sure their pet isn’t here,” he said.

MYTH: If your dog has a litter of puppies and you drop them off at the shelter, they will surely be adopted.

FACT: Surrendered pets can be–and sometimes are–euthanized immediately.

State law merely mandates that strays must be kept alive for five days, not including their first and last day in the shelter. Animals seized by the county that have evidence of ownership, such as a collar, must be kept alive 10 full days.

But there are no such requirements for pets whose owners simply tire of them. In overcrowded facilities, that often puts them first in line in the process of elimination.

Deciding to euthanize is no easy task. Many times, the shelters have no choice.

“We’ve got a dozen cages and a dozen cats in there, and they’re all wonderful cats,” King George County Animal Control Officer Patrick Fines said. “If 10 strays come in, 10 have to go. You don’t want to put them to sleep.”

Stafford County Animal Control Director Mike Null said many localities struggle to keep shelter workers because of the stress of the job.

“They have the hardest position of us all, because they clean after the animals, they care for the animals and sometimes they have to euthanize the animals.”

Kellner briefly worked in a shelter in Ohio before going to veterinary school and later becoming a Virginia shelter inspector. She feels for the workers who make life-and-death decisions every day.

“The folks who have to do the dirty work are branded as evil,” she said. “That’s very unfair.”

Kellner said every shelter has regulars who come in repeatedly to abandon pets. Since shelter workers are government employees, they can’t be rude. And sometimes those who abandon animals aren’t any kinder to the workers than they are to their pets.

Kellner said she’s heard stories from shelter workers about people who bring their pet to the shelter, then turn to their child and say, “That’s the mean woman who’s going to kill your dog.”

“That’s wrong on so many levels,” Kellner said.

But shelters aren’t blameless, Morgan said. Some have problems that are within their control but do nothing. That’s why he passed the law.

“In some areas, they don’t regard animals as having feelings. Some people just don’t have the same sensitivity as others,” Morgan said, then paused. “I think that’s the kind way to say it.”

The fines will not be imposed on a shelter for minor infractions, he said. It will be used for shelters where no one is trying to improve.

Karl Santone, a state humane investigator and Orange County resident who runs an animal rescue group, said the new law alone will not solve all problems.

“A law is only as good as the enforcement,” he warned.

MYTH: When the new law goes into effect Tuesday, shelters will be fined and forced to correct problems.

FACT: The law’s sponsor, Morgan, said he will introduce legislation when the assembly convenes next month delaying the fines for another year to give shelters more time.