When Martha Boden, former and unlamented CEO of the Humane Society of Indianapolis, assumed leadership of the SPCA/Tampa Bay in 2011, the ugly drama that happened here went into reruns in Florida. As a recent post explored, numbers have been juggled and animals shuffled to enable Boden to boast a live release rate for 2013 of 72%.
That’s because much of the killing has been essentially outsourced to Pinellas County Animal Services.
By requiring appointments to surrender a pet and selectively importing the most desirable dogs from other locations, SPCA/TB effectively directs those it doesn’t want (and who perhaps need sanctuary the most) to the municipal shelter. Live release rates there are reportedly 56%.
This manipulation of animals and numbers creates a false image of performance at the expense of displaced animals who are being sent to their deaths. It’s more than an embarrassment. It is a betrayal of the animals, donors, and the dignity of the spirit embodied in the humane movement.
SPCA/TB has 56 kennels for adoptable dogs. Before Boden’s arrival, these kennels were full and people came to adopt well-mannered dogs who benefitted from an enrichment program that was the envy of other shelters. Now the enrichment program has been dismantled. The SPCA/TB website now routinely shows between 6 and 10 dogs available for adoption; if a load of puppies has been transferred in, maybe up to 20.
Every empty kennel means a dog is being denied a chance to live, and will most likely die at PCAS. In 2013, the lives of 5,960 animals were ended at the municipal facility.
The sheltering industry accepts that 90% of the animals destroyed in an animal facility are adoptable. That means 5,364 adoptable animals are being killed (not “euthanized”) each year at PCAS.
That’s 14 deaths per day. And SPCA/TB kennels are more than 75% empty?
Stay tuned.
“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man.”
— St. Francis of Assisi