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“The greatness of a nation and it’s moral progress can be judged by the way it’s animals are treated.”
-Ghandi
Animal Shelters and Humane Societies across Kentucky are overcrowded. Funding is limited and in rural counties where they are forced to work on a shoe string budget life and death decisions have to be made. In some counties up to 95% of the cats and dogs who arrive in the shelter have to be killed to make room for the revolving doors of unwanted animals who come in day after day. The people who have to carry that task out are just as troubled by it. But they don’t have a choice.
Day by day through the kindness of strangers a difference is being made. There are too many volunteers to begin to name individually who, every week, take their own time and money to rescue animals from shelters where they are scheduled to be euthanized. Volunteers make weekly trips to the North East to transfer the animals to shelters that don’t have enough animals to meet the demand. These are the unsung heroes who are saving one animal at a time.
During the last year and half Estill County has opened its shelter doors to rescue groups and it is making a difference. They have also started posting pictures of their cats and dogs on the internet. In less than two years, their kill rate has dropped from 95% down to 70%. In the past they have used grant money to send a voucher home with each adopter so they can have their animals spay or neutered. But they have found when it is left up to the individual more often than not it doesn’t get done. So Estill county is adopting a new policy to ensure the animals are fixed before they go to their new home.
Efforts like this are happening in hometowns across Kentucky because people care. Volunteers are controlling the reproduction of cats with trap and release programs. That is made possible by local vets who donate their time and services to fix the animals.
In Casey county two women are starting a petition drive to ask county leaders to open a small rescue facility. In the meantime, Gloria Summers and Grace McMenama have been known to pick up the strays they see on the side of the road, groom them and find them homes. They aren’t asking for money… They just want to find the strays a place to call home.
It’s grassroots efforts like these that are slowly making a difference. It’s not always money that solves the problem. Sure it helps and goes a very long way, but it starts with education about caring for our own animals.
So what will it take to get individuals to be responsible pet owners. Why are so many people so resistant to spay and neutering?
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