Pet Talk

by Cathy Davis
www.houltonanimalshelter.com
    Overheard in a local convenience store: “I hear the animal shelter is closing, it’s their own [darn] fault, spent all that money on a big fancy building, now they’re begging for money.” I have to chuckle. Fancy, the building is not. You might think that tongue and groove cedar is fancy but it was donated. You might think the beautiful maple cupboards in the conference room are fancy but my dad made those – his 82-year-old bones spent hours bent over a planer and table saw crafting these cupboards, he donated all the wood.  There is nothing fancy about this building.
    Big, I’ll admit to, it is big. It’s kind of like this – you live in a town with a hospital, the hospital has no empty beds, the hallways are lined with stretchers, people are in the emergency room being treated but there’s no place to put them after treatment. The hospital sees that this is a situation that is growing worse from day to day so they make a decision, build a new wing on the hospital or build a new hospital.
    The size is driven by the need, not the other way around. Nobody builds a big animal shelter hoping to fill it. Big animal shelters are built because of the incredible need.
    Overheard at a local diner: “It’s their own fault, they should just euthanize the animals and then they wouldn’t need so much money.” This one doesn’t make me chuckle. Let’s go back to the hospital analogy.  More patients need more room, more room means more nurses, higher light bills, more fuel oil, higher insurance. Once the facility adjusts to the need, there are certain fixed costs that go along with the adjustment. We build a bigger hospital and all of a sudden we have a month without any patients – so what happens, stop paying the mortgage and the light bill? Whoops, that won’t go over too big with the light company or the bank.
    Now I know I’ll be criticized for saying this but if we want to continue with this analogy, let’s just keep the hospital small and don’t build to the needs of the community and then if more people come in than the building can handle, euthanize them.  Hold on, hold on, you know I don’t mean that, but the gut reaction you had when you read that is kind of like the gut reaction I get when people tell me we should consider euthanizing these animals.
    I know,  animals aren’t the same as people and maybe this isn’t the best analogy, but to suggest that the overpopulation of animals is the fault of the animal shelter is just the silliest thing I ever heard.  It’s kind of like saying it’s the hospital’s fault that everybody is sick and having accidents. To suggest that the people who give their hearts and souls to care for the animals should line them up and kill them to make room for more, and more, and more, isn’t just silly, it’s heartless.
Houlton Pioneer Times photograph/Elna Seabrooks
TLC — Nancy Welton is a highly praised volunteer at the Houlton Humane Society. Administrators cite her for her dedication over the past three years and the special interest she shows the animals who apparently agree that she’s very special, indeed. Welton says, “I enjoy it and I have the time.” As a state-mandated service, the Houlton Humane Society gets less than 50 percent of its operating costs from fees paid by municipalities that contract with the shelter.
    This is a community that cares deeply. We have wonderful nursing homes for the elderly, we have dozens of professionally run non profits who handle everything from pregnancy care to domestic abuse.  We build beautiful parks, very expensive bridges, ampitheaters, we proudly place flags on our poles and flowers on the median strips. We host dozens upon dozens of pot luck suppers to help out our neighbors who are in distress. We are the most compassionate group of individuals I have ever met.
    So for the gentleman who thinks our building is too big, all I can say is that it’s big because the need is there, the shelter didn’t create the need, it’s responding to the need.  And for the “gentleman” who believes we should euthanize healthy animals, all I can say is, not in my lifetime, not in our shelter, not as long as I have a breath left in my body.
    Is the Shelter closing any time soon? Not as long as you believe in what we do, not as long as each and every one of us that cherishes all life continues to offer support. You’ve responded to the need and we’ve heard you loud and clear and we will fight to keep going, one day at a time.