HomeMy WebLinkAboutAnimal Shelter Statistics - 01-2007
Orange County Animal Services
501 W. Franklin St, Suite 106, Chapel Hill, NC 27514 (919) 968-2287
Animal Disposition Summary Report:
January 2007
February 14th, 2007
Due to staff vacancies, it has not been possible to produce and post our regular monthly report in for
January 2007. Integral to the monthly report is a set of statistical tables that include the disposition of
animals at Orange County’s Animal Shelter as well as intake numbers and numbers regarding rabies
cases and vaccinations.
As a result of one staff vacancy, it was necessary to recreate our ability to produce statistical table
concerning animal intakes and dispositions, a task staff diligently worked toward and accomplished
toward the end of the year. While performing their regular duties, they worked with others to reproduce
and validate the process for generating shelter statistics, using the same tools and methods that we
previously used for this purpose.
Below please find our standard statistical reports for the month of January 2007. These are exactly the
same statistical reports as appear in monthly reports for the previous months of 2006 and the months of
2005 for which these monthly reports were produced and posted on our website. All that is different is
that these reports are presented without accompanying narrative, essentially due to our more limited
human resources as a result of two staff vacancies we are in the process of filling.
With regard to our sheltering activities and their effective administration, these statistics remain as
important in the present as they have been in the past. They assist us in identifying and tracking trends of
note, and they enable us to communicate openly and easily with stakeholders, partners, and the general
public about our operations and activities.
For the month about which we are reporting, there is generally an increase in the number of animals
admitted to the shelter by comparison with the same months of the previous year. By comparison with the
preceding year, there is also a decline in the number of adoptions and the total number of “live releases”
(consisting of not only adoptions but animals transferred to other organizations and ones recovered by
their owners and custodians). While these declines may well be affected by increased admissions, they
are attributable to other factors as well in the complex processes that affect animal dispositions as well as
pet demographics.
We thus want to reflect upon possible reasons for changes in the number of adoptions and ”live releases”
as well as inventory the initiatives that we have taken to ensure that we are placing as many healthy and
behaviorally sound animals as we possibly can. While each of these subjects is addressed in the
following sections, what should be said here is that our initiative are closely related to our monitoring of
our sheltering activities on the basis of the statistics presented herein.
Initiatives have been taken to ensure that we can and do continue to place as many healthy and
behaviorally sound animals as possible given our core responsibilities, available resources and the
dynamics of pet overpopulation here as well as elsewhere. As always, such initiatives as well as our
regular services rely not only upon the dedicated efforts of our staff but their collaboration with other
organizations and individual members of the public with a commitment to the welfare of animals in our
community. And we look forward to our continued work with stakeholders, partners and members of the
general public in addressing and ultimately resolving what at root is a community problem—namely, the
problem of pet overpopulation.
Questions about the statistics and narrative discussion that follow may be addressed to Robert A.
Marotto, Director, Orange County Animal Services at bmarotto@co.orange.nc.us.
Factors Affecting Animal Dispositions
A number of observations may be made about the decline in the number of animal adoptions and “live
releases” during the period under consideration. While some of these concern specific challenges,
others relate to changes in our internal processes and service orientation. Also of note are some broader
factors related to the operation of Orange County’s Animal Shelter in a dynamic context.
Challenges
• Building maintenance during this period (painting the shelter floors and walls), required to
comply with new state regulations for public shelters, caused loss of space for holding animals
and thus reduced the number of animals available for adoption for the duration of the project.
• Since early Jan uary, a significant amount of kennel space has been needed to house nearly
twenty (20) dogs seized as a result of an animal cruelty investigation. Needless to say, less space
has been available for adoptable animals as a result of this unavoidable seizure. .
• Staffing vacancies inhibited the department’s ability to maximize adoption opportunities
particularly with respect to promoting adoptions in the community and developing collaborative
relationships with rescue organizations.
Changes
• Improvements in the area of adoption counseling provide the public with better information about
the responsibilities involved in owning and caring for pets. This critical educational process has
promoted more informed decision making, but it may sometime mean that a potential adopter
chooses to not adopt at this time
• Our goal is to ensure that animals made available for adoption are both healthy and behaviorally
sound. Improvements have been made to the process used to evaluate animals and thereby help
to identify animals not suitable for placement into the community. The end result of this process
is of great benefit to those adopting from the shelter; however it impacts the number of animals
made available for adoption to the general public.
Context
• Orange County’s Shelter faces increased competition for adopters with rescues and other animal
organizations. Not only is it the case that another shelter (or sanctuary) now operates within the
county but some private rescue organizations have become quite prominent.
