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Shelter is straining from cats and dogs
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5761123.html
 Shelter
is straining from cats and dogs
A financially struggling western Wisconsin animal
shelter is at risk of closing, overwhelmed by
the surge in abandoned animals and strays that
find their way to its doorstep.
Story and Photograph By Kevin Giles •, Star
Tribune
Last update: December 2, 2005 at 10:01 PM
Theresa Jonas of the Pierce-St. Croix County Humane
Society recalls the rabbits on the shelter's doorstep,
waiting beside a sign that said, "Take care
of me." She remembers finding nine puppies
yelping outside the door.
There was the stray pygmy goat named Billy Bob,
and the guinea pig left in a cage at the shopping
mall. The shelter's guest list this past year
shows three horses, two raccoons, a tundra swan
and even a cockatoo.
"People just abandon," said Jonas, who
is the volunteer executive director at the shelter
near River Falls, Wis. "We live in a throwaway
society."
The problem is compounded by the area's booming
housing developments from River Falls north to
Hudson and New Richmond near the eastern fringe
of the St. Croix River. Right now, the shelter
is so overwhelmed by the sheer number of abandoned
pets, Jonas said, that it could close by January.
"The Humane Society can no longer be responsible
for all the strays in the two counties,"
Jonas said.
Jamie Feuerhelm, Pierce County clerk, agreed that
population growth is creating more strays. "More
people, more pets," he said.
State figures show that St. Croix County will
be growing faster than any other in Wisconsin
over the next 25 years. Since 2000, the county's
population jumped 20 percent. Pierce County's
population growth isn't as dramatic, but it has
increased about 6 percent since 2000.
The shelter depends on donations and fees, not
tax dollars, to survive. Jonas said it gets $10,000
from Pierce County dog license fees and is designated
as a county pound. It gets nothing from St. Croix
County, she said.
This year, income could fall more than $72,000
short of expenses. Jonas foresees a deficit of
more than $250,000 next year if the shelter remains
open, and even more in 2007.
Because the shelter is the only one of its kind
in Pierce and St. Croix counties, Jonas said,
the Humane Society is asking all local governments
to pay a per-capita fee to save the shelter.
By mid-December, Jonas will know how many will
participate, which determines the shelter's fate.
Feuerhelm is concerned that the many villages
and townships in the county won't be able to find
the money this year for the fee. But Phyllis Beastrom,
clerk of Ellsworth township, said Friday that
local governments probably will support the shelter
because there's no other alternative. "These
townships don't want these dogs coming to their
houses," she said.
Jonas, meanwhile, said it would be inhumane and
a violation of state law for her shelter to turn
away the mounting number of stray animals, particularly
diseased ones that threaten the public.
Built for 50 animals, the shelter routinely houses
70 dogs and cats a day. In preparation for closing,
shelter workers still care for strays as the law
requires, but are saying no to people who come
to "surrender" their animals.
One day recently, dozens of cats and dogs appealed
for attention from behind wire mesh. Adoptions,
however, lag far behind mercy killings. That,
Jonas said, is the sad result of too many people
wanting pets but then failing to take responsibility
for them.
"The human connection with animals is never
going to go away," she said.
Kevin Giles • 612-673-7707
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