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NEWS
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COURTNEY VARNEY/KANSAN Daisy Duke, a 7-month-old brown tabby, looks over Lawrence Humane Society staffer Austin Cline's shoulder during the cats' recess from their cages.
Summer leaves Humane Society crowded
KANSAN.COM
MADI SCHULZ
@Mad_Dawgg
Every summer, the Lawrence Humane Society sees an increase in the number of animals in its shelters. This summer is no exception, and the organization is in the swing of the busy season.
There are various factors that contribute to the larger number of animals during the summer.
"Normally cats would go through one kitten season until a few years ago now we're seeing them go through two and even three," said Jamie Straley community outreach manager for the Lawrence Humane Society.
Although kitten season may seem like a cute, fun time filled with an overload of baby animals to play with, it can cause problems because of the large amount of kittens being born at once.
The Fourth of July is also a notorious time for spooked and scared animals to run away because of all the commotion from parties and fireworks.
"A lot of shelters will do microchip clinics in the days preceding Fourth of July," Straley said. "There are pets that may get out and there's a much greater percentage of owners and pets being reunited if they're micro-chipped or have a collar and tag."
One way the Humane Society copes with the variant amount of animals coming in is through a foster program — when a family or person temporarily adopts an animal until it is ready for a permanent home. For different animals this could mean different things. A kitten, for example, has to be at least 8 weeks old and weigh 2 pounds to be placed in a permanent home.
The greatest need for fosters is from April through October, generally with kittens, but finding the right family is more difficult than simply reaching out to volunteers.
"We've had a lot of interest,but matching up the right people with
the right kittens and having the resources to do all the training we have to do has been the hardest part for this program," said KT Sessler, who is in charge of placing animals and training the foster families.
With dogs or cats, there are also certain challenges that come with trying to find a proper home that outweigh a volunteer's desire to foster.
"The hardest to place are the neonatal kittens that have to be bottle-fed every three hours because people have jobs that won't let them leave that often," Sessler said. "It has to be a quiet home if it's for a behavior animal. If it's a dog that needs foster care it helps to have another dog that's good with other dogs that they can learn from."
The foster program can be mutually beneficial. The animal gets to grow up in a quiet, safe place and gets used to various stimuli to be ready for adoption, while the foster family or person gets to have the experience of taking care of an animal without actually having the commitment of being an owner. The Humane Society also pays for the
animal's food, supplies or vet bills.
"We're pretty open to anyone [who wants to foster]," Sessler said. "[...] I think those dogs and cats being raised with children and other pets make for a good pet that is able to adapt more easily when they're finally adopted."
Recently, the number of returning foster families and new ones has been changing. Before, there were more returning fosters but now the Humane Society has seen an uptick in new volunteers.
"I think that's because I've been doing some new things with the volunteer program, and communication is a big part of it now," Straley said. "I think that my requests for fosters are being answered. And they were out there before, but there have just been some different avenues to get the word out that I've been using."
Another resource the Humane Society uses to alleviate the pressure is their relationship with off-site pet stores, such as Petco and PetSmart.
"Our off-site partners allow us to have help with kitten season, and it allows us to have those adoption events and have some more spaces
so the shelter isn't completed inundated at any given time. Straley said.
link at any given time," Straley said. Along with its partnership with large chain pet stores, the Humane Society's relationship with Pet World proved beneficial until a fire on Memorial Day weekend closed the store. Before the fire, the organization opened a "kitten pit" in the pet store and asked for volunteers to help run it. They saw a positive response to this program, with almost all of the kittens being adopted. The Humane Society directors plan to restart that program when Pet World reopens for business.
There are also public events, but the resources to attend them are not always available.
"We get a lot of requests to do more events than we have the staff to do or the volunteers to do," Straley said. "We have to make sure whenever we agree to do an event that's in the future that we let the planner know that it's all subject to what we have population- and pet-wise. Two weeks from now we might not have any dogs that are appropriate to take to a children's event."
Consequences of leaving animals in hot cars:
It can take less than 15 minutes for a vehicle to heat up to 99 degrees, even on an 80 degree day. Rolling the windows down has little effect on the temperature of the car.
An animal left in a hot car may suffer these effects:
-Heat stroke
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-Heat stroke
-Shallow breathing
-Shallow breathing
Vomiting
-Vomiting
-Diarrhea
-Blue tongue
-Brain damage
-Brain damage
-Death
"Things can happen, and what you think will just be a minute can turn into five or 10 minutes, and that can be very dangerous not only for pets but for children as well."
KATE MEGHJI
Lawrence Humane Society
Executive Director
If you see an animal left in a hot car, officials urge you to call the police.
-Kelly Cordingley
Sources: Humane Society of the United States; Lawrence Humane Society Executive Director Kate Meghji
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