• Related to increased competition is the physical condition of the County’s shelter, which will
remain an impediment to attracting potential adopters until the County’s new facility is finished
at the end of 2008. In the meantime, rescues and newer shelters provide potential adopters with
the opportunity to adopt a homeless animal without having to enter an old, unattractive building.
• In this changing context, 2006 is only the second year of direct operation of the County’s Animal
Shelter, which makes meaningful statistical comparison of smaller periods of time quite
challenging.
Placing Animals
As mentioned at the outset, staff have taken several oriented toward ensuring that adoptable animals are
placed in new homes. These are in addition to the “regular” responsibilities of staff for the care and
placement of the various animals that we shelter. And they are based upon our careful monitoring of our
sheltering activities, on the basis of monthly statistics as presented in the following section, given our full
complement of responsibilities and available resources.
Specific Initiatives
• New marketing ideas have been implemented including classified ads in several area papers,
fliers, and our new website (which includes a link to Pet Harbor to photographically showcase
animals at the shelter). We are also working to more fully and routinely utilize Petfinder and
other such opportunities for the electronic advertising of adoptable animals.
• Developing the volunteer program in new ways that help to promote adoptions. One example is
taking adoption deposits at outreach events. Another a brand new component of our dog walking
program in which volunteers promote our dogs as well as hand out information about the
County’s Animal Shelter and its services.
• Efforts continue to sustain and broaden relations with other animal organizations to increase the
number of animals that are transferred for final placement, within the context of a developed
partnership program, in this way expanding our the capacity to house as well as place animals.
• Working with the Adoption Committee of the Animal Services Advisory Board, staff are more
carefully evaluating the reasons for euthanasia, not only so that there is a clear understanding of
that process in the County’s Animal Shelter but to begin to identify targeted programs to increase
animal placements.
Developments
• We have been building on the skills and abilities of staff through training and have every reason
to believe that our human resources will continue to grow stronger in the coming years—
strengths that are already readily apparent in our service to the public and our care of animals.
• In the same vein, two vacant positions with administrative responsibilities for our sheltering
services are expected to be filled, and doing so is another opportunity to strengthen our human
resources and leadership capabilities as we move forward in developing and delivering animal
services.
• Orange County is well along the way to having a new state-of-the-art animal services facility, one
that has greater capacity per se, allows attractive presentation of adoptable animals, and that
more effectively controls infectious disease while better ensuring animal wellness.
• Integral to the design of the County’s new facility is the promotion of animal placements by
creating a much more inviting and desirable destination for members of the public—one to which
they are drawn for the non-human members of their families and one which achieves a visible
profile throughout the County.
Shelter Activity January 2007
Dogs Cats Others Total
In Shelter Custody
as of January 1, 2007 110 74 6 190
+
Total Admitted January 2007 165 105 9 279
Sheltered in January 2007 275 179 15 469
-
Dispositions for January 2007 (1) 202 128 9 339
Remaining in Shelter Custody
on February 1, 2007 (2) 73 51 6 130
(1) Includes corrections to previous month
(2) Within Shelter: 66 dogs, 43 cats, 2 other
In Foster Homes / Pet Stores: 7 dogs, 10 cats,
4 other
Dispositions
% of Total
Dogs Cats Others Total Dispositions
Reclaimed 34 8 0 42 12.39%
Adopted 40 53 6 99 29.20%
Transfers (3) 21 15 2 38 11.21%
Euthanized 106 51 1 158 46.61%
Died 1 1 0 2 0.59%
Other (1) 0 0 0 0 0.00%
Totals 202 128 9 339 100.00%
(3) Transfers to Rescue Services.
Demographics
Total Percent
Animal Control From Public Incoming of Total
Strays (4) Surrender Strays Surrender
Chapel Hill 9 3 41 22 75 26.9%
Carrboro 1 1 6 2 10 3.6%
Hillsborough 20 13 9 5 47 16.8%
Orange County 72 42 16 4 134 48.0%
Other County 0 0 1 3 4 1.4%
Unknown 0 0 9 0 9 3.2%
Total 102 59 82 36 279 100.0%
Strays 184 65.9%
Animal
Control 161 57.7%
Surrenders 95 34.1% Public 118 42.3%
(4) "Strays" under Animal Control Demographics also
includes quarantined animals that have not
been surrendered.
Rabies
Statistics
Dogs Cats Other Total
Exposures Investigated 1 0 7 8
Tested Positive 0 0 3 3
Vaccinated at Shelter 42 53 0 95
Vaccinated at Vet Clinics 516 559 0 1075
Vaccinated at Rabies Clinics 0 0 0 0
Total Vaccinations 558 612 10 1180