By Luo Lian
Rain or shine, members of a local animal’s rights organization have been holding protests outside the Baltimore County Council building on meeting days in an effort to improve the living conditions at the county’s animal shelter in Baldwin.
The estimated 200 protesters of the Reform Baltimore County Animal Services (Reform BCAS) who came out last week to demonstrate said they want the shelter to stop euthanizing the animals. The protesters also said they want a non-profit organization to operate the shelter instead of the government and they want the county to raise the adoption rate.
Tiffany Harrison, an 11-year-old girl who participated in the protest on April 21, said her dog was picked up off the street, sent to the shelter and euthanized before her family could reclaim it.
“If they posted my puppy’s photo on their website earlier, he would not die in the shelter because of illness,” she said. “If they could treat him better, I can take him back home. But he left us forever.”
Council member Todd Hoff said in an interview that the council plans to spend $5 million to build a new animal shelter in Baltimore County next year. Huff also said the shelter hired two full-time veterinarians to take care of animals that fall ill.
But protesters said two veterinarians were not enough to handle the large number of cats and dogs that the shelter accommodates each year.
“If they considered two vets taking care of 2,000 animals as a change they made, I will feel very ashamed of the Baltimore County Council,” said Nicole Larin, a volunteer from Reform BCAS. “I always wanted to be a volunteer in the animal shelter, but I just can’t watch them dying in front of me.”
Protesters have also complained about the conditions at the shelter.
“The place is just not clean at all,” said Karen Lachisky, who had been to the shelter several times. “Some of them don’t even own a piece of blanket. All the animals look pale and sickly. I feel so sorry about the miserable animals.”
Dr. Gregory Branch, the director of the Baltimore County Health and Human Services Department, said in an interview that what the protesters said about the poor conditions and lack of staff “is absolutely not true at all.”
He said he introduced a plan to the council to build a new $5 million shelter. His plan also calls for extending the evening and weekend hours and purchasing new medical facilities for neutering the animals.
A spokesperson of Reform BCAS, Lynn Greene, said: “Unless the services and programs are put in place, nothing will be fixed. Without a lifesaving policy changes, a new shelter is just a beautiful place for the animals to die.”
Aileen Gabbey, the executive director of the Maryland Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), posted a public letter on the Internet offering to help improve and operate the shelter, but the county turned down the help.
The Baltimore County Animal Shelter first opened in the 1980s.
Amanda Knittle, the public information specialist in the county health department, said that approximately 1,800 dogs and 2,800 cats pass through the shelter each year. The total 2014 budget for the county animal services is $1.67 million.
She said the shelter houses animals who were strays, impounded because they were treated cruelly by their owners, or because they have bitten someone. In other cases, animals are surrendered by their owners and were rejected by other shelters.
Under the law, Knittle said, the shelter cannot turn away any animal. This leads to facility overcrowding when the number of homeless animals increases, Knittle said.
The Baltimore County Code requires that stray animals be kept for at least four days, Knittle said. She said that any animal that is adoptable or rescueable is kept as long as space is available.
“The low adoption rate leads to a high euthanasia rate since the shelter can only accommodate approximately 100 cats and dogs at one time,” Knittle said.
According to 2013 data provided by the county health department, about 76 percent of the shelter’s dogs are adopted, reclaimed or rescued, with about 23.8 percent being euthanized. The adoption, reclaim and rescue rate for cats is only 30.5 percent, with about 69.5 percent euthanized.
Knittle said that about 25 people on average go to the animal shelter to adopt or reclaim their pets every day. The photos of adoptable pets are put on the website of the county animal services. People can pay $65 for a dog or $50 for a cat to adopt a pet, she said.
Reform BCAS members said they will continue their demonstration on the next council meeting on May 3.
“We will not give up until we reached our goal of improving the animal services in Baltimore County,” Lynne said.