EDMONTON ALBERTA, CANADA - A brand new $55,000 surgery room at the pound is driving down euthanasia rates and is getting more lost and wounded pets back out for adoption.
“It’s a morale booster for the staff here,” said Karen Melnyk, a registered veterinary technologist who’s been at the centre for 15 years. She helped propose and build the small, roughly 100 square-foot (nine square-metre) prep room and sterile surgery lab. It’s staffed by technologists and a part-time veterinary doctor.
This means unclaimed pets that would have previously been euthanized can now be affordably saved. They cats in better condition when they’re passed on to the Edmonton Humane Society and other non-profit rescue groups that take overflow and difficult cats every summer. The surgery room just opened in October 2014.
“(Previously), the staff here had to make some pretty tough choices on a pretty regular basis. We felt that if we could come up with the money to build the suite, we can do good for these animals that are coming through our door,” said Melnyk.
“By spaying and neutering them and treating them for their orthopedic problems or emergency situations — an eye nucleation, porcupine quills or a uterine infection — we’re able to save them and help, not only the Edmonton Humane Society, but our local rescue groups to come to our rescue every summer for our cats.”
The centre impounds strays and abandoned animals. It holds unlicensed animals for a total of three days, licensed ones for 10 days, as required by provincial legislation, before sending good candidates back out for adoption.
Edmonton officials have been pitching various ways of reducing euthanasia rates since at least 2008, when about a third of the 4,887 cats and dogs brought to the pound were put down. This year, about 6,300 animals were turned in and only nine per cent were put down.
“We’re meeting that need and doing it in a more cost effective fashion,” said Ron Gabruck, the city’s director for animal care and pest management. “The benefit of this suite in terms of ongoing cost savings and the subjective side of what we do here is immense. How do you put a price tag on us offering the ethical care that meets community standards?”
Pet surgery by the numbers (year to date for 2015):
298 — Spay and neuter operations
6 — Dental operations
9 — Orthopedic surgeries (setting broken legs and pelvic bones)
25 — Other surgeries including wound repair, quill removal, removing items from the animal’s intestine and removing bladder stones.
Edmonton’s euthanasia rates:
2015 (year to date)
16% of cats euthanized
2% of dogs euthanized
9% combined euthanasia rate
100% of adoptable animals were saved
2014
20% of cats euthanized
4% of dogs euthanized
14% combined euthanasia rate
98% of adoptable animals saved
2013
25% of cats euthanized
3% of dogs euthanized
16% combined euthanasia rate
96% of adoptable animals saved
Photo Source: JOHN LUCAS / EDMONTON JOURNAL
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