Unwanted animals, our responsibilities

Perhaps it would be easier for many readers if they never had to think about Dr. Basil Jones and the grim work he does each Wednesday at the Sullivan County Animal Shelter in Blountville, Tenn.

But Jones, a veterinarian, has to clean up the mess society creates by its failure to take responsibility for its animals. Reporter Claire Galofaro gave a compelling account of Jones’ weekly euthanasia work in a centerpiece story published Sunday.

Some readers have expressed revulsion over the methods used to euthanize animals in local shelters, although such reactions are a reach when you consider that most of our shelters use lethal injection and not a gas chamber, as many communities continue to use.

We all need to remember that Jones’ work is made necessary because so many unwanted animals are filling animal shelters. He prides himself on being compassionate, effective and efficient in his work. “It’s a job that has to be done, and we try to do it properly, try to do it kindly. They still die, but it’s as easy a death as possible,” Jones said.

He must make room for a new crop of animals whose flow into the shelter never ceases. An estimated 70,000 new puppies and kittens are born each day in this country. That is seven times the human birth rate. One unfixed cat and her unfixed offspring will create 420,000 cats in seven years. An unspayed dog becomes 67,000 canines in six years.

And, as Galofaro’s story pointed out, the problem is exacerbated in the South, which has less-restrictive spay and neuter laws. Phil Lane, supervisor of Sullivan County Animal Control, supports creating legislation, as many Northern states already have done, that requires pet owners without a breeder’s license to sterilize their animals.

But Jones disagrees. “I personally think we should try hard to encourage people to do it voluntarily,” he said. “I don’t think it would be proper to make it mandatory. Education alone might get the job done more than a law that forces them to do what’s right.”

Jones has incredible faith in humans, since this is the man who euthanizes dozens of unwanted pets every Wednesday, and has done so since the 1950s.

This newspaper knows that the only way to stem the tide of unwanted pets is to increase sterilization. We would support stronger legislation, as Lane does, but doubt it would gain any traction in Tennessee, which can’t agree to pass an open-container bill; many localities can’t even enact common-sense zoning ordinances. We also agree with Jones that all pet owners need to be educated about how one extra litter of puppies or kittens can turn into hundreds of unwanted animals.

Teaching people how their actions, or failure to act, contributes to this tragedy could prompt them to sterilize their pets, regardless of any law.

We know that responsible pet owners sterilize their pets. We also know that sterilization should be required at the point a pet is adopted from a shelter.

Yet, some local shelters do not require immediate sterilization, and allow a new owner to adopt a pet and have the procedure performed later. This is irresponsible and creates and opening for owners to renege on their promises. The only recourse shelters have after the fact is a strongly worded letter urging the pet owner to have the animal sterilized. Society has failed to show that it can adhere to an honor system.

Any pet adopted from an animal shelter should go from the shelter to a veterinarian, where it is given necessary medical treatment and is sterilized before being taken home by its new owner. Some critics of this plan say owners would be deterred by the higher cost. If that’s the case, then those people cannot truly afford a pet and should not circumvent the rules.

We as a society should praise people like Dr. Basil for his respectful service that few others ever could stomach to perform, and groups like the Holly Help Memorial Spay Fund and the Margaret B. Mitchell Spay Clinic, both of which help pet owners pay to sterilize their animals.

All local governments should enforce mandatory sterilization for pets adopted from publicly funded animal shelters. Period.