Brownsville's Own Isle of Cats and Dogs

I visited the Brownsville Animal Shelter in the last two weeks. My family's pet walked out of the yard and did not return. The dog is old, had health issues and is blind. We knew he could not gave gone far so our best bet was that animal control picked him up.

I was appalled by the conditions observed at the shelter on at last three visits as I looked for out dog.

ISSUES;

1. The shelter was overcrowded and some cages had three to four dogs in each. On my first visit, at least one dog was sharing a cage with his dead sibling.

2. On my second visit, there was a large dog with an injured paw and the dog was holding it up because he was pain, he could not put any wait on it. It is unclear if he was ever treated or will be.

3. A inquired about the length of time a dog is kept before being put down. I was told that they are only kept for 3 days. It had been my understanding that a week was the standard for them to find a new home. However, because of pet overpopulation, a policy of three days was adopted.

4. Even tough the normal hours of operation are from 8am to 5pm, animals for adoption can only be viewed between 1pm and 5pm, for a total of 12 hours per week as they are closed on Thursdays.

5. Employees are not advocating for these animals. They are not active on social networks to give the animals a better chance of finding a home. Eventually, I did find a Facebook page for the shelter but the last posting had been about two years ago. Employees are more concerned with getting a paycheck than find these animals a new home.

6. Some of these dogs and cats were not abandoned, but got out of someone yard, found on the street, and then picked up by animal control where their future is bleak and certain.

7. The adoption rate at this facility is only 4%, which means there is a kill rate of 96%.

The objective is to urge Brownsville Animal Shelter to engage and be more proavtive in finding homes for theses animals by utilizing social meida more effectively. 

My solutions for these issues: 

1.  Mandaory spay and neuter. 

2.  Closing donw of all puppy bills. 

3.  Annual inspections of animal shelters. 

4.  Utilization of Facebook Snapchat, etc. and reaching out to the news media. 

5.  Consortium of valley animal shelters to facilitate transfers between shelters to give these animals a second chance. 

6.  Featur news stories and columns such as "Pet of the Week", etc. 

While some of the dogs I saw were in bad bad shape, many were beautirful and healthy animals. They were not street dogs, someone had loved and cared for them. But not, due to circumstance, they found their last three days on Earth, locked up and waiting to die.