Community's animals need public support.

Byline: APRIL SIMANDL For The Register-Guard

A RECENT ARTICLE in The Register-Guard regarding a stray puppy finding a new home after being hit by a train, and another story about a visit by a Girl Scout troop to the Lane County animal shelter, are cute and may fulfill the newspaper's quota on stories about pets. The public, however, needs to be aware of more important issues regarding animal welfare. Eugene prides itself on being progressive, yet when it concerns the well-being of our cat and dog population, our local governments (both city and county) are in the dark ages.

All stray dogs and cats in Lane County go to the Lane County Animal Regulation Authority; Greenhill Humane Society, a private nonprofit organization funded by donations only, no longer accepts stray animals. Greenhill accepts only animals relinquished by owners.

LCARA, which hasn't been expanded since it was built in 1978 even though Lane County's population has increased significantly, is open to the public only Tuesday through Saturday afternoons. Animal welfare officers are available to pick up stray, uninjured dogs only from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and only in Eugene or unincorporated Lane County. Over the years, the shelter's staff has been whittled down to 13 employees from 20.

What is the significance of this? If you lose your dog on a Saturday evening, you have to wait an agonizing 60-plus hours before you can go to the shelter and look for your dog. If your dog is the type that likes to roam, that is 60-plus hours during which your dog can be hit by a car, attacked by another dog, get shot at, get sick from eating out of a neighbor's garbage can, or be poisoned by eating the slug bait in a neighbor's yard - all without having an officer available to rescue your dog from the streets.

If you live in Springfield, your dog is totally on his or her own. There is no animal control whatsoever, unless your dog happens to bite someone - then you get to deal with the Springfield police. That gives your dog 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get into trouble, with no safety net besides you or a stranger kind enough to rescue your pet.

Due to lack of funding from the city of Springfield, LCARA will house stray pets from Springfield at its shelter, but LCARA officers will not go to Springfield to pick up animals. This Catch-22 situation would be laughable if it weren't for the fact that this sets up a potentially lethal situation for the dogs running loose, and poses an increased risk to the public from dog bites by these dogs running at large. In my capacity as an employee at the Emergency Veterinary Hospital, I have even been told by the Springfield police that if a private citizen calls after finding an injured stray dog or cat, the citizen is advised to transport the animal themselves to a veterinary hospital so the police won't have to! This sounds like a liability lawsuit waiting to happen.

Stray or lost cats in Lane County are even worse off. LCARA only has enough staff to take care of 14 cats! The healthy ones are kept for three days, and then are euthanized or put up for adoption. There's not much room at this inn. The public is actually encouraged to leave healthy stray cats where they are found and to not bring them in, thus contributing to our cat overpopulation problem. (How many stray cats are actually spayed or neutered?) Of the cats that are turned into the shelter, 94 percent were euthanized. From July 2000 to June of last year, 1,765 cats were euthanized.

The end result of this inadequate service is more pets running loose and at risk of injury, an increase in our already obscene pet overpopulation problem, and more healthy and adoptable dogs and cats being euthanized.

What can you do as a pet owner? First of all, please make sure your pets wear an identification tag and/or are implanted with a microchip; if your pet gets loose, they are a phone call away from home. A rabies tag from a veterinary hospital is inadequate - most hospitals are only open nine or 10 hours a day, and not on weekends or holidays.

If you own a cat, please consider keeping your cat indoors. Did you know the average life-span of an unneutered, outdoor cat is only two or three years? Your indoor cat will be safer, and you will have fewer veterinary bills, which can be a major expense.

The numbers of cats that go outside without any form of identification is appalling. Anyone in the veterinary or animal welfare fields will tell you that the chances of an owner finding a lost cat not wearing any identification are about nil, unless the cat returns home on its own.

And, of course, make sure your pet is spayed or neutered. Intact males and females are more likely to leave home, get into fights and create unwanted offspring.

Secondly, tell your county commissioner and your city councilor you want to see increased funding for LCARA and for the city of Eugene's Low Cost Spay and Neuter Clinic. The large number of cats euthanized at LCARA is a telling indication of bad our cat overpopulation is. We need an increase in low-cost spay and neuter options. There will be public hearings regarding funding for LCARA at both the city and county level in May. Springfield residents should tell their city councilors that having no animal control is unacceptable. Even Oakridge has an animal welfare officer!

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." By those criteria, our community has a long way to go in order to be considered both moral and great.

April Simandl of Eugene is a licensed veterinary technician who works at the Emergency Veterinary Hospital in Springfield.