by Lynette Wilson

photo caption: Cynthia Farrar is touched by a cat that is living its last day at the Escambia County Animal Shelter. Farrar and her husband, Greg, are founders of Jury-Duty, a nonprofit organization committed to spaying and neutering cats and dogs as a solution to pet overpopulation. The Farrars ended up adopting the cat that day.
photo by Jennifer Cecil

Six days a week, at 1:30 in the afternoon, a truck leaves the Escambia County Animal Shelter on Fairfield Drive hauling a trailer filled with dead cats, dogs, puppies and kittens bound for the Beulah Landfill.

There, toward the back and out of public view, a freshly turned grave awaits the cargo. The animals are dumped and covered like garbage.

Euthanasia is Pensacola and Escambia County's solution to a growing homeless animal overpopulation.

Some alarming facts:

- More than 10,000 cats and dogs are euthanized each year in Escambia County.

- 11,364 cats, kittens, puppies and dogs were euthanized in 2005.

-Of those, 1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable and euthanized.

Now, for the first time and with help from the state, a group of area nonprofit animal organizations and Escambia County have united to address overpopulation by offering the qualifying public low-cost spay and neuter options.

"We're euthanizing healthy, adoptable animals," said Cynthia Farrar, the director of Jury-Duty, a relatively new nonprofit that promotes animal welfare through education and a low-cost spay and neuter program.

"We have to stop it before it begins. There is no other solution," she said.

The Florida Animal License Plate Fund is giving a $10,000 grant to the following local groups:

- Jury-Duty.

- Humane Society of Pensacola, a nonprofit, no-kill animal shelter.

- Escambia County Animal Control, which operates the county's shelter.

- Spayd with Heart, a nonprofit which works to spay all cats and dogs adopted from the Atmore, Ala., shelter near Century.

Low-cost spay and neuter programs and the grant will help address pet overpopulation, said Bruce Rova, director of Escambia County Animal Regulation and Control.

The shelter receives a constant flow of abandoned animals.

"We don't turn anyone away; we are open admission," he said. "That's why we have to have euthanasia."

Five-day deadline

At Escambia's animal shelter, stray dogs and cats have a claim window of five business days. If after five days the stray has not been claimed or deemed adoptable, it is euthanized.

Recently, a litter of seven kittens, probably 4 to 6 weeks old, were all brought in together on the same day. The litter would hardly reach the adoptable age of eight weeks in five days. Puppies and kittens considered too young to adopt out are euthanized.

The majority of the dogs and cats were euthanized because they were either too sick, too old, injured, aggressive or in the case of 1,180 cats in 2005, feral, according to the county's euthanasia reporting.

But of the animals euthanized at the shelter last year, 1,161 cats and 1,660 dogs were considered adoptable but euthanized because the animal shelter had no space to hold them or because they were not adopted.

No pre-adoption requirement

The Escambia County Animal Shelter is a publicly funded shelter and cannot have an exclusionary adoption policy. The animal shelter adopts out cats and dogs but doesn't require the new owners to spay or neuter the animal before taking the pet from the shelter. Instead, the shelter provides low-cost certificates or vouchers for the required surgery.

The shelter will make the appointment if a person adopting an animal expresses breeding interest or if the shelter staff doesn't think the person will follow through with the required surgery within 30 days of adoption or by the time the cat or dog reaches six months of age. The shelter also will make sure that the animal is spayed or neutered, Rova said.

Competition with vets

Spaying and neutering animals before they leave the shelter places the county in competition with veterinarians, Rova said, when asked why the county doesn't require animals be spayed or neutered before leaving the shelter. This is something Jury-Duty advocates and is a requirement in other statewide shelters. He said the shelter does not provide vet services.

Pre-adoption spaying and neutering, however, is considered common practice and many shelters require it, including Santa Rosa County, where euthanasia rates hover between 60 and 70 percent.

In Santa Rosa, a person adopting a pet from the shelter pre-pays for the spay/neuter surgery with a chosen veterinarian. The shelter transports the animal to the veterinarian. The new owner picks up the animal from the vet's office, said Dominic Persichini, director of Santa Rosa County Animal Services.

Jury-Duty takes up cause

Jury-Duty has taken the lead in addressing overpopulation in the county. In the short-term, the all-volunteer organization intends to spay or neuter 1,500 animals annually; to do so, it must raise $100,000 a year. Routine spaying/neutering costs between $40 and $70.

Greg and Cynthia Farrar incorporated Jury-Duty after the death of their black cat, Jury, on May 13, 2004.

Jury-Duty is so named because when the Farrars never let Jury outside unattended. If you took Jury outside, you had Jury duty.

"Jury was our first child; our chosen child," Cynthia Farrar said. "When he died, it was a traumatic experience. In working through the grief, I started researching animal welfare issues."

The Farrars found low-cost and no-cost spay and neuter programs existed elsewhere that could be replicated here.

Locally and in other Southern states where cats tend to have more kittens than in cooler, northern climates, the cat and kitten population is especially out of control.

"We've had cats come into heat here while they were still nursing their offspring," said Sheena Watson, managing director of the Humane Society. "Cats cycle very quickly, and kittens are having kittens. Dogs are delayed a little longer and don't come into heat as often as cats."

According to Esther Mechler of SPAY/USA, statistics show that for every $1 spent on spay or neuter, $3 are saved in managing overpopulation.
http://www.pensacolanewsjournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061112/LIFE/611120318/1004