When strays outnumber kennels, dogs need new home

For the past couple of days, third-year Penn School of Veterinary Medicine student Erin McGowan has been searching Philadelphia for Foster’s new home.

Foster, a white “pit-mix” puppy with light brown ears, was in danger of losing his spot at Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team, as last week the number of dogs entering the shelter exceeded the number of available kennels.

The influx left Vet School students, among other volunteers, scrambling to find homes for all the dogs.

Because the ACCT only has 120 to 160 cages and was getting about 40 dogs a day, “every single dog was at risk of euthanasia,” McGowan said.

The ACCT of Philadelphia enforces the city’s animal control code and is run by the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

By law, they are required to take in every dog that enters from the 144 square miles of the city, including dogs brought in as strays and dropped off by owners. Yet they only have space for around 80 dogs on the adoption floor at one time, McGowan said.

According to PSPCA spokeswoman Wendy Marano, the shelter averages between 25 to 27 intakes a day. But the numbers peaked last week reaching 41 intakes one day, with others in the mid-thirties. When the intake rate increases, ACCT looks at which dogs have good kennel behavior. The dogs that are not as well-behaved are put down.

“I guess it always happens, but you really start to feel the strain when they’re at a higher intake level than average,” said Erin Henry, a third-year veterinary student and ACCT volunteer. “This past week was particularly trying for the dogs.”

Foster is McGowan’s “pen-pal dog,” as part of a program that partners volunteers with dogs who have not been adopted or are having behavioral issues. The pen-pal program requires volunteers to make a commitment to spend about forty-five minutes at least two days a week walking their dogs and teaching them basic commands to make them more adoptable.

“He’s barely a year old and he has been sitting in a cage for the past two months with very limited exercise and he’s just hit his breaking point,” said McGowan, who was worried that Foster would be chosen to be put down.

But before the dogs are euthanized, the volunteers scramble to get them adopted, put into a foster home or picked up by a rescue shelter.

“When I know they’re urgent and they’re full I’m much more likely to be like, ‘oh, I may have exams but I’ll go get a foster dog anyway,’” said Alex Cantelmo, a second-year veterinary student who has fostered five dogs since last year.

“I was impressed by the number of dogs that volunteers were able to get out in the past couple of days,” said McGowan, who recently found a woman interested in adopting Foster.

According to Marano, the numbers tend to vary and there is no particular reason why last week’s intake was so high.

The overall live release rate for animals at ACCT has actually increased from 50.26 percent in 2008 to 60.9 percent in 2010. “The numbers are going in the right direction, but we continue to work on that because our goal really is to find homes for every homeless animal that we are able to,” Marano said.

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