HARRIS
COUNTY ANIMAL SHELTER
Leading the Pack by Joe Stinebaker
THIS PAGE Dr. Michael White, director of veterinary public health, holds a mixedbreed puppy at the Harris County Animal Shelter. Shelter puppies face increased risk of infection because of their underdeveloped immune systems. OPPOSITE PAGE A Harris County Animal Shelter visitor searches for a new pet. PHOTOS BY Crystal Simmons
8
Precinct4Update Fall/Winter 2019
I
t wasn’t all that long ago that Harris County officials had to expand the county’s animal shelter – not to accommodate the number of dogs and cats awaiting adoption, but to provide a “euthanasia wing” to dispose of hundreds of unwanted pets every week.
Veterinarians, technicians, and volunteers who had devoted months, years, and even entire careers to caring for animals instead had to try to harden themselves to what had become a production line of death. It was a painful process – if not for the abandoned animals, then certainly for those who cared for them. But now, after years of enduring a reputation as one of the nation’s most lethal places for abandoned, unwanted, and stray animals, Harris County has reversed that trend and recently celebrated its best month ever for “live releases” to adoption or transfers. Shelter officials were understandably proud to announce in March that they had achieved a live release rate of 95.7%, a figure lauded by animal welfare groups around the country. And so far this year, the figure has never dropped below 90%. By comparison, the county’s live Harris County release rate in 2012 was 15.3%. What that means in more visceral terms is that achieved a live the shelter’s former “euthanasia wing” can now release rate of be almost entirely devoted to the isolation and treatment of sick dogs and cats before adoption. “When I took over (in 2013), we were euthanizing probably 60 to 80 animals every day,” said Dr. Michael White, the director of veterinary public health. “Now that number has dropped to a handful and, sometimes, none at all. I’m really surprised we were able to
95.7%
